V&A launches Culture in Crisis database

The Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in London has created a new global platform aiming to become the world’s largest and most accessible database of cultural heritage preservation projects.

The Culture in Crisis portal is designed to support individuals and organisations working to preserve cultural heritage at risk from conflict, criminal acts or natural disasters. The database will enable users to connect with similar projects, potential sponsors, collaborators and experts working in the field.

“This free digital resource and our Culture in Crisis programme is a demonstration of the V&A’s ongoing commitment to protecting the world’s cultural heritage and supporting communities that suffer cultural loss,” said Tristram Hunt, director of the V&A.

The portal has been optimised across desktop and mobile to allow people to search for projects, funders or collaborators using keywords related to the type of project, its location, or the length of the project, among other criteria.

The V&A released a video to launch the project with a call to action, encouraging people and organisations to add their project information to the portal.

“From the beginning of the programme, Culture in Crisis has been about bringing people together, networking people, and benefitting from the opportunities we can each provide to each other. The portal is a natural progression on that,” said Vernon Rapley, director of cultural heritage protection and security at the V&A.

Created in 2014, the V&A’s Culture in Crisis programme exists to share information and knowledge on cultural protection, and support and encourage action across the world. It has coordinated conferences and summits at the V&A, the University of Pretoria in South Africa, and Yale University in the US, as well as an ongoing series of talks and events.

The new portal aims to build on the programme’s commitment to creating a forum for people on the frontline of protecting cultural heritage.