On Monday 11th December Simon Thurley, Chief Executive of English Heritage, will be taking your questions in an interactive audio podcast – the first in our occasional series of ‘Your Place or Mine? Debates’
Following on from the successful ‘Your Place or Mine? Engaging New Audiences with Heritage’ Conference, here’s your chance to ask Simon about his views on involving communities in the historic environment and how we can take on board different personal and cultural views of heritage.
The podcast is a means for you to have direct a direct interaction with Simon, either by leaving questions below (click on ‘Join the debate’) or leaving your own voice message on
020 7 193 2807
If calling, remember to leave your name and organisation, so we know who you are. Those leaving their questions as voice will have the question incorporated directly into the podcast!
Thedeadline for questions Friday 8th Dec. The podcast will go live on the blog on Tuesday 12th December. Once up, do feel free to extend the conversation by leaving further comments on the blog. It’s also an opportunity for the community at large to debate Simon’s answers!
Who else do you have burning questions for? Email us back at this address with names of other people you’d like to engage with!
The final words came from Maria Adebowale, Director of Capacity Global.
She highlighted conference threads; that the heritage sector does have a social responsibility and engaging wider audiences is going to be difficult, but the more strands existent within English heritage, the richer it becomes.
The work required is about “our place” and addressing diversity, which is gender, race, disability, accent, region, how people define themselves and many other things. Additionally it includes mutuality and the removal of associated barriers.
Thanks were given to all those who have participated in making the conference work.
Yasmin Alibhai-Brown is an author, broadcaster and weekly columnist for the Independent and Evening Standard.
“Africans were in Britain long before the English were”, (Peter Fryer) was quotedto make the point that people are shocked by this as they don’t realise that Africans migrated to the UK along with the Romans.
Peter Fryer was someone who attempted to change and challenge the truth about black and Asian history in Britain. There’s also an untold story of Islamic slavery; in the first century after Islam, slaves were taken from the east African coast and “mercilessly abused,”. Telling one side of the story is wrong.
The next challenge is more than inclusion - it’s a very difficult conversation about history and heritage and the good and bad of it. The questions are not simply who we are and who owns our heritage, but all the tribes in our country need to ask:
“Would we be who we are without deep interactions with one another?”
Living in the West has given us freedoms, allowed us to open up our lives. Now is the time to ask some interesting questions about being open to each other.
Contrasting opinions of Britishness exist within ‘New Labour’ which need to be addressed:
David Lammy’s view as spoken about at the conference.
And Gordon Brown’s version, as mediated through the press.
Discussion of heritage should be approached in terms of its widest interpretation. When we buy into a collective heritage and explore it for what it is, we can understand so much more.
Click to download a soundbite from Yasmin or press play below:
Her speech highlighted relevant points made by David Lammy yesterday, making it clear diversity was a crucial issue.
Who owns history?
We need to say to people that your history is equal to mine.
“It’s also to tell what might be painful histories, and recognising what’s important to those people who have experienced difficult history.”
“I talk about heritage about being who we are and belonging. But the point about us all belonging to one community doesn’t ring true – we belong to more than one community and have more than one story. I’m a black woman from Yorkshire, there is more than one community.”
There is hope that the debate later in the morning will really look at the issues involved and find some answers.
The work of the heritage sector will be about the development of partnerships and recognising that work of other departments and projects are interconnected with our own.
The Baroness Lola Young addresses the audience, introducing proceedings.
She talks about the range of activity that comes under the banner of heritage, including where the notions of having shared heritage come from.
Lola talks about the push for extending education, which sat alongside ‘packaged heritage attractions’ twenty years ago, and how society is moving on from that.
How do we bring people together to have a sense of collective identity without having a ‘soupy bland mixture?’
Mindset is also as important as resources to achieve the aims of the project and conference
How can you develop tools in your workplace?
What are the real, practical tools needed in order to get to grips with the challenges faced by those working in the sector?
In her own words, click to download or press play below.
The conference begins with a welcome and introduction from Miriam Levin, Head of Outreach at English Heritage, and Stefan Wathan, Head of Community and Youth Involvement at The National Trust.
They discuss the programme contents and the work of the English Heritage Outreach Team, and the projects they have produced over the last three years.
They talk of what people have told them they needed and how the project meets those needs, as well as how the conference is to address the issues and questions that are asked.
Miriam hopes over the next two days, the conference will look at the broader topics around engaging new audiences.
Stefan takes the stage and discusses the background of the National Trust and the groups and projects they are increasingly involved in, such as varied learning programmes and work with community-based volunteers.
He talks about the funding streams and support coming to the National Trust and English Heritage project.
“People matter in history, and therefore the work of the English Heritage project matters.”
Miriam ends the speech saying thank you to those involved.
We interviewed them before the conference started and this is what they had to say.
Miriam Levin. Click to download or press play below.
Stefan Wathan. Click to download or press play below.
Just returned from the venue whilst set up was taking place. For those who haven’t seen Manchester Town Hall, here it is. If there’s time tommorow, I’ll try to post some images from inside.
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?”
Heritage.
