Minister flags heritage focus at Calpe Conference opening

The Gibraltar Government wants to develop heritage and related cultural activities, Heritage Minister Steven Linares, said at the opening of this year’s Calpe Conference being held in the University of Gibraltar.

A sign of the Government’s commitment, following in the wake of the inauguration this month’s World Heritage Site – the UNESCO Gorham’s Cave Complex - Mr Linares spoke of the promotion and research which had been undertaken in this project carried out through the dissemination and results to a much wider public.

“This is also a way of making ourselves known to the outside world,” he said, highlighting Gibraltar’s annual cultural programme which includes the various annual festivals including the Rock’s Literary Festival entering its fourth edition.

“We want to promote Gibraltar culturally as well as through its heritage in order that people understand what we are all about,” he told the conference delegates.

This year’s conference, rightly so, focuses on ‘Past Worlds: Neanderthal and Modern Human Response to Climate and Environmental Change’. Today’s events will be devoted entirely to the project from its inception to the present day and bring together all the team members over the years.

Professor Clive Finlayson said the conference today would bring together the core members of the Gorham’s Cave Complex for the first time and present the “total picture and summarise all the work. It will be the first time that the complete story of Gorham’s as we know it today will be told.”

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