Discussion chaired by Karen Brookfield, Deputy Director, Heritage Lottery Fund.
Panelists were:
They discussed what sustainability actually means and how organisations can rise to the challenge of sustaining work with new audiences that goes beyond project limited funding.
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Workshop Leaders were:
This workshop was about demonstrating the value of our work in engaging new audiences in the heritage sector. The title ‘Prove it!’ was challenging, with the speakers saying that it is impossible to do this in the field in which we work. It’s about people and what influences them. We can never prove with certainty an absolute link between cause and effect.
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The delegates visiting Manchester Art Gallery were told by Helena Wetterberg, Community Interpretation Officer, that during MAG’s 4 year refurbishment and extension project they re-designed their displays and re-wrote their audience development strategy for newly-defined target groups - which include people with disabilities, black and minority ethnic communities and people from C2DE socio-economic groups. The general strategy has been to adopt a family friendly approach throughout all of the gallery’s work which will encourage visitors from all of these target audiences.
In her newly-created role, Helena told the group she has begun working on an “Opening up Collections” project, to explore new approaches to connect collections and audiences; including expanding their new website, increasing participation in collections-based work through setting up cross-disciplinary working groups and community consultation. They want to “increase participation with the collections and offer a sense of ownership” for the public in general and their target groups in particular. This is part of a national project funded by MLA’s Designation Challenge Fund.
Helena, and her colleague Liz Mitchell, showed the group examples of long-term displays that have been created with the direct involvement of relevant community groups - in selecting the objects to be displayed and how they’re displayed, interpreted and documented.
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Workshop leaders were:
This workshop contained a variety of opinions from practitioners and disabled people about how to provide ‘access for all’ to heritage. Case studies of projects and reactions to them helped to draw out personal experiences and opportunities to improve current practices and create new methods of developing access.
Exploring the definition of ‘access for all’ drew people away from a focus on physical disability and structural changes, to wider considerations of consultation, inclusion and involvement. Innovative approaches to staff training were considered. Using a site visit as a model for a training video, showing the whole visitor journey, was one idea, creating workshops led by disabled people to spread their knowledge and build understanding amongst staff and volunteers, was another.
Improving accessibility, put simply, makes sense and the involvement of disabled people on the panel, speaking from their own personal experience of disability, and of helping organisations improve their practices provided plenty of food for thought. ‘Nothing about us, without us’ was a strong theme and using this ethos to plan events and design accessibility improvements was an obvious way forward to creating a better solution. Disability organisations can be powerful allies and are happy to provide support – so ask!
As well as asking, a message was to build relationships with local disabled people by involving them in advisory groups. But, how to do this successfully, and keep disabled people coming back to help in many different projects can be a challenge, and was a question in this session. Where to go for help and support, how to strike a balance between conservation and access and is it all about a journey or is there a definite solution were others.
Developing understanding and building confidence go a long way to increasing access for all!
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Workshop Leaders were:
“Imagine you’re stood waiting with 200 kids…..on a harbour wall….waiting for a sailing ship to come in….you can see it in the distance…..but it isn’t getting any nearer….the children wave…..the crew wave back…the tides …no one has checked the tides….the boat can’t get any closer….the children wave….”
A lively session led by Professor Jonathan Drori, Miriam Levin, Ray Barker and Judith Garfield - packed with enough confessional to make your average ‘Take a Break’ reader blush.
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To follow.
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This was a practical workshop involving delegates and the following facilitators:
The principle aim of this workshop was to help those starting out in the field of community engagement by looking at ways to build staff, volunteer and community group confidence in order to ‘make things happen’.
Delegates broke up into facilitator led groups, then examined either a previously successful or imaginary project.
Factors involved in the planning of these projects would include:
One participant comment included, “almost always take longer to complete than you think they will, so this should be taken account of in timescale planning.”
From this rough outline, groups looked at what the high, medium or low priorities would be in the short, medium and long term, and what budget would be allocated to each area.
Some of the issues raised in the feedback were:
Heritage and Reconciliation in Bosnia - John Sell
Gospodin, Gospođa, dobar dan. Dobro došli u Manchesteru in međunarodi radionica.
If you have any idea what I just said – congratulations you understood four languages simultaneously. Three of those languages are spoken in Bosnia Herzegovina. 1 state, 2 entities, 4 religions, 11 cantons, 14 ministries of culture, 3 so-called ethnic groups in the most genetically homogenous country in Europe.
Welcome to Bosnia Herzegovina – post war, post Dayton Agreement. A country where attempts were made to assert one version of history by the bullet and where other versions were defended with the knife. A country where heritage is political with a very large P.
Jajce stands at the confluence of the Pliva and the Vrbaš. Rather it stands where the Pliva river plunges over a waterfall and causes eddies and whirlpools in the Vrbaš river 20 metres below. This is a place where the bucolic Pliva and its tributaries divide in to a myriad of streamlets running through woodland
The streams running through meadows and harnessed by tiny mills until they unite rapidly and vigorously with the forceful Vrbaš constrained in its gorge below.
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Young adults have researched the history of Birkenhead through the lives of people buried in Flaybrick Cemetery, a place of national heritage. These stories have been turned into a performance, driven by the Ed Muse Steering Group, an educational project. Brian McCann, of the Active Drama Group, and Ranger Nick Harding, also helped in the project.
The Chair of Ed Muse, Don Williamson, introduced the project and gave some background to it, discussing how funding comes from the Heritage Lottery Fund ‘Young Roots’ bid. Over fifty 15 to 20 year old young people were involved, mainly in the 14 to 17 years age group.
Click to download a statement from Don Williamson or press play below:
Some of the partnerships also involved in the project include the following bodies:
Some of the objectives of the programme included:
Barriers requiring consideration included:
Some of the outcomes and impact of the Flaybrick project include:
Oliver, a young person, talked about being involved with Ed Muse and his particular interest in the environmental project. He thinks youth involvement is essential in English Heritage and in encouraging young people to take an interest in their surroundings.
Projects such as this give young people something to do and a sense of community inclusion, important as ‘Young people are the future’.
Brian McCann finishes by talking about the inspiration amongst the community that Flaybrick has engendered.
Click to download Anna Green (student) explain her connection to the project or press play below:
Click to download Rebecca Gillies (student) explain her connection to the project or press play below:
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To follow.
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