During 2018, the European Union will celebrate the European Year of Cultural Heritage for the first time.

This celebration of cultural heritage will coincide with the final phase of the SPAR Project's two years of work on curricula for culture volunteers in sparsely populated areas.

Cultural heritage is the fabric of our lives and societies. It surrounds us in the buildings of our towns and cities and is expressed through natural landscapes and archaeological sites.

It is not only made up of literature, art and objects but also by the crafts we learn, the stories we tell, the food we eat and the films we watch.

Cultural heritage brings communities together and builds shared understandings of the places we live in. The digital world too, is transforming the way we access heritage.

The European Year of Cultural Heritage aims to:

• encourage people to explore Europe's rich and diverse cultural heritage
• celebrate, understand and protect its unique value
• reflect on the place that cultural heritage occupies in all our lives

European cultural heritage allows us to understand the past and to look to our future. By highlighting cultural heritage in 2018, we will emphasise:

• how it builds stronger societies
• how it creates jobs and prosperity
• its importance for our relations with the rest of the world
• what can be done to protect it