The ICOMOS 21st General Assembly is taking place in Sydney, Australia (31 August – 9 September 2023), as we post this. The United States is represented by a large delegation of ICOMOS-USA board members, International Scientific Committee leaders and members, emerging professionals, and other heritage professionals, who have spent the week presenting, learning, planning, voting and meeting with other professionals from around the world. Below are a few photos from the event.
The iconic Sydney Opera House and World Heritage Site welcomes conference attendees to Sydney and Australia.Heritage and ICOMOS Flags fly on Pyrmont Bridge in Darling Harbor, Sydney.John H. Stubbs and Patricia O’Donnell in Sydney Harbor, photo taken on the replica historic ship, the Duyfken, first Dutch Vessel to arrive in Australia in 1607.
Fountain Landscape by Robert Woodward, sculpture outside the Sydney International Convention Center where the General Assembly and Welcome to Country ceremony were held.In the Gadigal tradition a welcome to country, which includes a smoking ceremony, officially welcomes and acknowledges visitors to their land.
ICOMOS flags added a festive air to the neighborhood.Wayfinding aids are so important.Sydney International Convention Centre Theatre, location of GA2023 plenary sessions.Richard Mackay of ICOMOS Australia, Convenor of GA2023.Cequyna Moore, Director of the Monuments Toolkit Program, and Trustee Kate Montague Perry.
Nancy Pollock-Ellwand, ICOMOS Advisory Committee Scientific Council Officer, speaks at a committee meeting.ICOMOS-USA President Douglas Comer stands next to our national committee poster in the General Assembly Hall.
Jordan’s Princess Dana Firas presents the Keynote Address on the theme of GA2023: Heritage Changes. We hope to share a transcript or video of her remarksGlenn Eskew, Director of the Civil Rights Sites World Heritage initiative and History professor at Georgia State University; Cequyna Moore; and Douglas C. Comer, ICOMOS-USA President.Cequyna Moore presents the Monuments Toolkit Program, a website, app, podcast and series of free webinars aimed at answering questions about monuments of oppression. This program is funded by a generous grant from the Mellon Foundation.
Kathleen Crowther presents the Cleveland Civil Rights Trail in a session devoted to commemorating and preserving civil rights sites.Doug Comer presents at the Americas Meeting convening ICOMOS members from North, Central and South America.
Night view of the Chinese Garden of Friendship in Darling Harbour, Sydney. The Garden is a collaborative effort between the sister states of New South Wales and Guangdong, China.Hogne Langset (ICOMOS Norway), Patricia O’Donnell and Jim Donovan on the Pyrmont Bridge for the ICOMOS group photo. The ICOMOS flags are in the background.Patricia O’Donnell, FASLA, President of the ICOMOS/IFLA International Scientific Committee on Cultural Landscapes moderates a session on Cultural – Natural Landscape Heritage: Responding to the Climate Emergency in the scientific symposium.Entry Gate to Sydney’s historic Luna Park where GA2023 attendees spent the evening of 6 September.We think that’s ICOMOS-USA trustee Kate Montague Perry but can’t confirm this fact.
Three emerging professionals enjoy the setting at the World Heritage Sites and conference locations, the Sydney Opera House.Trustee Grant Gilmore toured Sydney Town Hall, the most ornate late 19th century civic building in Australia, and shared this photo.
Jim Donovan, FASLA, enjoying the day trip to the Blue Mountains World Heritage Site.Trustee Grant Gilmore on the Blue Mountains World Heritage Site Day Trip.The Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Site, inscribed in 2000, consists sandstone plateaux, escarpments and gorges dominated by temperate eucalypt forest.
The Australian Emu, a denizen of the Blue Mountains.An Australian National Parks Guide describes native species at the Blue Mountains World Heritage Site.Walter Burley Griffin’s Felstead House in Castlecrag. ICOMOS Sydney Modernism Tour.
Michael Thomson, Vice President of the Walter Burley Griffin Society, demonstrating Griffin’s patented Knitlock wall construction system at the Felstead House in Castlecrag. Presentation given to the ICOMOS Sydney Modernism Tour.
John H. Stubbs meeting old friend Indian conservation architect Dr. Shikha Jain in the entrance to the Australian National Museum on the Behind the Scenes Tour to the ICOMOS GA.Sleeping Koala at Wildlife Sydney Zoo, Darling Harbor.
Indigenous dancers perform at the GA2023 Closing Ceremony.A Gadigal Elder conducts the closing Smoke Ceremony at GA2023.
