Aparna Tandon
Aparna Tandon is Project Manager and Leader of the First Aid to Cultural Heritage in Times of Crisis Programme at ICCROM’s Collections Unit. Aparna specialises in crisis response and disaster risk management for cultural heritage. As a Project Manager at ICCROM, she is coordinating its international capacity development programme on Disaster Risk Management and leading its flagship initiative on First Aid to Cultural Heritage in Times of Crisis.
Additionally, she leads the SOIMA (Sound and Image Collections Conservation) programme aimed at safeguarding endangered audio-visual heritage. In the past, she has contributed to the planning and implementation of Teamwork for Integrated Emergency Management, a collaborative training initiative of ICCROM. She has led post-event damage and risk assessments, emergency response and in-crisis training in Northern Iraq (2017), Myanmar (2016), Nepal (2015, 2016), Philippines (2013), and Haiti (2010).
Through ICCROM-ATHAR regional centre in Sharjah, she has held workshops and field schools for protecting heritage in conflict-afflicted countries including Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Egypt and Iraq. Additionally, she has trained military personnel, civil protection teams and humanitarians for providing first aid to cultural heritage during emergencies.
Aparna has authored several papers and publications. Her recent handbooks on Endangered Heritage: Emergency Evacuation of Heritage Collections and First Aid to Cultural Heritage in Times of Crisis are being translated in multiple languages including Arabic, French, Spanish, Japanese and Russian. Aparna has an MA in Art Conservation from the National Museum Institute, India. She has received advanced level training in Paper Conservation from the Straus Center for Conservation, Harvard University Art Museums, USA.
