The Universitat de València has been awarded the Great Europa Nostra Award for the research project on the computational intelligent system Silknow, conducted by the vice-rector of Culture and Society, Ester Alba, who has recently received the award from Queen Sofía. The organization Hispania Nostra has recognised the trajectory of excellence in cultural heritage thanks to SILKNOW, a research project that enhances our understanding, conservation, and dissemination of silk heritage in Europe from the 15th to the 19th century. It applies state-of-the-art technology to the needs of museums, professors, tourism, and the creative industry to preserve the artistic heritage associated with silk.
In 1978, Europa Nostra, a European federation for the defense of heritage, led by a civil movement in Europe for the protection, dissemination, and enjoyment of its cultural and natural heritage, created annual awards, organized by Hispania Nostra in Spain, to acknowledge exceptional initiatives for the conservation of heritage, both public and private. What started as recognition programs by a European NGO has turned into the Europa Nostra Awards, launched by the European Commission and conducted by Europa Nostra.
The awards ceremony of the Hispania Nostra Awards for Good Practices in Cultural and Natural Heritage and the Europa Nostra Awards granted to Spanish candidates that were given in 2022, 2023, and 2024 took place in La Farm Studio. Real Sitio de San Ildefonso (Segovia). The awards were given by Queen Sofía. Ester Alba was accompanied by the project co-directors: Cristina Portalés y Marcos Fernández.
Silknow, in a project included in Horizonte 2020, through a computational intelligent system, manages to go beyond the current technologies to enhance our understanding of the European silk legacy. The project implements a new generation of ICTs that looks for the users’ needs in different fields, like museums.
The jury’s decision emphasises, among the reasons to grant this award, that “Silknow has created an innovative system that facilitates the transfer of knowledge regarding silk fabric production. This project represents an important example of how craftsmanship, and therefore immaterial heritage, can be linked to digital tools, and how these tools can be used to democratise access to technical knowledge. The project’s machine learning thesaurus is particularly interesting and has the potential to be applied in other research areas.
The awarded people with Queen Sofía. © Casa de S.M. el Rey.
Ester Alba Pagán, vice-rector of Culture and Society, (Valencia, 1974), is a senior lecturer of the Department of Art History of the Universitat de València. Graduate of Geography and History, with a specialty and a doctorate in Art History from the Universitat de València. She was given a special Bachelor’s degree and Doctorate award from the Universitat de València and an Academic Recognition Award from La Generalitat de València. She has been recognised for five six-year term researches and five lustra for teaching.
Her research activity focuses on the study and analysis of museology, museography, and art criticism, with special attention to contemporary art and cultural heritage linked to the exchange and dissemination of ideas and knowledge, with a focus on visual arts and gender perspective.
Throughout her trajectory, she has published books, book chapters, and numerous articles in specialised magazines; she has conducted research projects centred around raising awareness regarding art made by women; and she is a member of a national interuniversity team devoted to recovering art made by female Spanish artists (1804-1939).
In the field of cultural heritage, she is the head researcher of various European projects. She has directed seven doctoral theses and more than fifty degree and master final dissertations. She has also done research stays at the Spanish National Research Council, the Ledoux Centre of Paris, the Hispanic Society (New York), and in universities like Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, Laval (Canada), Naples Federico II, and Palermo.
