These advantages include an abundant and long-established heritage, with a dense concentration of historical sites of architectural and artistic value. They also include traditional craft villages and streets, with countless handicrafts, fine art products, and culinary specialities that continue to generate economic value today.
There are also “living museums” in the cultural spaces of mountainous areas, rural villages, and old quarters, where distinctive knowledge embodied in traditional clothing, language, performing arts, and customs continues to be preserved. In addition, numerous cultural, artistic, and architectural values created in urban spaces over the past century have endured through different periods of modern history and become a rich source of symbolic heritage.
The capital is also home to important drivers of creative activity and modern creative centres, which have established themselves and made contributions both within and beyond the city. These include the country’s leading arts schools in music, fine arts, theatre, cinema, and architecture, as well as artistic organisations covering traditional and modern theatre, variety performances, singing, and dancing at central and municipal levels and among other groups.
Also noteworthy is the growth of creative centres and spaces for exhibitions and artistic practice established by a new generation of artists in fine arts, performance, fashion, architecture, photography, and exhibitions.
The connection between this large pool of human resources and the wealth of heritage mentioned above is being encouraged by policies promoting cultural industries, heritage tourism, and the development of craft villages, along with tax incentives for cultural enterprises and support policies for artisans. In this special feature, experts and contributors have offered numerous suggestions and proposals to the relevant authorities in Ha Noi.
Perhaps what deserves further emphasis is long-term vision and action in education and training. There is no denying that the capital already has extensive experience in this field, associated with efforts to rediscover and cherish the finest elements of traditional culture.
However, many questions remain about how to encourage new forms of creativity rooted in tradition while combining training with connections between artists and artisans, contemporary art and heritage, and classrooms and the cultural spaces of villages and urban neighbourhoods. What curricula are needed to develop creative thinking and themes for new products, works, activities, and events based on the use of heritage? How should these curricula be introduced at arts and vocational institutions under the capital’s administration, such as Hanoi College of Art, Hanoi Metropolitan University, and several arts and crafts schools, or through cooperation with centrally administered arts training institutions based in the city? How can training programmes be designed flexibly in terms of duration and content to meet the needs of different groups of practitioners and creative workers, from trainees and students to those already practising art or passing on cultural heritage?
Training that enables “new heritage” to flourish in meaningful ways across the capital therefore requires long-term vision and joint preparations by the cultural, tourism, and arts education sectors, as well as creative institutions and local authorities.
If festival activities in old quarters, ancient citadels and villages, and around Ho Guom Lake; the incorporation of traditional melodies into new songs; or the use of decorative motifs from communal houses and pagodas and lacquer techniques in handicraft products are regarded as remarkable returns to tradition, then the paths taken, methods adopted and valuable experiences gained from these efforts should be carefully selected and incorporated into education and training activities.
This would help develop generations of cultural and artistic creators and practitioners equipped with the awareness, skills, and appropriate methods to transform, carry forward, and promote heritage values. Such training could also help strengthen the workforce of cultural and arts managers and organisers of professional activities who can encourage, facilitate, and implement initiatives that create “new heritage.”
In the long term, this training effort will provide effective and sustainable preparation for the solutions proposed in this special feature. It will not only prepare for the future but also accompany and contribute to creative activities drawing on and working with heritage in the present. This will also help preserve the finest elements of Ha Noi’s culture and create new cultural offerings for today’s audiences.
