Photo : Our Landscape, Our Heritage - Young European Heritage Makers project, Spain (credit, San Millán de la Cogolla Foundation  Jornadas Europeas de Patrimonio)

In a series of interviews, we spoke with national coordinators Jonina Vaahtolammi in Finland, Harutyun Vanyan in Armenia, Isabel Burgos in Spain and Galyna Malinina in Ukraine to find out more about the benefits and successes of their Young European Heritage Makers programmes. 

This year will be the 6th edition of Young European Heritage Makers as a European Heritage Days project. Can you give some background about how your country got involved and how it’s organised in your area?

Jonina: It actually started in Finland; the Finnish National Agency for Education and Association of Cultural Heritage Education in Finland are in our European Heritage Days working group and they actually invented the idea for the initiative. We organised the initiative in Finland with success for a few years and then we were really happy that the competition spread. We are very proud that many other European countries have also joined and are trying to get young people more engaged and thinking about heritage.

Harutyun: As the national coordinator for European Heritage Days, I really wanted us to participate in the Young European Heritage Makers programme and last year the Museum of Literature and Art agreed to run the competition in Armenia. We announced the competition, and for the young people who were interested we encouraged them to find classmates or friends to be in groups and develop a proposal. We received more than 40 proposals; we decided to interview them group by group and we were really impressed because everyone was so involved with their work.

Isabel: Spain has been involved since it started being held as part of the European Heritage Days programme, and a project was awarded at the European level in 2021. But it wasn’t a big call in our country, so in 2023 we developed a new strategy and made a list of possible tutors and mentors; contacting many schools, museums and libraries. We received more than 50 projects, which was amazing. Selecting just two of them was really difficult, so we created a national strategy of giving a special mention not only to the winners, but also to four other projects that were remarkable.

Galyna: Ukraine was one of the first countries which launched the Young European Heritage Makers contest in 2018. Then after 2021 we had a break, but last year we decided to be part of it again, and it was really very interesting because youth in Ukraine are very active now. At the beginning of the war in Ukraine there was a surge of interest in our history and our culture and the children became more interested in the history of their families. We had nearly 50 projects, so it was difficult for us to choose the winners at a national level because we had several very powerful projects. 

What do you see as the key benefits of the Young European Heritage Makers initiative in terms of how it engages younger audiences with cultural heritage? 

Jonina: It has been very interesting to see what kind of topics the young people have chosen. We usually have a theme that may inspire them, but they really have a lot of freedom to choose the topic. This year, the best work in the older group was ‘Our Heritage, Past to the Future’, and they were thinking about the environment in their hometown. It was very inspiring to see their thoughts about how the past reflects and gives ideas for the future; this is actually the main reason why we want to engage young people because they are the makers of the future. 

Harutyun: I have discovered an amazing generation of young people who are interested in their history and culture; it is these young people who will preserve our monuments and heritage for tomorrow, and the best way to preserve heritage is to recognise it. So, one of the goals this project achieves is raising awareness amongst young people to go and do some research about intangible heritage or an interesting site that they didn’t know about before the competition. 

Isabel: Our children are very enthusiastic about this project, and they really appreciate being able to tell their story. Perhaps because this contest is very respectful of the children and its aim is to give them a voice. In addition, it’s a good opportunity for the children’s development, as it promotes their technology skills, communication abilities, language knowledge and heritage education. And, at the same time, it fosters creativity, which is essential for their engagement.

Galyna: Young European Heritage Makers is a unique initiative in Ukraine. It’s a good chance for them to show not only their view of their traditions and how they understand their culture and their heritage, but how they can use music, make costumes and use different styles to prepare their videos. The children were very creative, it was great work from them.

Give some examples of Young European Heritage Makers projects which have been successful at inspiring the participants.

Jonina: It's been interesting to see the different perspectives and techniques the young people have used to tell their story. Last year we had a community artwork called ‘Our Picture’ which was using modern art to talk about their own world and ideas. And I can see that we’ve had more videos lately, because young people are using these techniques on social media.

Harutyun: Our winner last year wrote that when they were talking with people from other countries on social media they didn’t know about Armenia. That’s why they wanted to participate in this programme; through ‘Geghard Monastery’ they wanted to show their friends who are they are and express their perception of their own cultural heritage. Another one of the projects, ‘Tsovinar’s Talisman of Peace’ was about an Armenian epic poem called Sasna Tsrer. A group of girls created a series of mini comics about it in which they wanted to tell Armenians and the whole world about the female heroines and characters of the poem who have been neglected by society for centuries. 

Isabel: In addition to the winning projects, at a local library, children aged 6 to 11 transformed items from nature to reflect their heritage and recreate their village, under the name ‘Together We Created Navalmanzano’. In the other age group between 11 and 17, videos were the main form of expression, although some had a very different approach. For example, there was a very creative project, ‘Heritage#La Puebla del Río’, which was a performance. The teenagers staged their heritage and their link with Europe, combining mime and poetry. They acted against a black backdrop, with very neat lighting and aesthetics.

Galyna: In the ‘There is No Future Without Past’ work from our winners in the younger group they prepared a cartoon video and sang songs to show an excursion to a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Kyiv and told us why it was important for them to see this cathedral. Another project was about the Ukrainian writer Olha Kobylianska, ‘In Olha Kobylianska’s Footsteps in Chernivtsi’. The children developed their own cultural route of places related to the writer’s biography and made their own contribution to Chernivtsi which is working to become part of the Cultural Routes of the Council of Europe’s Women Writers route. This is a great example of how the children can help their local community and shows how Young European Heritage Makers is not a one-time action, it can be the beginning of something bigger.

What’s your approach towards encouraging events for your wider European Heritage Days programme which are aimed at children and young people, particularly as part of this year’s Routes, Networks and Connections theme?

Jonina: I think the theme is very good for young people. We have a wide network of event organisers who arrange European Heritage Days events considering young people and families, and we are very happy to work a lot this year with a network of museums that present traffic and communications themes. We also have many associations who arrange art school events; there is a nice example where an architecture and environment culture school have an art wood project showing environmental art made by children. Many organisers in Finland think it’s really important and that it is a pleasure to invite families and children to hear about heritage and learn about their traditions.   

Harutyun: Every year we encourage young people to participate in the opening or closing ceremony, and this year because our theme is Routes, Networks and Connections we have closely collaborated with our national coordinator of the Cultural Routes of the Council of Europe for this. For European Heritage Days we are also joined by museums, and many of them have educational programmes for young people. Sometimes these are interactive; we really think and believe that young people must feel like not only participants but also part of their heritage and part of the programme.

Isabel: For us this theme is fantastic! Spain is in most of the Cultural Routes of the Council of Europe, so many institutions can participate. Another advantage is that some of these routes are completely open to young people such as the St James Way. As a continuous line of work, some Autonomous Communities are working with schools to include the European Heritage Days programme in the educational curriculum. Others frequently develop workshops and activities aimed at children, teenagers and families. Looking ahead to 2024, we are also working with some universities to approach the public aged 18 to 30 years.

Galyna: An idea is to invite famous people and bloggers to encourage young people to come to our events. Some of my colleagues also present information about European Heritage Days events at different youth events like music festivals and this also help us to engage with young people. And of course, we will continue to involve internally displaced people and give them opportunities to talk about their heritage. This fits very well with this theme because it presents connections between cities and people and how they’ve been creating new routes within Ukraine.

What do you see as the main outcomes of Young European Heritage Makers being an international competition and a Council of Europe initiative?

Jonina: We have been encouraging the children to start thinking about what kind of heritage they share with other European people, and this has been a theme for many years in the competition. It’s important, and it’s been interesting to see what kind of connections and examples the young people find about shared heritage. In 2021 we had a very nice work about ‘The Latin Alphabet’ from an art school where the topic was European values; it was an artwork drawing the letters spelling ‘equality’ and ‘freedom of speech’ inspired by paintings from their favourite books.

Harutyun: It shows our participants that their heritage is not just their own; there are many other countries which share similar venues, listen to the same music and know the same artists. It’s very important that young people see that heritage and culture can connect people and that they can have unique but also shared heritage that is common for many generations and people. These kinds of things I think are very important to widen their approach to cultural heritage and to see the European dimension of their own country.

Isabel: This year the kids in Spain were acting as ambassadors of their heritage and they spoke in English so they were understood. Moreover, some projects highlighted the European dimension. For instance, the national and European winner of the older group, ‘Silleda, a Walk Through Heritage’, made comparisons based on the St James Way with the Romanesque presented as an artistic style that was widespread throughout Europe. With these comparisons children are widening and opening their way of thinking and being conscious that we are engaged to a deeper culture, which is a European one. It was also really important that the prize was a trip to Europe, where the winners could meet with peers from all countries and get to know European institutions. 

Galyna: The Young European Heritage Makers competition shows children how to drive their interests in researching their own heritage and finding the European component. For example, in the first year we had a winner who prepared a poem in English and Ukrainian about Ukrainian clothes looking at what is the same in other European countries, and also what is unique for Ukrainian traditional clothing. And when they look at Christmas traditions, they speak about Shchedryk because the children know that Carol of the Bells is something that is ours and is also famous in Europe.

How would you like to see the Young European Heritage Makers project evolve or grow in the future? 

Jonina: I would be very happy if the initiative continues growing, and it would be interesting to see more countries taking part in Europe, or even if there could be some transnational works. I think adding a possibility for the young people to engage more together like sharing ideas could be a way they could really connect.

Harutyun: This work is important for the future, and we will see the results and effect more and more in years to come. We certainly want to continue, it’s important for us to widen it to include more young people and I really encourage everyone to take part. Young people who were involved last year but didn’t win already want to participate again; once they get involved in this competition they just can’t stop!

Isabel: In future editions, we hope to continue to grow. Our intention is to reinforce this project so that it becomes established as a cultural project which can be of great interest in different cultural spaces such as museums or libraries. And especially in schools, where it can have a great potential to introduce activities related to heritage education in the curriculum. The aspects we value most in this competition, and which we believe will be developed in the coming years, are the freedom, originality and creativity with which the children and teenagers express themselves, as well as their ability to use new technologies.

Galyna: Ukraine will participate in the next call. We are expecting it to be even more successful because last year we only had projects from people living in Ukraine, but we also want to attract Ukrainian children that are now abroad. They live in different countries in Europe, but with Ukrainian traditions, so we think their experiences will be very interesting for us.

More information about this year’s Young European Heritage Makers competition will be released on our website soon. In the meantime, take a look at the most recent projects selected at a European-level in the 5th edition and visit the Young European Heritage Makers page for more information about this initiative.