Culture Minister, UNESCO Director Inaugurate 'House of Heritage'

Culture Minister, Dr. Nevin Al-Kilani, and Regional Director of UNESCO in Cairo Nuria Sanz inaugurated "House of Heritage" at Traditional Crafts Center in Fustat, coinciding with celebration of the 20th anniversary of Egypt's signing of "Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage" with UNESCO.

The inauguration ceremony was attended by Suha Gendi, Minister of Immigration, Major General Khaled Abdel-Al, Governor of Cairo, Dr. Abdel Aziz Al-Musallam, President of the Sharjah Heritage Institute, as well as a number of ambassadors, UNESCO representatives, leaders of the Ministry of Culture, and civil society organizations concerned with heritage.

At the beginning of the event, they inspected the exhibition of the late artist Ikram Ammar "The Journey of the Holy Family", which included a number of the most important plastic works of the late artist, in which she documented the various stages of the journey of the Holy Family, in addition to inspecting an exhibition of Arabic calligraphy produced by Khudair Al-Borsaidi School of Arabic Calligraphy and Decoration.

In her speech, Dr. Nevin Al-Kilani said, "Today, as Egypt celebrates, in partnership with UNESCO, the twenty-year anniversary of the Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage, the Ministry of Culture inaugurates the "Heritage House", to complete a series of heritage preservation sessions, and carry out its assigned mission.

For her part, UNESCO Regional Director Nuria Sanz said: “Egypt is known as the birthplace of the World Heritage Convention, as Egyptian authorities and experts played a pivotal role in the preparatory phase for the adoption of the Intangible Cultural Heritage Convention, and Egyptian officials and academics actively participated in international expert meetings and intergovernmental meetings.”

Moreover, she also added that the "House of Heritage" will serve as a center for the national archive of intangible cultural heritage, and for events that reflect the diversity of intangible cultural heritage.