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UNESCO and the Norwegian Institute of Bunad and Folk Costume

In 2018 the Norwegian Institute of Bunad and Folk Costume was accredited as an advisor to UNESCO's Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. The institute works to preserve and promote intangible knowledge in the field of folk costumes and bunads.

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    From an instructors course in the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage held at the Norwegian Centre for Traditional Music and Dance in Trondheim in 2014.

Advisor to UNESCO

As an accredited NGO under UNESCO's Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, the institute provides advisory services to UNESCO on issues related to handicrafts and embodied knowledge . Since 2013 the institute has participated in courses and gatherings in Instruktørnettverket, an informal network of craftspeople, practitioners and museum employees from all around Norway. This network constitutes an important specialist community in the field.

Siri Mæland (Norwegian Centre for Traditional Music and Dance), Camilla Rossing (Norwegian Institute of Bunad and Folk Costume) and Marit Stranden (Norwegian Centre for Traditional Music and Dance) at a meeting in UNESCO's headquarters in Paris, April 2019.

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    Siri Mæland (Norwegian Centre for Traditional Music and Dance), Camilla Rossing (Norwegian Institute of Bunad and Folk Costume) and Marit Stranden (Norwegian Centre for Traditional Music and Dance) at a meeting in UNESCO's headquarters in Paris, April 2019.

Evaluation Body

At the tenth session of the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage held in Windhoek, Namibia in 2016, the Norwegian Crafts Institute was elected to UNESCO's Evaluation Body for a four-year term. In 2016, the director of the Norwegian Institute of Bunad and Folk Costume was invited to join a working group in the Norwegian Crafts Institute. This working group reads and evaluates around 50 nomination applications every year. The Evaluation Body is composed of six such working groups associated with NGOs and six experts, all of them based in various locations worldwide.

Nominations and evaluations are examined at sessions of the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage held every year in December. The Norwegian Institute of Bunad and Folk Costume has attended sessions in 2016 (Addis Abeba, Ethiopia), 2017 (Jeju Island, South Korea), 2018 (Mauritius) and in 2019 (Colombia).

Museum24:Portal - 2025.04.24
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