We started the project “Circular from the rural school “.

Would you like to work in the classroom with educational materials on the Mudejar identity of the villages? Do you understand the heritage space as an innovative learning space?

In the coming weeks the first action of the project “Rural school in motion” will begin, an introductory course to the project in which Territorio Mudéjar offers to those interested in linking education, heritage and innovation to know the starting point and the methodology with which it will work until mid 2022 together with seven of the local development groups in the province of Zaragoza coordinated by the ADRI Calatayud Aranda group.

“Rural school in motion” is a cooperation project between rural development groups coordinated by the ADRI Calatayud-Aranda group, together with Cedemar, Adefo Cinco Villas, Asomo Moncayo, Adrae Comarca Alta del Ebro, Fedivalca y Adri Jiloca Gallocanta, and financed by the Government of Aragon through the Leader programme and the Provincial Council of Zaragoza through the Territorio Mudéjar association, as a private collaborating entity that manages the implementation and execution of the initiative.

The aim is to develop educational materials related to the Mudejar identity of the villages, placing rural schools and the educational community of the villages at the centre of the project, with a triple purpose:

◾️Work on the introduction of the Mudejar heritage identity in the work programmes of schools beyond the artistic or complementary areas.

◾️To involve the educational community in the valuation of the Mudejar heritage as part of their personal history, which favours the knowledge, conservation and dissemination of the identity of the localities.

◾️To use the work carried out in schools as material for dissemination and tourist use on the Mudejar heritage of the villages for a family and children audience.

???? In the COURSE we will explain the working methodology and the results of the pilot project that was carried out in the CRA Vicort Isuela in the 2018-2019 academic year and which is the starting point for the implementation of the project in the schools of the villages of Territorio Mudéjar.

It will be taught by Laura Castejón and Víctor Gumiel, teachers who carried out the design and testing of the pilot project, and Victoria E. Trasobares, director of Territorio Mudéjar who has extensive experience in the management and implementation of Mudejar heritage management projects in rural areas.

The Department of Education has included it as an approved course in its catalogue of ongoing teacher training activities and recognises the training hours.

The course will be carried out on-line through the entity’s digital work platform that we will set up for the specific training.

Course information: https://mcusercontent.com/…/c70fb223…/CURSO_CIRCULAR.pdf

Application form:

Option 1: If you have a certificate or electronic signature https://doceo.catedu.es/…/portadaInitConsultarActividad…

Option 2: If you do not have a certificate or electronic signature, write a message to: info@territoriomudejar.es

Project information: https://mcusercontent.com/…/9591a…/PROYECTO_CIRCULAR.pdf

If you have any doubts or you want to consult us about any particular issue you can call us on 876 634 125 or write an email to info@territoriomudejar.es

Project MOMAr: Heritage beyond tourism

At Territorio Mudéjar we strive to develop Mudejar heritage management practices that foster responsible, sustainable tourism designed by those in the places where the heritage is located, always in conjunction with their inhabitants. We are convinced that preservation, research and dissemination of the Mudejar identity are key factors in the creation of tourism activities.

To consolidate this aim and share best practices, from today until November 13, we will be attending the second Interregional Event for Exchange of Experiences 2 (IEE 2), held in the province of Groningen, in the north of the Netherlands, entitled “Heritage, further than tourism: a sustainable future”.

Researcher Irene Ruiz Bazán (professor at the Polytechnic of Turin and Territorio Mudéjar fieldwork researcher) was in charge of moderating the good practice seminars in which several towns belonging to our network stood out in the presentation of unique projects.

The mayor of Torrellas, María Pilar Pérez, presented the Miau urban art project, which has been in place in the town since 2016.

From Alagón, as part of the Heritage and Education seminar, Julián Millán and Pablo Sebastián discussed the interesting work they are doing at the Ribera Alta del Ebro Workshop School.

And from Daroca, Irene Ruiz mentioned the work being done in Territorio Mudéjar, with contributions from researchers Ricardo Monreal and Marta López – 2020 Fieldwork grants – in the Mudejar civil architecture management project, which they are carrying out in accordance with the objectives of the new Fundación Campo de Daroca management body, reaching an important milestone by converting the Palacio de los Luna into a benchmark and a management model for private civil architecture.

On Friday, streaming from the Museo de Momias in Quinto, it will be time to look to the future in the conclusion sessions and also in the workshop on rural heritage management in the era of COVID-19, an issue that Territorio Mudéjar has thoroughly addressed so as to remain active while complying with all the safety measures and ensuring the safety of our visitors, but also, above all, that of the inhabitants of our towns.

Moreover, we have launched a multiplatform digital work solution in order to continue progressing with our projects online, aiming to work in an effective, innovative manner with historical and artistic resources, to the benefit of Mudejar heritage and our region.

Territorio Mudéjar has a strong presence in this forum, in which up to 12 people from our network are participating: students in the Challenge Program, members of city councils like those of Villarreal de Huerva and Maluenda, 2019 and 2020 fieldwork researchers, and more.

* Territorio Mudéjar is a member of MOMAr Interreg Europe (Models of Management for Singular Rural Heritage / Modelos de Gestión para el Patrimonio Rural Singular), which, under the leadership of the Provincial Government of Zaragoza and funded by the European Union, involves entities from six different countries.

Territorio Mudéjar as a role model of adapting one’s work in the era of the pandemic

Territorio Mudéjar outlined today, at the MOMAr Interregional Event, its strategy and the measures taken to continue its projects during the pandemic, in the hopes that our experience aids others in finding windows of opportunity at a time in which we must remain committed to sustainable heritage management and safe culture.

The director of Territorio Mudéjar, Victoria Trasobares, connected from the Museo de las Momias in Quinto to talk about the ways in which Territorio Mudéjar acted responsibly to protect both its network and the inhabitants of the member towns when COVID-19 broke out and the lockdowns began in March. First, the entity analyzed its action plan for 2020 and then arranged new ways of working with the towns, partners and professionals that are part of Territorio Mudéjar.

  • Daily tours of the region were replaced with virtual efforts thanks to the development of a platform that was already in progress and has proven to be highly efficient, overcoming the distances between the member towns. This has also prompted a move to develop a similar model for smart working in each of the towns.
  • Meetings also went online and we took part in national and international conversations to prepare transnational calls for proposals. Thus, the entity has constructed a network of professionals able to work remotely at the same pace and with the same goals.
  • In addition, Territorio Mudéjar has expanded its communication environments, linking our towns with international entities.
  • This has enabled them to continue using their heritage spaces, even while working remotely. And to continue focusing on creating new models of use for heritage spaces.
  • In the process, they have had to overcome difficulties, such as having to constantly reorganize their teamwork efforts and their project timelines.
  • Another complex issue was ensuring that the work done was always certain to be respectful of the inhabitants living in the historical and artistic heritage settings.
  • They also had to reorganize catering and projects.

As the director of Territorio Mudéjar, Victoria Trasobares, explained, “Our biggest success over these past months was our ability to naturally adapt to the unexpected situations, finding and taking advantage of the opportunities that arose along the way. For example, we have had a considerable presence in high impact projects like Google Arts and we were able to participate in high level events that, under normal circumstances, would have been hard for us to attend”.

In general, Territorio Mudéjar has not only continued its projects, but it even expects to see significant growth in 2021.

Territorio Mudéjar, an example of good practices at the seminar on cultural heritage as a sustainable resource in ‘empty Spain’

Territorio Mudéjar participates in the leading forums on heritage and innovation, including the online seminar entitled “El patrimonio cultural como recurso sostenible en la España vaciada” (Cultural heritage as a sustainable resource in empty Spain), sponsored by the Spanish Ministry of Culture and Sports. We not only attended, in this case, but also stood out as a role model of good practices.

At this meeting, coordinated by the Cultural Heritage Institute of Spain (IPCE) and held on October 5 and 6, the lecturers included full professors of the art history department at University of Zaragoza Ascensión Hernández Martínez and María Pilar Biel Ibáñez, who gave a conference entitled “La cultura y el patrimonio como recurso: la lucha de Aragón contra la despoblación” (Culture and heritage as a resource: Aragon’s fight against depopulation).

In line with the theme of the seminar, they discussed how this demographic challenge requires coming up with strategies to encourage people to stay in places with difficulties and studying measures that generate social benefits for the residents, attract visitors and possible new residents, and turn heritage into a driver of the economy, tourism and employment and, above all, to uphold a cultural identity.

In this regard, they explained how we, at Territorio Mudéjar, strive to consolidate a unified, collaborative management network for the use of historical and artistic resources linked to important Mudejar heritage in our towns. And also how we see these resources as a driving force in the development of the towns and as emblems of identity for upholding the communities existing in our region.

They further highlighted that our entity ensures that the projects directly affect the region through responsible and sustainable management of Mudejar cultural heritage.

Experts from the IPCE, the University of Seville’s Industrial Heritage Laboratory, the Santa María la Real and DeClausura Foundations, the Polytechnic University of Madrid School of Architecture, and Asociación Amigos de los Castillos, to name a few, also participated in the seminar. They discussed the issue of desertion of rural areas and the ensuing consequences for heritage, including the loss of traditional architecture and monuments, movable assets, habits and intangible customs.

They also assessed good practices such as reputable cultural routes, famous restoration projects, preserved monuments, foundations whose efforts have had excellent outcomes and models such as that of Territorio Mudéjar.

University of Zaragoza colloquium on the entrepreneurial adventure in rural settings

On October 15, Territorio Mudéjar took part in the discussion entitled: “Tu desafío: Conocer el mundo rural y sus posibilidades” (Your challenge: Discovering the rural world and its possibilities), organized by University of Zaragoza as part of its rural exchange program (Challenge Program) to talk about the entrepreneurial adventure.

Territorio Mudéjar is an active participant in this initiative, and has just started the second phase with its student internships. The director of Territorio Mudéjar, Victoria Trasobares, explained this, stressing that the program offers an opportunity for young people, who learn from it, and for the rural setting in which they develop their ideas.

Victoria Trasobares noted that Territorio Mudéjar makes use of its resources by generating a professional workplace; in other words, each area developed is professionalized. Since the entity works with historical and artistic heritage, there are obviously professionals with skills in this field.

Therefore, art history students are being trained in Territorio Mudéjar to construct learning experiences that take the context into account: Mudejar art, Aragonese art and a general context, because all genres are subject to some kind of influence.

Through this project, Territorio Mudéjar provides support in skills-building for art historians, so that they know how to search for information and how to use it. They also learn to discern the key components in ensuring that a project can be implemented with a likelihood of success.

In addition, this work helps further the project aimed at defining a specialized job profile for cultural heritage designated as UNESCO World Heritage located in rural settings. This Territorio Mudéjar project is funded by the Spanish Ministry of Culture and Sports, and by the Provincial Government of Zaragoza through its direct support for our entity.

Adrián Tambo from Ecotambo, Alicia Sáchez from #DulcesLocuras, Fran Saura Armelles, veterinarian, María Fernández Pérez Muro with the human resources recruiting and development department of Caja Rural de Aragón, Sandra Barceló, psychologist and independent educator specializing in social matters and mindfulness, and Yolanda Gimeno Cuenca, an environmental expert at Riegos del Alto Aragón, also took part in the University of Zaragoza course, sharing their experiences.

Meeting on depopulation: new job profiles for building a rural future

Territorio Mudéjar participated in the meeting on depopulation sponsored by Cadena SER in collaboration with the Provincial Government of Zaragoza on October 15 and 16 in Daroca and Paracuellos de Jiloca, reflecting on rural areas as a place for opportunities.

At the meeting, it was explained that towns need more than infrastructures to survive; specifically, intangible strategies are required, such as networking by public and private entities and a commitment to creativity and talent, ideas that form the foundations of Territorio Mudéjar.

Territorio Mudéjar sees the rural world as a place for opportunities at all levels, in which – as remarked during the meeting – disruptive elements that prompt a turning point are needed.

For Territorio Mudéjar, one key disruptive feature is professionalizing job profiles* linked to heritage, because this makes it possible to boost employment in rural settings, attract professionals and develop projects entailing investments.

For this reason, we are committed to finding new uses for heritage spaces and landscapes, such as technical tours, teaching specific subjects in these spaces, funding for internships, etc.

We further strengthen this course of action by attracting highly qualified professionals who generate diverse entrepreneurship projects that prompt them to settle in Mudejar locations. A clear example of this is our fieldwork grants for project development.

Furthermore, Territorio Mudéjar is seen as a role model of management and good practices in cooperation projects and transnational funding, with round tables, workshops, conferences and more.

In addition, Territorio Mudéjar engages in another of the leading lines of work highlighted at the Cadena SER meeting: education. Through projects such as ‘Territorio Mudéjar Circular desde la escuela’ (Territorio Mudéjar, Circular from schools), we strive to integrate heritage and its methods into curricula in order to raise awareness in school children about the identity of their towns and help them discover the professional options in their region. We do this through a cooperation project with local development groups, in which we are a partner.

*This Territorio Mudéjar project is funded by the Spanish Ministry of Culture and Sports, and by the Provincial Government of Zaragoza through its direct support for our entity.

The role of civil society in the preservation of cultural heritage in rural settings, a debate

The ties between society and cultural heritage represent a potential factor for social cohesion, and this human dimension plays a key role in protecting heritage. This is one of baseline premises of the online seminar “La sociedad civil en la conservación del patrimonio cultural en el medio rural” (Civil society in the preservation of cultural heritage in rural settings) organized by the Spanish Ministry of Culture and Sport on October 26 and 27, in which Territorio Mudéjar took part.

The seminar entailed a collective reflection on the importance of cultural associations created by civil society for the preservation of heritage in rural settings. Courses of action and management instruments focusing on safeguarding cultural heritage in rural settings were outlined during the seminar. The participants also shared examples of good practices applied to regions and heritage sites with great cultural value, so as to generate a sense of belonging among the inhabitants through this attention and even help to create jobs and improve social and economic management.

The seminar was kicked off by Dolores Jiménez Blanco, director general of Fine Arts, and Ana Cabrera Lafuente, deputy director general of the IPC. Lectures were also given by Mikel Landa (ICOMOS), María Pía Timón and Elena Agromayor (IPCE), Sergio Pérez Martín (program for the recovery and educational use of abandoned villages in Granadilla, Extremadura), Manuel García Félix (FEMP Committee for Historical and Cultural Heritage), Francisco Mestre (Federación de los pueblos más bonitos de España, the federation of the most beautiful villages in Spain), Vicente Carvajal (Asociación Cluny Ibérica and Sociedad Económica de los Amigos del País, León), Araceli Pereda (Hispania Nostra), Antonio Berenguer (Campanero), María Concepción Benítez (heritage expert for the District of Sobrarbe and for Sobrarbe-Pirineos UNESCO Global Geopark), José Manuel Rodríguez Montañés (Asociación de Municipios del Camino de Santiago, the association of municipalities along the Way of St. James) and Aniceto Delgado Méndez (IAPH).

Furthermore, Territorio Mudéjar will also be participating in the online course “Guía para planes de conservación preventiva” (Guide to preventive conservation plans) by the IPCE (Cultural Heritage Institute of Spain), which proposes a framework for generating standardized procedures to which quality control rules can be applied.

Territorio Mudéjar will use this training to contribute to knowledge-building that can help our member towns identify and analyze cultural asset conservation issues in order to subsequently advise them on the implementation of procedures that address these issues.

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5 research stays and 1 runner-up awarded for study, resource management and project development in partner localities

Territorio Mudéjar, the network of 34 municipalities promoted by the Diputación de Zaragoza that works to conserve and promote Mudejar art in the province, has awarded 5 research stays and one runner-up for the study, development of projects and management of the natural and heritage resources of its member towns.

This is the second call for these stays, named after Gonzalo M. Borrás Gualis as a tribute to the distinguished professor and expert on the Mudejar. Each of them is endowed with 6,000 euros and will allow the development of responsible, sustainable and innovative research projects with a direct impact on the rural environment and that favour its visibility and knowledge.

This edition has been characterised by the high level of the proposals, which include multidisciplinary teams of researchers from different Spanish and Italian countries, with the advice of prestigious experts. The selected projects will allow the development of projects in areas such as the recovery of building materials such as Mudejar plaster, the conservation of traditional architecture, the design of visits that combine the agricultural calendar and Mudejar heritage, the creation of a podcast channel of Territorio Mudéjar, a guide to the historical carpentry of our villages and the study of new models of cultural management of Mudejar civil architecture.

The aim of these stays is to promote knowledge of the rural territory from its Mudejar identity through innovative approaches that have a positive impact on the villages and promote a network of work on the possibilities offered by the resources of the territory and collaborative and interdisciplinary work. In addition, specifically, the aim is to improve knowledge of the Mudejar as a World Heritage Site and the benefits it brings as an international brand recognised by Unesco.

The selected projects are framed within five lines of research: new perspectives on Mudejar art, Mudejar territory and cultural landscape, cultural heritage management, communication and dissemination of Mudejar heritage and Mudejar heritage and its social function as a key element of territorial development.

The projects one by one

1-“Mudejar plaster, an element of identity, knowledge and future opportunities”.

Traditional plaster is a key material in Mudejar architecture and is used in monumental and popular architecture, but it is largely unknown, as it is often misidentified and confused with lime-based materials. In the 2019 research stay, the architect Pedro Bel exhaustively documented the manufacturing process of traditional plaster in 16 municipalities and drew attention to the difficulties of rehabilitating plaster constructions due to the lack of compatible materials. With the 2020 research stay, he is looking for solutions to the conservation limitations of traditional plaster with ambitious objectives: to learn more about this material, to disseminate its role in traditional Aragonese architecture and to develop a plaster that can be manufactured today and that preserves the legacy it has received. In this way, it aims to reactivate the quarries, to obtain a material compatible with Mudejar plaster for restoration and rehabilitation and to reintroduce it in contemporary architecture.

This project has a strong team of researchers from the universities of Zaragoza, Granada, Malaga and the Polytechnic of Madrid and high-level advisors such as Ramón Rubio Domene, head of the tiled plasterwork restoration workshop of the Patronato de La Alhambra, and Antonio Almagro Gorbea, member of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando.

2-“Vernacular architecture in Mudejar villages: tools and networks for adaptive re-use and compatible intervention”.

In addition to monuments of great historical and artistic value, the towns and villages of Mudejar Territory have a more humble architecture, but of great social and ethnological value, integrated into the environment and reflecting the cultural identity of the area. The proper conservation and enhancement of this traditional architecture can be the starting point for economic regeneration based on the use of heritage sites by private individuals, which can increase the attractiveness and competitiveness of historic towns. To this end, it is necessary to balance the conservation of architectural heritage and socio-economic development.

Javier Gómez Patrocinio, PhD in architecture from the University of Valencia, studied the construction techniques and intervention dynamics prevailing in Territorio Mudéjar during his 2019 stay. Now, he is continuing his research and plans to design and implement tools to raise awareness among local communities about the value of vernacular architecture and the importance of its preservation in order to help developers improve the compatibility of interventions on traditional buildings.

More info:
www.estancias2020mudetrad.territoriomudejar.es/

3-“Mudejar heritage and agricultural calendar: The poetics of the landscape. Design and programming of pilot experiences for visits during the seasons of the year”.

Agricultural heritage, considered as a cultural asset and understood in a similar way to intangible heritage, is a reference point for identity and a unique and irreplaceable part of the landscape in which it is framed. With this research stay, the art historians Juan Ignacio Santos Rodríguez and Elvira del Pilar Domínguez Castro will diagnose the degree of representativeness and typology of this heritage, as well as its characterisation and capacity to generate new heritage resources linked to both the agricultural calendar and the Mudejar heritage. The aim is to design a plan of activities that link the agricultural heritage with Mudejar architecture, which is the result of this landscape, and which are linked to the agricultural calendar.

It also includes pilot itinerary tests in order to show the undeniable and unique symbiosis between the land, agricultural production and the materials of the environment with Mudejar architecture and decoration, as well as to strengthen the emotional link of the population with the land, its agricultural economic activity and its products.

4-“Loqui Walls. The walls speak. Podcast to give voice to the territory”.

This communication project consists of the creation of a podcast channel for Territorio Mudéjar to encourage and complement visits to the monuments in our towns. The traveller will be able to listen to these podcasts through mobile technologies at any time of the day or week, which allows us to respond to the needs of sustainable and small-scale tourism.

The content of the podcasts will not replace the experience of visiting the main monument, which should always be explained in situ by a specialist, but will complement it with proposals for tours of the territory that will enhance visits between localities, with additional information about the locality that will complement existing visits, and with suggestions for activities that can be carried out in the area. The project will also help to consolidate the idea of Mudejar culture beyond the monumental. The proposal will be developed by a team formed by Gianluca Vita (Politecnico di Milano), Irene Ruiz (Politecnico di Torino and University of Zaragoza) and the expert in new technologies Marco Marcellini.

More information in:
www.territoriomudejar.es/podcast/

5-“Mudejar wood. Guide to historic carpentry in the towns of Territorio Mudéjar”.

This research project is part of the area of new perspectives on Mudéjar art and aims to promote knowledge and appreciation of the manifestations of Mudéjar art made in wood to the fullest extent: ceilings (alfarjes and file frames), doors, windows, eaves, choirs, organ bases, choir stalls, choir stalls, carillons… It will consist of creating a specialised online publication containing an inventory of the works with descriptions, status and images. It will also include texts by specialists on the techniques and fundamentals of Mudéjar carpentry, a complete bibliography on the subject and special chapters on the most important works of historical carpentry in Territorio Mudéjar.

Myriam Monterde, a professional in cultural management and museology, and José Manuel Herraiz, an audiovisual producer and scriptwriter specialising in the historical and cultural genre, are in charge of developing this research.

More info: www.estancias2020maderamudejar.territoriomudejar.es/

6-Accesit: “New models of cultural management and financing for restoration projects of historic-monumental Mudejar civil buildings in the province of Zaragoza”.

Territorio Mudéjar has awarded a second prize to a research project on Mudéjar civil architecture. The art historians Ricardo Monreal Lafuente and Marta López Veamonte are responsible for this initiative with which they will continue a process of research and data collection begun in 2019. The aim of this work was to obtain current and technologically advanced material on the civil architecture of the Mudejar Territory that preserves Mudejar elements and to document the management model of these buildings. The current 2020 phase will consist of specific work on one of the most important civil spaces in our territory, the Palacio de los Luna de Daroca. Its development will entail defining a working model for this type of Mudejar architecture as well as the analysis of new models for the management of historical-artistic heritage that will allow these buildings to be put to use, thus contributing to their sustainability, their social function and their incorporation into the life of the towns. It will also address how to finance restoration projects for these buildings.

Territorio Mudéjar holds its annual assembly with 34 towns in attendance and an action plan for spotlighting Mudejar heritage and creating jobs in rural areas

Territorio Mudéjar now has 34 member towns – it started with 22 in 2018 – that will benefit from an activity program in 2020 designed to support the management, research and dissemination of Mudejar heritage and to create a network of professionals and jobs linked to the management of these historical and artistic resources. The association of towns promoted by the Provincial Government of Zaragoza held its annual assembly online this year and ratified the inclusion of the towns of Mainar, featuring the slender Mudejar tower of the church of Santa Ana, Magallón, represented by the chapel of Nuestra Señora de la Huerta and the church of San Lorenzo, Villarreal de Huerva, with the San Miguel tower and the chapel of Nuestra Señora del Rosario, and Zuera, with the San Pedro church.

At the assembly, chaired by the mayor of Tobed, Juan Antonio Sánchez Quero, and attended by the mayors of the member towns, Victoria Trasobares, director of the entity, presented the activity program that is being carried out in 2020 and the adjustments made in response to the COVID-19 situation.

The plan will continue promoting knowledge applied to Mudejar culture thanks to the second call for proposals to the Gonzalo M. Borrás Gualis grants for projects and fieldwork, which will make it possible to implement up to six fieldwork projects and will help create a network of professionals linked to the towns, with the training and skills needed to ensure that projects are launched and that they remain feasible and are implemented in the future.

Territorio Mudéjar will continue progressing on projects aimed at designing job profiles related to the heritage in the towns in order to attract highly qualified professionals who can generate business ventures in Mudejar locations.

Work will also be done on educational innovation projects, such as the so-called “Circular Desde la Escuela Rural” (Circular from Rural Schools), to include contents related to Mudejar heritage in the curricula and to generate value in the schools to make teaching positions in these towns more attractive and, therefore, more stable.

In turn, Territorio Mudéjar will participate in calls for proposals and European projects that bring investments and foster development in the towns, such as the MOMAr Interreg project by the Provincial Government of Zaragoza and Cultural Heritage in Action, in which the entity was selected in the ‘peer learning visits’ category, generating learning visits among European entities with common goals.

Similarly, the members will continue to receive advice on developing projects and seeking funding, and the dissemination and communication of Mudejar culture will be strengthened through the creation of our own contents, workshops in the towns and activities in the media.

Deadline for submission of proposals for research stays extended until 29 June

Territorio Mudéjar is extending the deadline for submitting proposals for the call for five research stays for the study and management of the heritage and natural resources of its villages until Monday 29 June due to the high number of enquiries received in recent days. This is the second edition of these stays, which bear the name of Gonzalo M. Borrás Gualis in homage to the distinguished professor and expert in Mudejar art who died last year. Each of the grants is endowed with 6,000 euros and all of them will be aimed at developing responsible, sustainable and innovative projects that have a direct impact on the rural environment and that favour its visibility and knowledge. Territorio Mudéjar is an initiative promoted by the Diputación de Zaragoza that brings together 34 municipalities to conserve and promote Mudejar art in the province.

Interested parties can submit their ideas until 29 June 2020 at 23.59 pm (CET). Both novice and mid-career researchers and professionals in heritage management with innovative territorial work or projects that also consider responsible and sustainable uses of local resources are eligible to apply. It will also be essential that they contemplate and justify the permanence for a certain period of time in one or more localities of Territorio Mudéjar. Proposals may be in an initial phase, under development, being tested or being implemented, and must demonstrate the direct impact on at least three associated municipalities, as well as their influence on the rest of the territory.

Applicants may apply as individuals or as a research group; they may be at an initial or intermediate stage of their research career or professional activity; and they must provide proof of higher education related to the areas covered by the call and a minimum of two years of research or professional experience, whether paid or unpaid. However, the professional career may be replaced by a master’s degree in areas related to cultural heritage.

With this second call for Gonzalo Borrás Gualis research stays and projects, Territorio Mudéjar has set itself the objective of promoting knowledge of the rural territory from its Mudejar identity through innovative approaches that have a positive impact on the villages and that promote a network of work on the possibilities offered by the resources of the territory and collaborative and interdisciplinary work. It also aims to create dynamics of social participation in the field of heritage. Furthermore, the specific aim is to improve knowledge of the Mudejar as a World Heritage Site and the benefits it brings as an international brand recognised by Unesco.

Five different lines of research

The first of the five areas on which the projects submitted to the call for proposals may focus is New perspectives on Mudejar art, which includes updating data on this heritage in terms of monuments, urban, ethnographic and linguistic aspects, as well as technical languages applied to this style. Geolocation and cartographies are also included, as well as other aspects that allow the scientific base on this artistic style to be broadened.

A second line of research is Mudejar Territory and cultural landscape. It will assess the action of people on heritage resources, social and natural contexts and the interaction and relationship between landscape and monumentality.

The management of cultural heritage is the third area of action, which encompasses new models of uses in heritage management other than tourism or leisure. It also includes studies of physical, economic or intellectual accessibility, as well as future ideas for conservation and intervention in heritage.

New media discourses and knowledge or information for a general public will be the subject of the proposals in Communication and dissemination of Mudejar heritage.

Finally, in Mudejar Heritage and its social function as a key element of territorial development, projects related to social participation in the enhancement and collective construction of new forms of learning, intergenerational experiences, or emotional ties and roots as a basis for the protection and management of heritage will be considered.

Basis of the call: https://www.territoriomudejar.es/estancias-de-investigacion-y-proyectos-2020/