The Big Debates are all about the big issues. Why engage new audiences? What’s in it for them? What’s in it for society? What’s in it for us?

Thursday’s debate will explore whose voices we’re listening to when we talk about heritage. Who dictates what’s acceptable and what’s not? Does this have an impact on society at large?

On Friday, the verbal scrap continues……. to decide whether heritage should have a social responsibility.

• Can heritage and culture make a difference to people’s lives, particularly those who are most excluded?
• Can inclusiveness be fostered, or is it something brought about by wider society?
• Should limited resources be directed towards existing problems with our historic buildings, or is widening access a necessity to safeguard heritage for the future?
• We’ve often heard about ‘Corporate Social Responsibility’. What does ’social responsibility’ mean for us as heritage practitioners?

We want to hear your views!

Just click on ‘Join the debate’ to have your say!!

If you could have a ‘One to One’ with David Lammy, Minister for Culture,  what would you say to him?

Just click on ‘Join the debate’ to have your say!!

With several panel discussions, there’s too much to say here. That said, here’s something to be thinking about.

• Should heritage be re-defined to move beyond the traditional stately home and castle?

With such a diverse range of people living in England, does the definition need extending?

Music? Memory? Graffiti?

Does heritage extend to language itself?

Just click on ‘Join the debate’ to have your say!!

This is about the practical as well as the theoretical. If you’re setting up a community heritage project, the conference has loads of workshops aimed at practitioners to trouble-shoot their projects and expand their skills. You’ll be able to download handouts from this site soon.

What challenges do you face? Maybe there are others with the same problems? Use this space to expose your challenges and ‘let the healing begin’!

Just click on ‘Join the debate’ to have your say!!

The Exhibition Space is a platform for organisations to showcase their work.

Got something you’d like to show off? A web link to your project? Why not tell us about it.

Innovative case studies are being shared at the conference by the National Youth Agency, Halton Borough Council, English Heritage, the National Trust, Heritage Lottery Fund, DCMS, Capacity, The Gateways Garden Trust, the Peak District Interpretation Project and MLA West Midlands.

We’ll be interviewing selected exhibitors to see what they’re up to throughout the event.

Just click on ‘Join the debate’ to tell us about your work !!

A few surprises are on the way. Keep checking in to see what it’s all about.

The Conference

Your Place or Mine? was a major national conference taking place in Manchester 2nd – 3rd November 2006, run by English Heritage with the National Trust.

It was the first opportunity for policy makers and practitioners to come together to discuss the issue and share good practise around engaging new audiences with heritage, in particular by people who traditionally feel excluded from participation, including Black and Ethnic Minority groups, young people, people on low incomes and people with disabilities.

Both days were packed with debates and discussions, exploring the big questions that broadening access to heritage challenges us to explore: whose story are we telling? Do we need to redefine ‘heritage’? What do roots, identity and sense of place mean in today’s society? 

There were also twenty practical workshops led by experts from community groups, and heritage, arts and cultural organisations. These cover topics from how to engage young people with heritage to involving communities in re-interpreting historic properties, from understanding the needs of different social and cultural groups to embedding culture change across organisations.
 
Delegates could experience sites visit in Manchester, performances, a poet-in-residence and Exhibition Space where organisations showcased interesting and innovative case studies.

The Blog

This Event Blog is both a record of events as they happen at the conference – the key debates and lessons learnt in the workshops – and your chance to join in both during and after the event itself.

Whether or not you attended the conference, you can still add your thoughts, points of view and questions on key issues through the ‘Join the Debate’ button at the end of each post.

Through this site, we hope that Your Place or Mine? will have a lasting legacy which goes beyond the two day event in Manchester and will be a useful resource for everyone interested in engaging new audiences with heritage.

The Future

This blog site will be updated in the weeks following the conference, with more information from the workshops, including downloadable handouts, summaries of all sessions and audio/video interviews with key speakers.

We want this site to grow so if you would like us to link to your website or blog, please contact the editor.

Please do keep checking out the site and add your voice to the debates. Alternatively, receive automatic updates by entering your email address in the ‘updates’ feature to the right of this post.

Note to people posting on the Blog

The aim of this blog is to report on events and comments. If you feel that your comments have been misrepresented in the editorial postings please inform the editor so an appropriate correction can be published. In the event of genuine error, we will publish a correction. We do not moderate reader comments to editorial posts. If an incorrect comment has been submitted there is an automatic right of reply/correction by submitting a subsequent comment.

And finally, please leave your ideas through ‘Join the debate’ to the opening question, “What more can be done to represent everyone’s heritage?”

Miriam Levin

Head of Outreach

English Heritage

yourplace@english-heritage.org.uk