Ilaria Scarmagnan
Ilaria is a passionate researcher and driven practitioner of cultural relations. She has an international background and professional experience in European cross-border cooperation focusing on interdisciplinary projects. Commitment, curiosity and proactivity are amongst her main strengths motivating her to make a difference for the people and the environment.
She holds a bachelor’s degree in International Science and Diplomacy and, after a full-year Erasmus in Bordeaux (France), she enrolled in the master degree’s course in Public and Cultural Diplomacy. During her academic studies, she became familiar with the UNESCO world by volunteering at Club UNESCO of Gorizia and then doing an internship at the Permanent Delegation of Italy to UNESCO (Paris). Thanks to these experiences, she acquired a better understanding of UNESCO’s framework and objectives in the field of culture while strengthening her competences in reporting, event organisation and project management. Therefore, after her MA graduation, she did a traineeship at the Northern Dimension Partnership on Culture (NDPC) in Rīga (Latvia). As a trainee, Ilaria assisted the NDPC Secretariat in the implementation of European transnational projects connecting cultural and creative industries with other sectors (e.g. education, health and well-being, sustainability, business). While supporting the team in the organisation of a workshop for the LIVIND heritage project, she had the chance to deepen the topic of intangible cultural heritage by participating in the roundtable discussions with project partners that focused on how to improve the economic dimension of ICH and how to link it to tourism.
However, it was at UNESCO Regional Bureau for Science and Culture in Europe (Venice, Italy) that she could explore further the topic of living heritage benefitting from an international perspective and an interdisciplinary approach. Being an assistant of the Cultural Unit, she supported with the development and execution of the first capacity-building course held in Italy on intangible cultural heritage involving national and local public authorities, experts and representatives of ICH elements. Ilaria also helped the Unit with the organisation of a series of workshops on UNESCO Designated Sites (i.e. Global Geoparks, Biosphere Reserves, World Heritage Sites) in Europe, as well as with the preparation of opening events for the Venice Biennale 2024 (e.g. the Pavillion of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Artists at Risk’s exhibition), and comparative research on the main UNESCO’s strategic documents, including the 2003 Convention. She continued her stay in Venice by working for La Biennale Foundation, firstly as accreditation granter for the International Film Festival, and then as exhibition guide for the Venice Art Biennale 2024. During this last experience, she organised tours for foreign groups and also interactive workshops for schools and universities.
Ilaria has recently joined the operational team of AGA APS as project and event coordinator. Throughout this project, she would like to give a meaningful contribution to tackle the global challenge of overtourism which is particularly affecting fragile contexts, like Venice, while finding sustainable and efficient solutions to valorise and promote intangible cultural heritage as an enabler of socioeconomic development for the local community.