Cultural heritage management

Cultural heritage management (CHM) is the vocation and practice of managing cultural heritage. It is a branch of cultural resources management (CRM), although it also draws on the practices of cultural conservation, restoration, museology, archaeology, history and architecture. While the term cultural heritage is generally used in Europe, in the USA the term cultural resources is in more general use specifically referring to cultural heritage resources. CHM has traditionally been concerned with the identification, interpretation, maintenance, and preservation of significant cultural sites and physical heritage assets, although intangible aspects of heritage, such as traditional skills, cultures and languages are also considered. The subject typically receives most attention, and resources, in the face of threat, where the focus is often upon rescue or salvage archaeology. Possible threats include urban development, large-scale agriculture, mining activity, looting, erosion or unsustainable visitor numbers. The public face of CHM, and a significant source of income to support continued management of heritage, is the interpretation and presentation to the public, where it is an important aspect of tourism. Communicating with government and the public is therefore a key competence.

Cultural heritage

Cultural heritage is the legacy of physical artifacts and intangible attributes of a group or society that are inherited from past generations, maintained in the present and bestowed for the benefit of future generations. Cultural heritage includes tangible culture (such as buildings, monuments, landscapes, books, works of art, and artifacts), intangible culture (such as folklore, traditions, language, and knowledge), and natural heritage (including culturally significant landscapes, and biodiversity).

The deliberate act of keeping cultural heritage from the present for the future is known as preservation (American English) or conservation (British English), though these terms may have more specific or technical meaning in the same contexts in the other dialect.

The ethics and rationale of cultural preservation

Objects of cultural heritage in Poland

Objects of cultural heritage in Poland (Polish: zabytki) are tracked by the Polish institute in charge, the Narodowy Instytut Dziedzictwa.

The increase in public awareness in Poland of cultural heritage after the damage done during World War II, was largely the work of Jan Zachwatowicz, the Polish signer of the Venice Charter.

In light of Polish law, the "zabytek" is defined as "immovable or movable items, their parts of elements, which are a creation of man or its byproduct, and giving a testament to the past epoch or event, and whose preservation is in the social interest due to their historical, artistic or scientific nature." In more general terms, "zabytek" concerns movable and immovable items, including those recognized as valuable by the state or other institutions, and in more colloquial language, those recognized as such by individuals.

Classification by type

The cultural heritage is officially classified into three categories: movable heritage objects, nonmovable heritage objects, archaeological heritage objects.