Asian Academy for Heritage Management (AAHM)
The Asian Academy for Heritage Management (AAHM) is a network of institutions throughout Asia and the Pacific region that offers professional training in the field of cultural heritage management. The mission of the AAHM is to strengthen professional capacity to sustainably manage heritage resources by providing a regional platform for institutional cooperation in education, training, and research. AAHM promotes integrated, holistic and multi-disciplinary management of heritage resources, including both tangible and intangible expressions of culture.
This new network was founded at the “ICCROM/UNESCO Seminar on Network and Curriculum Development for ITUC Training in Southeast Asia” held in Bangkok in November 2001.
In order to further AAHM’s objective of strengthen professional capacity by providing platform for institutional cooperation, a range of activities are organized under the following principles:
- Improving professional training and enhancing management capacity in fields related to culture heritage;
- Fostering exchange of professional knowledge and resources; and
- Documenting best practices in managing heritage resources.
As one of the main network activities to support the principle of improving professional training and enhancing management capacity, AAHM Field School offers in-service professionals, advanced students and staff from institutional members the opportunity to study heritage conservation in real-life situations with the guidance of leading experts in this field. The field schools also facilitate exchange between members and serve as a platform to discuss current professional issues in the field of conservation management of the region’s cultural heritage.
The AAHM Field School offers a combination of theoretical background lectures, field visits and a problem-solving charrette, which allows in-field practitioners to upgrade their skills. The main learning objectives of the AAHM Field School are:
- to help participants articulate the relationship between integrated conservation and sustainable development;
- to help understand the role of management systems in achieving conservation objectives; and
- to help apply relevant tools and methods in order to be effective heritage managers and team members.
The inaugural AAHM Field School was organized in Macao SAR, China in November 2003 on the overall theme of the “Conserving Asia’s Built Heritage: An Integrated Management Approach”. Following the first field school, the second AAHM Field School was held in Hanoi, Viet Nam in December 2005 on the overall theme of the “Conservation and Presentation of Archaeological Heritage in an Urban Context”. In 2007, the third AAHM Field School was held in Sri Lanka in April 2007, on the overall theme of the “Cultural Impact Assessment & Maritime Archaeology”.
AAHM Field School is organized within a coordinated framework in order for diverse field schools to complement each other. The courses will be developed in response to an assessment of needs in the region, which will be conducted with the input of local AAHM members and concerned governmental agencies. AAHM Field School will result in joint certification by the host institution and AAHM. Training courses may be offered either intramurally at one of the member institutions, online or long-distance.