Making Cultural Heritage Significant for the Public. The Role of Researchers in Encouraging Public Awareness and Local Pride

ENDERE, MARÍA LUZ; ENDERE, MARÍA LUZ; CONFORTI, MARÍA EUGENIA; CONFORTI, MARÍA EUGENIA; CHAPARRO, MARÍA GABRIELA; CHAPARRO, MARÍA GABRIELA

PUBLIC ARCHAEOLOGY

JAMES & JAMES LTD.

Lugar: Abingdon; Año: 2018 vol. 17 p. 36 - 54

1465-5187

The municipality of Olavarría, Buenos Aires province, Argentina, has a rich,diverse, and ancient natural and cultural heritage, although this is not wellknown by the local community. For this reason, an itinerant exhibition wasdeveloped to promote public access to scientific information and communityawareness concerning the importance of local heritage. This project was thestarting point of an integral programme of public outreach and science education,whose main goal is to facilitate intellectual and physical access to academicknowledge by local communities. After seven years of development,several lessons have been learned, including the need to increase stakeholders?participation and the exploration of new strategies of communicationin order to engage different segments of the public.