Based out of the World Heritage Studies program at the Brandenburgische Technische Universität (BTU) Cottbus, Germany, the function of this conference was to jump from a foundational knowledge base of UNESCO World Heritage into an expanded, tactile, and exploratory perspective, looking at the subtexts of heritage collaboration and conversations merged with the arts.

While the arts and heritage are both connected within the cultural sector, an even stronger interdisciplinary approach was needed in order to examine the relations between the two areas of art and science, with both based in imagination, innovation, and processes or constructions of cultural identity.

Within the international framing of the conference in Germany, we intentionally chose to produce the event in Berlin to reach a wider and more culturally diverse audience, both in it being more centralized for those coming from outside of Germany as well as the preexisting international nature of the city.

The aim of the conference was to establish a platform for heritage and art works and our wish is to break boundaries in the selection of heritage and art a wider cultural diversity of expressions and forms. Innovate Heritage: Conversations between Arts and Heritage presented a bold, cross-disciplinary and culturally diverse platform that united artists, scholars, and heritage and arts professionals through creativity and dialogue.

• Archive video lectures and speakers/artist profiles from Innovate Heritage: Conversations between Arts and Heritage 2014 can be viewed through our Conference Schedule.

• The full list of conference videos as well as the conference photo albums are also available online.