INTO on the European Exchange Programme: members join forces to improve access
The Staff Exchange in European Cultural Heritage Trusts (SEECHT) project offers practitioners from within the INTO family the opportunity to share their learning and contribute to a more open and welcoming European heritage sector.
Having learnt from their neighbouring trusts, participants will deliver projects that broaden access to all segments of the European public, whilst also welcoming members of heritage trusts from other countries as part of our INTO Places programme.
A toolkit, to be shared widely among European heritage organisations and policy makers, will capture the incredible strength of variety possessed by European heritage trusts, and provide the blueprint for continued collaboration between project participants.
The project is led by the Czech National Trust, working closely with INTO and partner organisations Herita in Flanders, National Trust for Scotland, National Trust of England, Wales and Northern Ireland, FAI Fondo Ambiente Italiano and the National Trust of Slovakia.
Interview with Vít Lukas for TV Architekt
Mgr. A. Vít Lukas, Czech architect and CNT board member, was interviewed by one of our patrons, professor Zdeněk Lukeš, for TV Architekt. “My father was an architect… and I loved castles and chateaus,” said Vít in response to why he became an architect himself. His final diploma thesis was on the subject of the northern foreground of the Prague Castle and one of the thesis readers was the former Czech president, Václav Havel, who really liked Lukas’ design.
The interview is available online.
We welcome a new member of the CNT top team, Amanda Tully

Amanda Tully
Amanda grew up in Denver, Colorado, USA and has Czech ancestors. She fell in love with Moravia while volunteering at the CNT working party on our project in Zdislavice. After she finished her studies she moved to Zlín and offered CNT her help. Amanda earned a BA in Art and History of Architecture from the Metropolitan University of Denver and a Historic Preservation Master from the University of Oregon. Amanda will lead our volunteer activities and will jointly manage our key project of the tomb and chapel of Maria von Ebner-Eschenbach in Zdislavice.
Her first visit to Europe was a typical college student’s trip, with nothing but a backpack, a two-week timeline, and a plan to see as much as possible. After her visit, she was inspired by the vast history of architecture in the European capitals and this is what pushed her to apply for the master’s program in Oregon. During her master’s studies she again visited Europe, this time to Kroměříž, in cooperation with the Czech National Trust as a work-study experience.
It was during this summer working holiday that she fell in love with Czech history and culture. Her family ancestry also stems from Bohemia, so her connection with this land has deep roots. She quickly decided that her goal would be to move to the Czech Republic and fully experience all it had to offer. She achieved that goal and moved there in 2017. She currently lives in Zlín among the functionalist architecture of Tomáš Baťa.
After getting settled into life in a foreign country, she refocused her attention on involvement with the historic landscape of the Czech Republic and again reached out to CNT. After reconnecting with the organization, she was offered the opportunity to manage and organize the volunteer work at the CNT flagship project on the Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach family tomb. She is motivated and enthusiastic to help carry on the legacy of the organization that helped to bring her halfway around the world.
CNT launches the Staff Exchanges in European Cultural Heritage Trusts Project with the support of the ERASMUS+ Programme
Czech National Trust (CNT) is delighted to announce that the Staff Exchanges in European Cultural Heritage Trusts (SEECHT) Project is going to launch in just two weeks. This unique project will be supported and funded by the ERASMUS+ Programme with a grant of 71 653 Euros.
CNT is the main coordinator of the entire project which will launch on December 7, 2020, and which will run for 18 months until June 6, 2022. Partners of the SEECHT Project are various European trusts, namely the International National Trusts Organisation (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland), Národný Trust n.o. (Slovakia), Herita (Belgium), Fondo Ambiente Italiano (Italy) a National Trust for Scotland (Scotland).
The project will start with a kick off meeting in Kroměříž, a town in the Zlín region of the Czech Republic not far from Zdislavice and the Memorial to Marie von Ebner-Eschnebach. Among other main SEECHT Project activities are the project output sharing meeting, along with the bi-annual INTO Antwerp Conference Day in March 2021, which attracts participants from more than 70 countires worldwide.
And what are the main goals of the Staff Exchanges in European Cultural Heritage Trusts Project? It offers opportunities for professionals from within the National Trust movement to share their learning and contribute to a more open and welcoming European heritage sector, and delivers a system of secondments for Europe’s future leaders of heritage trusts, offering on-the-job training by shadowing their contemporaries in other European contexts. Having learnt from their neighbouring trusts, participants will deliver projects that broaden access to all segments of the European public, whilst also welcoming members of heritage trusts from other countries as part of the reciprocal visiting programme.

Memorial to Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach, Photo by Jakub Šnajdr, Source: Meeting Brno