Events

Petra crop Event

Lessons from Petra: Protecting the Past, Shaping the Future

Exploring how local heritage preservation inspires global action, in conversation with HRH Princess Dana Firas of Jordan. This in-person event at the V&A South Kensington, staged in July 2025, explored how the story of Petra - one of the world's most iconic heritage sites - can help shape the way we care for culture and community around the globe.


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Heritage Preservation through Sound, Song and Storytelling

This event, staged at the V&A South Kensington in June 2025, explored the use of sound, song and storytelling as a means to create, preserve or recover important layers of understanding within built heritage sites. The event convened a panel of international artists, researchers and cultural practitioners to discuss their work in this space, including case studies from Pakistan, Iraq and Syria.


Courtesy of Mohamed Abusal Event

Culture in Crisis: Gaza

This in-person event staged in April 2025 at the V&A South Kensington brought together Palestinian artists, cultural organisers and activists to discuss the impact of conflict on the Gazan arts and culture sector. The speakers discussed what has been lost in terms of Gaza’s art infrastructure, explored the ways Palestinian cultural practitioners are salvaging what remains, imagined liberation beyond the status quo and spoke about the future of their work in this space.


Small Image Chehel Burj Yakawlang District Bamyan Province Image Courtesy of Andy Miller Copy Event

Afghanistan: Breathing Life into Heritage in a Fragile State

This in-person event, which took place at the V&A South Kensington in February 2025, brought together two cultural professionals who have been working in Afghanistan for over seventeen years to discuss their work, engagement with local communities across the country, and the role heritage protection can play as an integral part of peacebuilding and reconciliation processes.


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Global Challenges and Opportunities for Cultural Heritage - The 2025 World Monuments Fund Watch

This in-person event at the V&A South Kensington, convened by the museum’s Culture in Crisis Programme in partnership with World Monuments Fund Britain in January 2025, drew together speakers to discuss emergent risks to heritage and the announcement of the 2025 Watch. From the British Isles to North and Sub-Saharan Africa, they explored case studies from Watch lists old and new, exploring successes, challenges and some of the changes seen over the past decades – and look ahead to a new cycle of work about to begin.