Blue Shield Georgia and Its Work with the Heritage Community

In this virtual lecture hosted by the Penn Cultural Heritage Center, Manana Tevzadze will discuss her work as Chair of the Georgian National Committee of the Blue Shield. She will present the heritage community and civil society in the country of Georgia and briefly describe their challenges and experiences in the present and recent past. Learn about some of the initiatives of the Georgian National Committee of the Blue Shield that aimed to strengthen the cultural heritage community and its efforts for the preservation of Georgian heritage sites and values.

Manana Tevzadze is the chair of the Georgian National Committee of the Blue Shield, leading internationally funded projects that advocate for cultural heritage disaster risk preparedness and management in Georgia and serving on the board of Blue Shield International from 2017-2020. She is a graduate of the international master’s course in World Heritage Studies at Brandenburg University of Technology, Cottbus Senftenberg, Germany. She has 15 years of experience working in the cultural heritage sector in Georgia for public and private institutions as well as academia. She has also served as a freelance consultant for EU funded projects in Georgia and the EU Eastern Partnership region. Manana is a member of ICOM and ICOMOS Georgia since 2007 and Secretary of ICOMOS Georgia since 2019. An alumna of the ICCROM international course First Aid to Cultural Heritage in Times of Crises, she conducts trainings nationally and internationally. For over 10 years, Manana has actively engaged and initiated cultural heritage preservation civic campaigns in Georgia together with her colleagues from activist groups and heritage NGOs. She led the campaign “Save Bagrati Cathedral” against inappropriate reconstruction works on a World Heritage Monument and participated in the preservation of the building of the Fine Arts Museum and safe relocation of its collections, the protection of Sakdrisi-Kachaghiani Ancient Gold Mine, and protests of the construction of Panorama-Tbilisi, constitutional amendments, and more. Manana has translated a number of professional publications from English to Georgian.