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Description
The main goal of the pre-defined FIXUS project is to improve the management of cultural heritage by increasing preventive maintenance, establishing a system for the preventive monitoring and surveillance of cultural heritage sites, raising awareness among cultural heritage managers, and developing and reinforcing existing skills for successful cultural heritage conservation.
The Register of Real Cultural Heritage in Lithuania contains more than 20,000 individual or complex objects. Lithuania has a contrasting climate - cold winters, hot summers, heavy rainfall and high humidity. As a result, minor changes to objects that have not been identified and repaired within a reasonably short period of time become the cause of major and significant damage to the object itself. The greatest damage to cultural heritage sites is due to lack of proper management, maintenance and preventive skills. At the moment here is no consulting or management service for owners and managers of cultural heritage sites in Lithuania. But it is truly needed to prevent further loss and erosion of cultural heritage sites and to prevent damage.
During project implementation three mobile teams - workshops will be created, with the aim to visit selected heritage sites, assess their condition, report, advise heritage owners, managers, perform minor management - emergency threat work, and develop individual preventive maintenance plans. 200 cultural heritage objects will be selected and monitored during the project implementation period.
Target group for the direct benefit of the project: owners and managers of cultural heritage objects.
Project partners who will ensure successful results: Institutions with significant experience in the field of cultural heritage such as State Enterprise “Lithuanian Monuments”, Cultural Heritage Department and two Donor project partners: KA Association for Employers in the Church of Norway and Norwegian Directorate for Cultural Heritage (Riksantikvaren).
Summary of project results
The goal of the FIXUS project was to improve the management of cultural heritage in Lithuania by increasing preventive maintenance. At the time of application submission, more than 20,000 individual or complex objects were included in the register of immovable cultural values in Lithuania. The country is characterized by a large typological diversity of cultural heritage objects - from small local (folk) architecture to magnificent public, defensive or sacred buildings, from wooden to brick objects. The country has a contrasting climate - cold winters, hot summers, heavy rains and high humidity. For this reason, in a short enough time, unidentified and uncorrected small changes in objects (hole roof, worn out downspouts, etc.) become the cause of major damage. If such violations are not resolved in time, additional costs are incurred, requiring a significant investment for management works. Formally, a comprehensive legal regulation of the protection of cultural heritage has already been created in Lithuania, and public subsidies are provided for the restoration works of objects. However, this instrument finances and reaches a small number of heritage sites, and most of the problems stem from inadequate management of cultural heritage sites and/or lack of knowledge and preventive maintenance skills. It should be noted that the managers of the objects are both private institutions, companies, natural persons, and the state and the public sector - so their opportunities to initially invest in the work of managing the heritage object or even preparing an application for financing, later expecting compensation, are unequal. In Lithuania, there are no publicly available consulting or management services that would help cultural heritage owners and managers faced with specific or general problems of preventive maintenance of cultural heritage objects and ensure the prevention of further damage.
Accordingly, the Project''s tasks were formulated:
1. Create a system of preventive monitoring and supervision of cultural heritage objects.
2. To strengthen the awareness and preventive maintenance skills of managers of cultural heritage objects.
During the implementation of the project, a system of preventive monitoring and maintenance of cultural heritage objects was created: laboratory research by 3 mobile teams consisting of 3 specialists (architect, foreman, etc.). As planned, a total of 200 cultural heritage objects were provided with services, preventing their further decay, improving their condition and indicating the necessary periodic preventive maintenance works and recommendations for management works in the report.
In order to promote awareness and strengthen preventive care skills, 30 public consultations were held in various regions, practical trainings, public events were held, educational materials were prepared, and publications were prepared.
The target group of the project is the owners and managers of cultural heritage objects, but it can already be stated that the impact achieved is much wider, including heritage professionals (designers, coordinating institutions, etc.), who have begun to understand and emphasize the importance of preventive maintenance to managers. Thus, the project activities were directly beneficial not only to the owners of the 200 cultural heritage objects that were repaired, but also to those managers of heritage objects and other historical structures who participated in the soft activities and those who receive information through the mediation of professionals. In summary, the beneficiary is the Lithuanian state and society, because thanks to FIXUS, Lithuanian cultural heritage preserves more authenticity and does not lose its value.
Summary of bilateral results
During the implementation of the project, the Executor Culture Heritage Center cooperated equally with the main partner Culture Infrastructure Center (until April 2020 - Lietuvos Pammunadai LLC), i.e. project activities were simultaneously implemented, without one of these institutions it would not have taken place. In Lithuania, there was also cooperation with the Department of Cultural Heritage, whose representative participated in the selection of objects, regional departments contributed to the dissemination of information. Accordingly, the employees of the department received a lot of useful information and raised their qualifications in the field of preventive maintenance. Partners from Norway, Riksantikvaren and KA, were particularly important in sharing experience, and also participated in a conference organized by them on the topic of climate change, which is extremely relevant in the context of preventive care. The established partnership made it possible to take over good practices, check adopted or planned decisions, improve the preventive care system being developed and soft activities - awareness raising. It is expected to be developed in the future.