Intangibility Matters

International conference on the values of tangible heritage

May 29-30, 2017

© Carlos Alberto Santos

Tangible heritage is the support of some of the most relevant and perennial values of Mankind.
It connects us with History, projects us to past environments and to lost cultural contexts, includes landmarks of our identity and constitutes a relevant economic asset.
Therefore tangible heritage has intangible aspects inextricably associated to it and when tangible heritage is addressed, intangibility matters. Conservation of tangible heritage is a cultural act with the value approach as a leading concept. The protection statutes, the arguments used to sustain the protection policies, the management options and definition of priorities, the allocation of resources and the uses of heritage assets are intimately connected and dependent on values, bringing to focus the intangible side of their nature.