Monday, August 02, 2004
Intern from Bulgaria working for Historic New Harmony
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Donika Georgieva, an architect and preservation professional from Sofia, Bulgaria, is serving an internship in New Harmony compiling information for a World Heritage site nomination for Historic New Harmony. Her internship is offered by the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), an international non-governmental organization dedicated to the conservation of the world’s historic monuments and sites. New Harmony, Indiana, is one of 10 locations in the United States that has an intern in this program. The Jekyll Island Museum in Jekyll Island, Georgia, Cornerstones Community Partnerships in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and the Dayton Society of Natural History in Dayton, Ohio, are some of the other internship sites. This is Donika’s first visit to America. She arrived in Washington, D.C. in June and met with other interns for an orientation at the National Building Museum, home to the US/ICOMOS offices. They toured sites in Washington, D.C. before they traveled to their host sites. She describes the United States as different from her native Bulgaria. Though the temperature is similar, she did have culture shock for several days upon her arrival. She had to acclimate to American food, the measurement system since the U.S. is not metric, and the money. She said, “United States has strange coins—quarters and dimes.” She is living in New Harmony and she likes the pastoral environment which is a contrast to Sofia, Bulgaria’s capital city. She described Sofia as a metropolitan city with traffic and pollution. She said, “In New Harmony I can take a walk, ride a bike, and enjoy nature. It is really a change.” She enjoys talking to New Harmony visitors to find out where they are from and how they learned about the town. Donika is a Ph.D. candidate. As part of the doctoral program, she supervises architectural projects of undergraduate students. She is a graduate of University of Architecture, Civil Engineering and Geodesy (surveying). She received the annual award for graduation work in the area of preservation of the architectural heritage from the Bulgarian National Committee of ICOMOS. Since June 2003 she has been a designer of residential buildings in Sofia working for the architectural bureau OLVI Olekov & Vitchev. In Bulgaria she has a mother, father, brother, and a dog named Lucky. She describes the World Heritage Site nomination as a massive process. To be included in the World Heritage list, a property must offer an understanding of the site’s universal value as a cultural treasure. As part of her work, Donika is preparing maps of the current town for inclusion in the nomination. Connie Weinzapfel, director of Historic New Harmony, said Donika is a wonderful benefit because she does not have background in American history nor has she visited other historic sites in the United States, so she looks at Historic New Harmony with fresh eyes. She can see the site not as individual buildings but as a whole cultural heritage. Later this summer Donika will reconvene in Washington with other interns to share experiences and to meet other interns who will be joining the program in the fall. |
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