Intangible Cultural Heritage

The progressive globalization and the disappearance of some traditional expressions of local culture led UNESCO to adopt the UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (also known as “living heritage”) in 2003. It was preceded by the publication of the Glossary of Intangible Cultural Heritage (2002), where an international group of experts attempted to define basic terms related to intangible cultural heritage. It was followed by the Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions (2005) and the Recommendations for the Safeguarding of Traditional Culture and Folklore. The Convention created the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity and the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding.

Source: https://www.muzeologia.sk

The Slovak Republic ratified the Convention on 18 December 2006. The Ministry of Culture of the Slovak Republic and its Department of Intangible Cultural Heritage and Disadvantaged Population Groups within the Cultural Heritage Section are responsible for implementing the Convention. The coordinator and implementer is the Coordination Centre for Traditional Folk Culture, which operates within the Slovak Folk Art Collective (SĽUK). In 2007, the Government of the Slovak Republic approved the Concept for the Care of Traditional Folk Culture and in 2015 the Concept for the Care of Traditional Folk Culture until 2020. At the end of 2019, the Government approved the Concept for the Sustainable Development of Intangible Cultural Heritage and Traditional Folk Culture for the years 2020-2025, reflecting the content and thematic expansion of the Implementing Guidelines and other documents in line with the goals of the UN Agenda 2030.

Currently, the living heritage of the Slovak Republic is represented by ten elements on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity:

1. Fujara – a musical instrument and its music (Inscribed  in 2005, 2008)
2. Music of Terchová (Inscribed  in 2013)
3. Bagpipe culture (Iscribed in 2015)
4. Puppetry in Slovakia and Czechia (Iscribed in 2016)
5. Multipart singing of Horehronie (Inscribed in 2017)
6. Modrotlač, resist block printing and indigo dyeing in Europe (Inscribed in 2018)
7. Drotárstvo, wire craft and art (Inscribed in 2019)
8. Falconry, a living human heritage (Inscribed in 2021)
9. Lipizzan horse breeding traditions (Inscribed in 2022)
10. School of Crafts ÚĽUV (Inscribed in 2024)

The Ministry of Culture of the Slovak Republic announces a call for proposals every year. Nominations are created on a bottom-up basis, meaning it is up to the people themselves, individuals or communities of bearers of a phenomenon of folk culture or living heritage, to respond to the call and prepare a nomination file.

Sources: https://www.unesco.sk, https://muzeologia.sk/.sk, https://ich.unesco.org