Following last October’s call for participation in the Our Collections Matter initiative – whose pilot project in Portugal is coordinated by IN2PAST and Museus e Monumentos de Portugal (MMP) – we are delighted to announce the first IN2PAST network projects associated with this programme.

The OCM project was launched in 2020 by ICCROM (International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property) with the aim of accelerating, expanding and intensifying actions that promote sustainable development through the management, use and conservation of collections.The work carried out by researchers and PhD students at the IN2PAST Associated Laboratory actively contributes to various sustainable development goals, demonstrating the contribution of science to society and to the 5 Pillars of the 2030 Agenda: Planet, People, Prosperity, Partnerships and Peace.
Since the programme began, we have had more than 20 active colleagues who have identified opportunities within the projects they are involved in to contribute to various Objetivos de Desenvolvimento Sustentável (ODS) targets.

These are:

• Beatriz Dantas (IHA) – The Collecting of Japanese Prints and Books in Portugal (c.1900 – c.2020) 
• Francisca Alves Cardoso (CRIA/FCSH) – CURARE: New Paradigms in the Curation and Management of Sensitive Collections – From Objectification to the (Re)humanisation of Human Remains 
• Isabel Pires (CESEM/FCSH) – PreservArt – A Multidimensional Approach to the Preservation of Historical Audio Recordings: A Study of Chemical and Microbiological Degradation Mechanisms 
• Maria Figueira & Elisabete Pereira (IHC/UÉVORA) – Hidden Stories from Colonial Collections in Portuguese Museums: The Case of the Santos Rocha Municipal Museum Collection
• Maria Manuela Restivo (CRIA/UMINHO) – From Ana to Zé: a digital archive for Portuguese folk art 
• Maria Duran Marques (IHA/FCSH) – Parallel Arts: Beyond the Fine Arts in the Feminine Sphere at the Turn of the 20th Century in Portugal
• Pedro Guilherme & Sofia Salema (CHAIA) – MALAGUEIRA.PT – Malagueira: Heritage for All: Grounds for its classification
• Rita Cêpa (IHA/FCSH) – How does one write a collection?
• Teresa Reis (HERCULES) – CLIMACT-CH. Impacts of climate change on tangible and intangible cultural heritage: a Brazil-Portugal study

Over the next two years, they will be working in partnership with the IN2PAST OCM group, their institutional partners and other National Nodes of this ICCROM programme to develop indicators for recording this IN2PAST project in the National Voluntary Report on the ODS.
Each of these projects will use the OCM logo in their work, identifying them as promoters of culture as a driver for the ODS and as a vehicle for a fairer, more tolerant and inclusive world that leaves no one behind.

For more information about the Our Collections Matter (OCM) initiative and the national nodes’ commitments: https://in2past.org/news/in2past-is-new-national-node-for-iccrom-our-collections-matter/