Funded by Arcadia & hosted by the University of Cambridge, MAEASaM builds detailed inventories of endangered archaeological sites across 11 African countries, supporting heritage authorities as they confront threats like urbanization, resource extraction, conflict, & climate change.
"Constructing Heritage Databases: A Case Study of the Arches Platform" will cover structuring data using the CIDOC-CRM, the creation and use of controlled vocabularies, and heritage database creation. It will also feature a live demo of the MAEASaM database.
🌍 The MAEASaM team will deliver an Arches workshop at the Association of Southern African Professional Archaeologists (ASAPA) 2026 Conference in Mpumalanga, South Africa on 5 July 2026.
Learn more: asapa2026.co.za/
#ASAPA2026
🏛️ The database serves as the City’s centralized inventory & management system, drawing on existing & newly updated historic resource surveys.
This initiative reflects West Hollywood’s commitment to transparency, accessibility, & long-term stewardship.
🌴 Who Is Using Arches?
The City of West Hollywood has launched a new Arches implementation as part of its Historic Preservation website—improving public access to info on the City’s cultural & historic resources.
🔗 Learn more & explore the database: bit.ly/wehopreservation
Learn how the San Francisco Planning Department, the Florida Public Archaeology Network (FPAN), and the Los Angeles Planning Department are using Arches to inventory historic resources, to record impacts to them, and to prepare for and respond to natural disasters.
Join us this summer for the presentation “Arches: Inventories for Disaster Preparedness and Response” on July 26 at the National Alliance of Preservation Commissions (NAPC) FORUM 2026 conference in Minneapolis, MN, USA.
Register today: forum.napcommissions...
💬Post on the Arches Forum with the #geospatial tag to share your Arches mapping work with & learn from others in the community: community.archesproj...
Attend future Arches community group meetings to participate in & deliver presentations! archesproject.org/co...
▶️ Recording now available: watch a demo of various ways to utilize the Arches ArcGISPro integration, presented at a recent US Interest Group meeting by Adam Lodge and Peter Hansen of Farallon Geographics.
The call for presentation or discussion proposals will close on April 10. More information about Sheffield, UK, the event venue & future agenda can be found on the event website.
Follow this Arches Community Forum thread for additional updates:
📢 Are you a technical professional in the Arches community, want to share or learn about in-progress work & meet fellow developers? Register for the 2026 Developer Meeting & Hackathon hosted by Knowledge Integration in Sheffield, June 8-12: arches-developer-mee...
The Getty Conservation Institute is #hiring a Head, Arches Initiative role:
◆ Engage global Arches stakeholders
◆ Oversee progressive software implementation
◆ Lead team initiatives
Priority to applications before April 3. Contact Bridge Partners LLC for info: bit.ly/GCI-arches-leadership
🌏Who is Using Arches?
The MAHSA project is using Arches to identify and document archaeological heritage sites across India and Pakistan. Learn how the project provides open access to georeferenced historic Survey of India maps below:
Get an introduction to Arches Lingo, an upcoming Arches application for managing cultural heritage terminologies, presented by Phil Carlisle of Historic England:
bit.ly/CAA-UK25_4
Learn more about the Mapping Archaeological Heritage in South Asia (MAHSA) project with a demonstration of their Arches implementation, also funded by Arcadia and and based at the University of Cambridge, presented by Rebecca Roberts (University of Cambridge):
bit.ly/CAA-UK25_3
Watch a demonstration of the Mapping Africa’s Endangered Archaeological Sites and Monuments project (MAEASaM) database, an Arches implementation funded by Arcadia and based at the University of Cambridge, presented by Stefania Merlo and the MAEASaM team:
▶️ Video recordings of the “Intro to Arches” workshop delivered at the #CAAUK2025 conference in Cambridge, UK on Dec 9 are now available!
Get started with a beginner’s technical overview to setting up an Arches instance, presented by Jack Tomaney (University of Cambridge):
Watch a demonstration of the Mapping Africa’s Endangered Archaeological Sites and Monuments project (MAEASaM) database, an Arches implementation funded by Arcadia and based at the University of Cambridge, presented by Stefania Merlo and the MAEASaM team:
📢 Reminder! The Arches UK Interest Group will meet this Thurs, March 26, 12–1 PM GMT with presentations on debugging the Arches command-line interface and the Arches QGIS plugin.
More details and Zoom link on the Arches Project Community Forum: bit.ly/uk-interest-g...
Arches Project consultant Mike Heyworth will be at the table at regular intervals—come say hello!
Register for CAA by March 25: 2026.caaconference.org/
Arches Project will be exhibiting at #CAA2026 in Vienna from March 31–April 3! Visit our table to learn more about Arches and pick up project materials and swag.
Arches v7.6.22 has also been released, which provides a few important bug fixes. Visit the Arches Community Forum for release notes: bit.ly/arches-v-7-6-22
Additionally, a patch release for Arches v8.0.10 is available. Further information can be found on the Arches Community Forum: bit.ly/arches-v-8-0-10
🖥️ NEW RELEASE: Arches v8.1.0. Features in this release relate to flexible semantic model design, permission frameworks, bulk data editor capability & more.
A full list of enhancements & bug fixes in v8.1.0 can be found on the Arches Community Forum:
🎯 2026 priorities include…
Drafting an Arches Project AI statement
Launching an online Arches registry
Advancing an Arches web accessibility proposal
Defining components of upcoming Arches LTS release
Read the full blog post to learn more: bit.ly/arches-blog-2...
In Nov 2025, the Getty Conservation Institute hosted Arches Governance Members from 13 international institutions—the first in‑person gathering since Arches Governance launched. Participants (including hybrid attendees) strengthened processes and agreed to shared goals for 2026 and beyond.
As a reminder, all are welcome to participate in the Arches Modeling Interest Group meetings, regardless of technical or modeling experience. Watch the previous meeting’s recording here:
Take part in the Arches Modeling Interest Group meeting on March 31 at 8am PDT / 4pm BST for an overview and discussion of modeling training resources, including the upcoming Arches Designer interactive demo. More info:
Priority will be given to applicants who apply by April 3, although applications will continue to be reviewed until the position is filled.
Getty has partnered with Bridge Partners LLC on this search. Learn more about the opportunity here:
Successful applicants will strategically identify areas for technical alignment & engage key stakeholders within the global Arches community. As a department head, this role also requires experience in fostering & leading team initiatives & supporting professional development.