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Representative List of the Intangible Cultural
Heritage of Humanity: the Lefkara embroidery
lace or Lefkaritiko in 2009, the Tsiattista poetic
duelling in 2011, and the Mediterranean diet in
2013 (multinational inscription). Moreover, in
February 2015 and further to the first Register of
elements of the ICH in Cyprus, which was created
by experts at the Cyprus Research Centre on
the basis of the Centre’s Oral Tradition Archive,
the Commission has launched an open call for
proposals to communities and NGOs, in order
to establish a National Inventory of Intangible
Cultural Heritage of Cyprus, based on the
principles of the Convention.
Furthermore, while seeking new and alternative
approaches to studying and transmitting ICH, in
2013 the Commission implemented a pilot project
for the study of Lefkaritiko Embroidery Lace.
The main objectives of the programme are:
a)
To investigate and propose, through interactive
and cooperative approaches, innovative and
sustainable ways of reading, interpreting,
protecting and transmitting the oral traditions
and traditional practices of Cyprus.
b)
To educate and sensitise, in an experiential way,
broader society but also particular professional
groups, on the importance of maintaining and
developing intangible cultural heritage.
c)
To give particular professional groups the
ability to acquire basic knowledge and skills
to produce the traditional crafts, but also draw
inspiration and material in order to assimilate
and utilize it in their own field of action and
creation.
d)
To encourage daylong and daily contact and
interaction with the environment and people
who contributed, and continue to contribute,
to the development and continuation of the
elements that are under study, approaching
“traditional” models of informal and oral
learning and teaching, where social contact
and transmission of knowledge and skills are
organically intertwined.
e)
Topromotetheactiveandsystematicinvolvement
of the local community and professionals and
bodies involved in the tradition, in actions aimed
at protecting and continuing it, providing social
and financial incentives for the transmission of
knowledge and skills.
f)
To create favourable conditions for the
development of longstanding ties and
partnerships between theprogrammeparticipants
and the local community, thus contributing to the
sustainability of the tradition.
g)
To create favourable conditions for the
reorientation and development of Cyprus’
Lefkaritiko Embroidery Lace, Modi and Modulations Exhibition, Artist Constantinos
Pseftodiakos © 2015, CyNatComN.Louca
“Auckland, New Zealand”, painting,
acrylic on canvas, 60x120cm, by
Stelios Papamarkou © 2015, Cyprus
National Commission for UNESCO
