Jutta Weber »The holistic approach to connect Earth history, Nature, Culture and Arts – examples from the UNESCO Global Geopark Bergstrasse-Odenwald (Germany)«
As member of the executive board of the UNESCO Geopark Bergstrasse-Odenwald (Germany), Jutta Weber is responsible for geosciences, geo-education and public relations. Educated in geology and natural sciences, she worked for several years as geoscientist in academia (University of Cologne), and as expert for natural dimension stones and their connection to history and culture. Her special concern is strongly connected with the Geoparks´ philosophy: to combine Earth history, nature, culture and arts as holistic approach bringing together different aspects and disciplines. In the frame of the 3rd International “Waldkunstpfad” which was entitled as “laboratory”, she cooperated as scientific counterpart of Joachim Kuhlmann, a German painter and sculptor, within the project “Point de Vue”.
Geoparks are areas with a unique combination of Earth history, natural history and culture. They are dedicated to providing new ways of enjoying nature, discovering the landscape and generating and strengthening an interest in the history and in the future of our planet. Enjoying nature in a very special way, learning how the Earth has changed over millions of years and connecting this special experience with arts has the potential to create a huge informative and experimental playground. Besides a wide range of programmes in geo-education and geo-adventure, the Geopark performes special events, which combine different scientific disciplines by arts installations like “stone and wood”, “stone-music”, “open air arts and music festival in a 250 million years old river bed” or “granite and sandstone sculpture path”. In addition there are several cooperation projects like “wood arts” with the “Internationaler Waldkunstpfad” from Ute Ritschel, and the “public paining festival” in the Global Geopark Psiloritis (Crete). Understanding the past as key for sustainable development of the future – this is the potential for Geoparks presenting Earth/Natural science, Culture and Arts as an ongoing discovery into time and space.
