YOUR PLACE OR MINE? - 1st Ever National Debate Asks: “Is Your Heritage Being Represented?”

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What more could be done to represent everybody’s heritage, and particularly that of minority communities? This is the question being asked today (Thursday 2 November), as cultural and community leaders meet at the 1st national conference to debate whose story is being told by the heritage sector, challenge the traditional ways of presenting heritage and ask whether the definition of heritage could be wider.

The two-day, sell-out conference Your Place or Mine?, hosted by English Heritage and the National Trust, offers hundreds of people from community, cultural, and heritage organisations a chance to influence policy, swap ideas on reaching wider audiences and champion the work being done in involving local communities in the historic environment.  The conference features spokespeople such as Billy Bragg, David Lammy MP, columnist Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, and Baroness Lola Young.

Maria Adebowale, English Heritage Commissioner and Chair of the conference, said: “The definition of heritage is beginning to widen and become about ordinary people -the places and buildings that are significant to them and their own past.  Now heritage has begun to be enriched by ideas like identity and a sense of place.

“We hope that events like this can help alter the viewpoints from which historic stories are told - so that we can best represent all the strands of this country’s history and heritage.  It’s time for people to have their say and tell heritage bodies what’s important to them.”

Any member of the public who wishes to register their views on what heritage means to them and how it should be celebrated can reach the whole heritage sector at any time by leaving a message on the History Matters campaign website at www.historymatters.org.uk . 

Simon Murray, Director of Operations for The National Trust, said: "The challenge for many in the sector is to appeal to new audiences, stretch the boundaries of traditional views of heritage and take time to cement these new relationships – though achieving this with limited budgets and busy staff can be tough. But it is worth it, especially if we want heritage organisations to flourish with fresh ideas and new groups of enthusiastic supporters. This conference provides the just opportunity we need to share ideas and look towards a way forward for the sector."

English Heritage’s Outreach Team currently work with more than 50,000 people per year on creative community-based heritage projects.  Projects are developed with people who have not traditionally had easy access to heritage: people from black and minority ethnic communities, people with disabilities, people on low incomes and young people.  Each Outreach project is created around the ideas of the people involved and so participants have discovered an interest in heritage though arts-based projects such as photography, film and drama, and have gained new skills in areas such as traditional crafts, archaeology, leading tours, putting on exhibitions or recording oral history.

Deepening the involvement of all people in the historic environment is also core to the work of the National Trust.  Through engagement with built properties and natural landscapes, people can be inspired to actively participate in heritage visits and activities. A network of property managers, wardens, community, learning and volunteering staff the National Trust are taking forward its engagement with diverse groups of people. Arts projects, learning activities, walks, talks and practical skills programmes, and the development of new interpretations through dialogue with communities, are demonstrating the meaning and value of heritage to a wider audience.

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