The 78 states-parties who have already ratified or accepted the Convention have initiated national inventories of Intangible Heritage, even as the precise definition, context, and administration procedures for its preservation are still being discussed.

The 4th Annual Ename Colloquium seeks to enrich this ongoing international discussion by presenting innovative contributions from heritage administrators, cultural economists, archaeologists, historians, educators, and cultural policy specialists – as well as practitioners of traditional intangible heritage – under the following three programme themes:

Theme 1. Defining the Boundary between Tangible and Intangible
Is Intangible Heritage merely a new category of heritage subjects? Or does it represent an entirely new approach that must effectively integrate cu-rated objects, protected places, living traditions, and collective memory? Through examples and case-studies we would like to examine how we can identify the tangible dimensions of Intangible Heritage; the intangible dimensions of Material Heritage; and complexity of their interrelation. Is the concept of Intagible Cultural Heritage merely one of classification, or is it perhaps of an entirely different interpretive quality?

Theme 2. The Challenge: Safeguarding or Facilitating?
The UNESCO Convention defines Intangible Cultural Heritage as being transmitted from generation to generation and constantly recreated by communities and groups in response to their environment, their interaction with nature, and their history. In light of this dynamic definition, to what extent can we ever capture or safeguard essential expressions of Intangible Cultural Heritage when they are necessarily and constantly evolving? Does this challenge require as much attention to the frameworks of public participation in heritage as to specific expressions or sites? What innovative projects or programmes have succeeded in bridging this gap?