IOV Youth Asia announces  the First IOV Youth-Asia Congress, which is going to take place in Sarawak, Malaysia. Folk art and culture, intangible heritage, tradition and their applications in the 21st Cen­tury are the subjects that will inspire discussions, workshops and lectures during this week-long meeting. IOV Youth are professionals and students seeking new ideas and fresh approaches to their work as teachers, arts administrators, handicraft counsellors and artists. They are also amateur hobbyists and students, whose interests include storytelling, singing, weaving and dancing. IOV Youth are brought together by a shared interest in folk art. Friendships are built and networks established that will last a lifetime; and when the IOV Youth Congress concludes, IOV Youth will have a better appreciation of folk art as a tool to build bridges to cultures and people.

The 2014 Congress will focus on the issues and relationships of traditional food and life:

• Intangible Cultural Heritage of Food (Traditional Cultures, Religions, Medicine, etc.)
• UNESCO Mandate on the Intangible Cultural Heritage and Why We Should Protect It
• Shaping a New Narrative for Globalization, Consumption and Mass Production in the Global Economy
• IOV is a worldwide organization of individuals and institutions working to document, preserve, and promote all forms of folk art, both tangible and intangible.
• IOV sponsors national and international folk art festivals, as well as cultural exchanges of performing artists and visual art. Through scientific and pedagogical symposia and workshops, IOV supports scholarly research, documentation, and publication on a board range of topics relating to folk art and folk culture.
• The UNESCO 2003 Convention on the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, with its emphasis on research and documentation, and the 2005 Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions, provide the foundation for IOV programs and projects.