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Museums as Facilitators in the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage

The museum is the ideal partner institution for safeguarding intangible cultural heritage (ICH). It preserves, presents, and explains the relevant tools and equipment, as well as the respective items produced. At the same time, the museum can also make past epochs tangible through demonstrations and participative events which “re-enact” intangible cultural heritage. The idea of re-enactment was already part of the philosophy behind the first open-air museums that opened around the turn of the twentieth century. The museum is thus primarily a place for analogue experiences, just as the preservation of ICH is mostly an analogue activity, usually with no virtual substitute. This essay mostly draws on examples from the German-speaking world.

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