Connected Open Heritage/Countries/Georgia

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Georgia

Government agencies and cultural heritage in Georgia

The Ministry of Culture and Monument Protection of Georgia has a national responsibility concerning culture and monuments in Georgia. Besides the Ministry, there is the National Agency for Cultural Heritage Preservation of Georgia which activities are limited to cultural heritage.

According to Law of Georgia on Cultural Heritage Protection, the Ministry is obligated to ensure that all uncovered cultural heritage is registered. The Department of Cultural Heritage, an agency of the Ministry, is tasked with this very mission and registers all cultural heritage with the aim of creating a complete database.

Legislated protection of cultural heritage in Georgia

The Ministry is also responsible for the overall state protection of cultural heritage. The law further states that the autonomous republics of Albkhazia and Adjara have additional responsibilities concerning heritage within their territory. These entail uncovering and producing descriptions of cultural heritage, as well has regulating their preservation.

• Data about cultural heritage is stored by the following organization: The National Agency for Cultural Heritage Preservation of Georgia (national level)
• The data is available through: <offline, bulk download, api, linked data, printed reports>
• The data includes information about the following: <base data (ID, type etc.), geographical, archaeological/architectural, images>

Policy decisions on access to public information

Legislations concerning access to information from public authorities are encoded in the General Administrative Code of Georgia, which in chapter 3 deals with freedom of information. According to article 28, public information shall be open, unless the information constitutes state, commercial or personal secret, or if disclosure of information is otherwise prescribed by law.

Legislations hindering the distribution of pictures in Georgia

Activities pertaining to freedom of panorama is regulated by Law of Georgia on Copyright and Neighbouring Rights. Article 24 states that no works of architecture, photography or fine arts permanently placed in public places may be reproduced or communicated to the public, or used for commercial purposes. Thus, Georgian law is incompatible with Wiki Common’s standard license CC-BY-SA which allows for distribution with economic interests.

Museum or archives that are willing to add their material

Georgian National Museum, includes 10 museums: Museum of Georgia (Tbilisi), The National Gallery (Tbilisi), Museum of Fine Arts (Tbilisi), Vani Archeological Museum (Vani)

Network of contacts: Blue Shield

The organization Blue Shield works to protect cultural heritage, either from natural disasters or the human factor. They also work on risk and effect analyses, and resilience with the aim to raise awareness of the UNESCO 1954 Hague Convention. They are also documenting cultural heritage that are at risk in Georgia as well as carrying out various campaigns and seminars regarding this issue. They have a large network with various institutions in Georgia. Furthermore, museums will provide useful access points for this project. Through contact with them we have deepened our country overview. Regrading access to data they have suggested a formal route, listing both the Minister of the Ministry and the Director of the National Agency.

Wikimedia activity in Georgia

Wikimedia Community User Group Georgia was recognized February 2015. Georgia has not yet participated in Wiki Loves Monuments.

Wikimedia Phabricator task

A task has been created on Wikimedia Phabricator here for importing the data into Wikidata.