Salome Jamburia, a Georgian Ministry of Culture, Sports and Youth representative, has been elected to chair the European Heritage Days (EHD) Programme at the Council of Europe.
The election occurred at the EHD Nations Coordinators Assembly in Strasbourg on November 28-29, 2023.
Jamburia, the vice-chairman of the same program since 2019, will now lead the coordination and implementation of the EHD activities across 50 signatory countries to the European Cultural Convention.
The EHD are the most widely celebrated participatory cultural event in Europe, aiming to raise awareness of the value and diversity of European cultural heritage and the need for its conservation.
Jamburia has a Ph.D. in archaeology from Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University and is a winner of the Grants for Ph.D. Studies 2017 from the Shota Rustaveli National Science Foundation of Georgia.
He has over five years of working experience in cultural heritage at the national and international levels, including the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), English Heritage, and Cambridge Archaeological Unit.
In his acceptance speech, Jamburia expressed his gratitude to the Council of Europe and the European Commission for their joint initiative and support for the EHD program. He also thanked the previous chairman, the national coordinators, and the thousands of volunteers who make the EHD possible yearly.
He said he was honoured and excited to take on this new role and contribute to promoting and protecting European cultural heritage.
The EHD program was launched by the Council of Europe in 1991 and became a joint action with the European Commission in 1999. Every September, the EHD opens up numerous sites and monuments, some normally closed to the public and offers various events and activities related to a shared annual theme.
In 2023, the EHD theme is Living Heritage, which refers to practices, knowledge, and skills passed from generation to generation and is still used today.
