Breaking down barriers to nature for young Black people
Page last updated: 13 July 2022
The environment is not exclusive, in fact its very essence is inclusive.
Not only because it is quite an unusual career choice, but because I’m a young Black woman aspiring to do what some people in both Black and non-Black communities might consider to be a “White thing” to do.
Thankfully, that hasn’t deterred me. But it could be very damaging and discouraging for other young Black people who might want to follow a similar path.
I’m 26 years old, I was born in South Yorkshire, but have lived in Greater London most of my life. My heritage is African-Caribbean. I’ve been in awe of the natural world ever since I can remember and my mum and sisters have always encouraged and supported my enthusiasm, which helped me to get where I am today – even when I felt like the oddball of the family.
My journey to the wildlife sector
There was definitely a lack of Black people in the environmental spotlight. It was only as I got older, that I realised the extent.
I aspired to work in wildlife conservation when I learned that it was a viable career by watching documentaries and doing my own research. Major inspirations were, Sir David Attenborough, Steve Backshall, Gordon Buchanan and Dr. Andrea Marshall. But there was definitely a lack of Black people in the environmental spotlight. It was only as I got older, that I realised the extent of that as a problem.
In 2016, I graduated university with a First-Class honours degree in Animal Behaviour and Wildlife Conservation. I was hoping to find a job in the environmental sector, but kept falling short of having enough experience or I wouldn’t even get a response back from graduate scheme roles.
Volunteering is always heavily pushed as one of the sure ways to get into the sector, but I often found I couldn’t afford to dedicate my time to it. There were internships and placements that I desperately wanted to apply for, but couldn’t because they were either unpaid, offered expenses that couldn’t support me, or weren’t flexible enough for me to work a paid job alongside. In an already competitive industry, I was at even more of a disadvantage than my peers.
There were times when it made me think that perhaps I didn’t belong in the world of wildlife conservation.
The Keeping it Wild project
One day I spotted the paid traineeships offered through London Wildlife Trust’s Keeping it Wild project, which launched in late 2018. The project is delivered in partnership with London Youth, Headliners UK and John Muir Trust, and is funded by The National Lottery Heritage Fund.
The traineeship seemed to be everything I needed to gain more practical conservation experience, whilst being paid (which was rare), and getting to work for London Wildlife Trust.
The emphasis on encouraging people from under-represented backgrounds (particularly young people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds) into the sector stood out for me because I knew it was a White-dominated sector. The recognition of the disproportionate lack of Black and Asian people in the sector, and actively trying to change that, was special.
I applied for the third trainee cohort and was successful, which was beyond exciting! The three months that followed were so eye-opening and life-changing for me.
As my traineeship was coming to an end, a vacancy at London Wildlife Trust opened up. I was encouraged by colleagues within the Trust and by my family to go for it, though I was doubtful I’d have enough experience. But lo and behold, I got the position!
The recognition of the disproportionate lack of Black and Asian people in the sector, and actively trying to change that, was special.
I am now one of two Great North Wood Project Officers at the London Wildlife Trust. The project focuses on woodland restoration and community engagement in south London’s Great North Wood landscape, and it is also funded by The National Lottery Heritage Fund. It’s a beautiful mix of interacting with people and wildlife, and it’s wonderful!
For me, the beauty of the Great North Wood is its existence in an urban setting, making it possible to walk off a busy road and be suddenly surrounded by the calmness of trees and the melodies of birds – it’s magical!
Black people connecting with nature
There’s sometimes a blanket narrative that Black people aren’t interested in wildlife and conservation, which is an extremely ignorant assumption to make. Of course it might not be everyone’s cup of tea, and I don’t profess to speak for all Black people. But I can say with confidence that Black people are interested in the environment, and I am a testament to that.
"Nature is for all and we should all be free to experience it positively."
I believe that for Black people, being at one with nature is ancestral and it is a connection that is inherently within us. Being in nature helps to nurture an aspect of self-identity and belonging in the world, despite the many messages that tell us we don’t belong. Climate Change is already adversely impacting our ancestral homelands in ways that it might not immediately be affecting areas in the “western world”. As people of the African diaspora, it is important to be aware of that.
Given that Black communities are at comparatively higher risk of poor mental health, for many reasons that often come down to a succession of systematic inequality, access to nature can serve as a coping mechanism and a tool for boosting wellbeing. It’s therefore super important for that connection to nature to be encouraged from a young age.
Having worked with young Black people through my role at the Trust and beyond, I’ve witnessed instances where negative perceptions of nature turn to enthusiasm and wonder when individuals are given the opportunity to experience it.
Nature is for all and we should all be free to experience it positively.
Encouraging young Black people into green spaces
I can’t possibly speak for everyone’s experiences, but I would say, in general, Black people are not widely encouraged to connect with nature from a young age.
I spoke to someone recently who linked this back to when our relatives, like those of Windrush generation, came to the UK from the Caribbean. Many were forced to live in socioeconomically-deprived areas, “concrete jungles”, which in turn had less high-quality accessible greenspaces than more affluent areas.
Combined with the pressures and negativities that came with being introduced to a largely racist society, this eventually contributed to a severance with nature. For a lot of parents and guardians, encouraging a connection with nature became impossible, or certainly lower down on a long list of other priorities.
Speaking to my own mum, she said that when she was growing up, nature was mostly associated with the countryside, which was seen as very elitist. To an extent, this is still the case.
Engaging with nature can also be perceived as a pointless endeavour if there isn’t a way to generate income in the way that more “traditional” career choices do. For people who are at the mercy of an unbalanced society, financial security may be more of a priority than having the freedom to explore nature at leisure.
We should all respect each other’s ways of engaging with nature, and educate ourselves on why it is harder for some to engage than others.
This can be perpetuated by the education system too, which often doesn’t serve young Black people’s needs as it could, and many young people aren’t given the resources or support to be able to connect with nature.
We should all respect each other’s ways of engaging with nature, and educate ourselves on why it is harder for some to engage than others. Then go from there to find solutions to these often-societal issues.
Career barriers
It can make it hard to feel comfortable enough to be myself in a work setting – something that is exacerbated by constantly being in White-dominated spaces.
Other people’s various negative perceptions and scrutiny of a young Black girl wanting to be a wildlife conservationist didn’t throw me off course in the end, but they did chip away at my self-confidence. There were times when it made me think that perhaps it wasn’t the right direction for me and perhaps I didn’t belong in the world of wildlife conservation.
To this day, I’m still working to overcome imposter syndrome, which can be overwhelming at times. It can make it hard to feel comfortable enough to be myself in a work setting – something that is exacerbated by constantly being in White-dominated spaces.
I’m always thinking of ways that I can help to open more doors for other young Black people. It can be quite draining on top of just trying to live my life sometimes, but it has to be done. I volunteer with Action for Conservation, an organisation that is amazing at reaching young people from all backgrounds. I also love to discover Black-led environmental organisations and groups such as, Flock Together, POC in Nature, BAME Nature Group, Black Girls Hike, Land In Our Names and so many more!
Advice to the sector
The environment is not exclusive, in fact its very essence is inclusive. Young Black people have so much to give and we are well within our rights to claim spaces in this sector and make positive contributions to it. But the environmental sector needs to focus on dismantling the barriers that stop young Black people from accessing it.
It is not enough just to engage with young Black people and leave it at that. That doesn’t meet the long-term needs of those individuals, nor the sector that is crying out to be diversified for its survival.
It is not enough just to engage with young Black people and leave it at that, with boxes ticked and quotas filled. That doesn’t meet the long-term needs of those individuals, nor the sector that is crying out to be diversified for its survival. In order for people on the outside of the sector to see that a career in the environment can be for them, they need to see people who look like them.
Change is coming and there are more and more young Black people shining their light within the sector. There are so many amazingly inspirational “Black-tivists” and allies that are paving the way, and they empower me.
Advice to young Black people
As organisations do what is right, there will be more opportunities for you to make your own impact, and you certainly aren’t alone.
It’s not possible to save our natural world and exclude Black people at the same time.
We are facing a climate crisis that needs all hands on deck and that means young Black people too. It’s not possible to save our natural world and exclude Black people at the same time. So even if you are the only Black person in the room, you belong there just as much as anyone else and your voice is just as important as anyone else’s.
More from Chantelle
If you want to see more from Chantelle, you can watch some of her Wildlife Watch videos or catch her cameo appearance with Prince William in the ITV documentary, A Planet for Us All.
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Mental health and wellbeing for black workers in heritage
Page last updated: 13 July 2022
2020 has seen an increased focus and discussion on issues that particularly affect black people and communities across the UK. From the emotive and significant Black Lives Matter movement, to the disproportionately adverse effects of coronavirus (COVID-19) on those of black origin (as well as other minority ethnic groups).
As we discuss these issues and try to find solutions or seek advice, the impact on the mental health and wellbeing of our black peers and colleagues can sometimes be overlooked.
A black employee of a national museum shared their mental health and wellbeing experiences and those of their black colleagues over the last few months, as well as some advice.
A double-edged sword
“With COVID-19 and Black Lives Matter intersecting for all to see at a time when the world briefly stood still, diversity and inclusion has been given a much-needed shot in the arm. This topic which has generated an unprecedented amount of attention, has become a doubled-edged sword.
The reality is that learning about diversity and inclusion is a process which takes many forms and needs to be flexible enough to accommodate a varied cohort.
"On one side, the almost constant media attention has brought to the surface feelings that some individuals have long tried to suppress for fear of publicly working themselves into a state. On the other side, this topic has caused others to view everyone and everything as either an enabler or inhibitor of racial equality.
"The reality is that learning about diversity and inclusion is a process which takes many forms and needs to be flexible enough to accommodate a varied cohort."
Giving black workers a voice
"Given that the number of black workers within the museum sector remains low (particularly at senior levels), any attempts to create effective solutions should deliberately aim to seek out and incorporate the lived experiences of those being supported. Other approaches run the risk of marginalising minority voices even further.
Choosing whether to engage or not is a mental model that some black employees have to evaluate regularly.
"For those not fully confident in voicing their opinion, the only viable option may be to band together for legitimacy and collective security. Conversely, with such low numbers of representation within museums it can be much easier on occasions for black members to remain silent for fear of sabotaging their career.
"Choosing whether to engage or not is a mental model that some black employees have to evaluate regularly."
Work in progress
For some organisations in the sector, work is already underway to address improving and embedding diversity and inclusion within the workforce.
They continued: “It should be noted that even before the events of 2020 began to unfold, meaningful plans were well underway across the country to engage with this difficult topic.
"For example, the national museum which I’m employed by initiated a series of workshops for all its staff members covering topics such as unconscious bias and stress management.
"The museum also recognised the lack of diversity among its trustees and actively sought to address this by appointing two trustees from black, Asian, or minority ethnic groups. The museum even went a step further and reached out to its diversity working group to help source suitable applicants for the museum director role.
"The museum undoubtedly remains a great place to work, irrespective of the very few occasions where I’ve been caught between defending it to those outside of the sector, and trying to address its problematic collections.
"In many ways the museum continues to offer new discoveries. It’s a place I’ll continue to promote and learn within, whilst trying to help shape its future."
The Fund's commitment
Heritage can play an important role in improving mental health and wellbeing for people in the UK. It helps bring people together, builds connections and a sense of belonging.
Every project The National Lottery Heritage Fund supports must achieve the inclusion outcome: a wider range of people will be involved with heritage. Heritage with inclusion at its heart is incredibly powerful in bringing people together and creating a fairer society for all. Find out more.
Black and brown faces in green spaces
But like most children from Black and Asian families, I was told this was not a valid choice for me as a career. What would I do with a degree in Earth Science and a passion for nature? Where would I find a job?
These are valid questions asked by many in the Black and Asian community who see a lack of representation of themselves not only in green spaces as visitors but also within Britain's natural heritage workforce.
Daring to enter white working environments
In 2017, a report by Dr Richard Norrie, a Research Fellow at think tank Policy Exchange, uncovered some thought-provoking statistics about diversity and employment in the UK.
It found that certain jobs attracted diverse workers. These occupations fell into two distinct categories. The first were low-skilled jobs such as taxi drivers and security guards. The second was highly skilled professions like medicine and law that require formal academic training.
But when you look closely at the least diverse occupations, it gets more troubling. Norrie found that the environmental sector was one of the whitest in the UK. Only 0.6% of the workforce identify as non-white and 2.5% as other white.
"For a Black or Asian person to choose work in the environmental sector takes great courage and inner strength. You knowingly put yourself in extreme cultural isolation and at risk of hostility."
This means that not only must people of colour carry the burden of working within a white-dominated sector but by the very nature of the roles on offer, they must live in rural areas which are also predominantly white. My Jurassicgirl Journeys videos help explain some of that experience.
For a Black or Asian person to choose work in the environmental sector takes great courage and inner strength. You knowingly put yourself in extreme cultural isolation and at risk of hostility, racism and discrimination. Such a barrier is something our white peers do not need to consider.
A culture of disinterest and ignorance
The DEFRA Protected Landscapes Review led by Julian Glover added more misery to this grim situation.
The team found that nationally only 0.8% BAME people were represented on the boards governing and managing National Parks and Areas of Outstanding National Beauty.
"Research exposed an underlying culture in natural heritage organisations of tokenism, disinterest and ignorance about how to address the problem."
Combined with research that showcased how Black and Asian communities were not only isolated and fearful of venturing into natural landscapes, it also exposed an underlying culture in natural heritage organisations of tokenism, disinterest and ignorance about how to address the problem.
In her book White Privilege, Professor Kalwant Bhopal writes that: “as long as white identity and white privilege are not threatened, white groups are supportive of diversity and inclusion programmes. Consequently, they can sell themselves as diverse and fair as long as their white privilege remains intact and unthreatened."
Where natural heritage organisations are almost exclusively white and unwilling to address their privilege, the disinterest and ignorance towards equality can lead to structured racism.
This can manifest itself subversively – for example by impacting grant applications and projects designed to engage Black and Minority Ethnic (BAME) communities.
Such projects then become institutionally racist. Programmes are delivered to BAME communities (rather than with) and assumptions (often guided by unwitting prejudice, ignorance and racist stereotyping) are made about what these audiences want, need and require.
So how do we begin to dismantle these structures to create a change in the mindset across our sector?
Four ways to really change the system
1. Invest in meaningful Equality, Diversity and Inclusion training
The training should ask all staff and board members to reflect on their position of privilege. They should think about what it means to be a diverse organisation and practise inclusive leadership. In the light of Black Lives Matter, the greatest action comes from the ability to listen to diverse voices who are willing to help you grow and learn as an organisation.
2. Adjust your language and terminology
"Under-represented" or "hard-to-reach" implies that Black and Asian people are at fault. Instead, using the term "underserved" implies that organisations need to do more to engage with these communities. Although BAME is commonly used, it masks a huge disparity for people of colour, particularly for Black people. Black Indigenous and People of Colour (BIPoC) is now gaining traction.
3. Embed posts within the BIPoC community
When creating community engagement posts as part of a funding bid, embed the officer within the community organisation you wish to work with. Community organisations already have a reputation of support and trust with the audiences you wish to reach. As Vice Chair of the Dorset Race Equality Council Board, I bridge the gap between natural heritage organisations and diverse communities. If you have similar organisations in your region, approach them and offer strategic support for developing joint bids that will help Black and Asian communities access nature.
4. Show public support for diversity and inclusion
When trying to attract diverse candidates, ensure there is a public commitment to diversity and inclusion. Ensure that you are accountable for your actions.
Be open to sourcing mentoring for that candidate, building support structures and creating a safe space for that person to be themselves.
Consider what skills are essential for the post since many Black and Asian people could transfer skills from other sectors.
Making change, together
Dismantling structures and ideologies to create sweeping change in our sector will not happen as quickly as toppling a statue.
But working together, as allies and critical friends, we can create a more inclusive landscape that reflects and engages all shades of our society.
About Dr Anjana Khatwa
Anjana Khatwa is an earth scientist, presenter and consultant specialising in learning and engagement, content development and embedding diversity and inclusion into business practice.
Anjana has been awarded the RGS Geographical Award, a Silver Commendation from the Geographical Association and is a Finalist in the National Diversity Awards 2020 as a Positive Role Model for Race, Faith and Religion.
She is Vice Chair of the Dorset Race Equality Council. You can follow Anjana on Twitter and Instagram as @jurassicg1rl
- Views expressed in the Future Heritage blog series are those of the authors, not necessarily of The National Lottery Heritage Fund.
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Museums should be like public squares - for everyone to enjoy
I was seven years old and on a school trip the first time I entered a museum, and it changed my life forever.
Standing and screaming in a room that actually shook to recreate the different levels of Richter scale during an earthquake was an intellectual watershed moment for me.
Up until then, my life as a British Asian kid revolved around toys, school and casual racism from classmates. The “Earthquake Room” in a museum in London changed all of that. This unique experience viscerally taught me science and learning could be fun.
Passing on a love of learning
This summer my own twins turned seven and I decided to take them on their first trip to the Science Museum.
We left after many hours of joy and it felt obvious to me that in our tech-driven, experience-centred, Instagrammable culture, institutions like the Science Museum are more alive than ever.
But that day I sent a tweet about my experience which seems to have resonated with a lot of people.
Off to the Science Museum with my twins today. All of us VERY excited.
— Bobby Friction (@bobbyfriction) July 26, 2019
My generation didn't get to do this stuff when we were young because
a) Our migrant parents didn't know what the science museum was.
b) They worked till they dropped & didn't have time.
My kids are lucky.x
Cold eyes in the museum
My mum and dad, immigrants from India, would never have taken me to a museum. It's not that they were anti-intellectual. They were actually the opposite: showering me with books and inducements to study. They had a keen interest in my educational life as a kid.
They just didn’t get what museums had to offer. Museums seemed like fussy, musty places, inextricably tied to the establishment for them I think… The kind of places where people would go silent when you walked in and looked at you with cold eyes.
Believe me; growing up in the 70s and 80s here in the UK as people of colour those cold eyes were a daily experience.
Feeling out of place
There was also the added pressure of money in an immigrant household. Whether you had money or not, in a home like I grew up in all kinds of frivolous expenditure wasn't tolerated. That's true I think across the planet within immigrant communities. Museums always seemed like upper-class spaces to us growing up, with (true or not) upper-class price tags to match. I wouldn't be surprised if that's still the case for newer migrant families.
It was going to be up to me to explore these places on my own.
In my early teens, I spent a lot of time hanging around libraries and soaking up all the information I could. As I grew older, I decided I was to become a rock'n'roll intellectual, and I threw myself into all of London's museums. I did the old establishment museums, the classic-looking ones, and the modern ones with architecture to match.
At first I pretended to enjoy the experience, but after a while I couldn’t lie to myself anymore.
I found many of them boring and most of the time I just felt out of place and uncomfortable. Imagine that: trying to learn and expand your mind, but feeling you shouldn’t be there in the first place.
Making everyone feel welcome
I understand that many of those museums are now very different places from even 20 years ago. But more change is still needed, particularly in how the staff reflect who their visitors are, and who those visitors could become.
The glorious thing about the Science Museum is that my twins were talked to by what seemed like learned teacher types with a zest for what the kids wanted. They were equally good at speaking to me about interstellar space, thus keeping all of us happy.
It really felt like an intellectual British public square that we all owned and had a right to occupy. The staff responded to us as worthy British citizens who also had an ownership of the institution.
I will leave the arguments about content and curation to people more in the know than me, but I think that that feeling of everyone being welcome in our country’s museums is vital. It should be a welcome that is full on, warm, educational, cross-generational and open to every class and colour.
The Earthquake Room opened up a lifetime of learning for me, and I want my children – all children, of all nationalities and class backgrounds – to have that kind of experience.
How we are helping to open up heritage
At The National Lottery Heritage Fund, ensuring that a wider range of people will be involved in heritage is a mandatory outcome for any project we fund.
Get inspired with some of the projects we have funded so far.
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Unmissable openings this autumn
Kresen Kernow, Cornwall, opened 7 September
From pirates to tin mining, Bronze Age trade routes to pasties, Cornwall’s distinctive history gives it a special significance for people around the world. Thanks to £11.7million of National Lottery funding, the Kresen Kernow archive centre has just opened in the former Redruth Brewery. It's a state-of-the-art new home for more than 1.5m records and artefacts, covering Cornish history from the earliest traces of human activity to today.
Find out more on the Kresen Kernow website.
Science Museum, London – Science City, opened 12 September, and Medicine: The Wellcome Galleries, opening 16 November
Nearly £10m from National Lottery players is behind a double bill of openings at The Science Museum.
Science City tells the story of how London grew into a global hub for trade, commerce and scientific enquiry between 1550 and 1800. Meanwhile Medicine: The Wellcome Galleries brings together 3,000 artefacts in an fascinating exploration of medicine and medical treatments spanning 500 years.
Explore more on the Science Museum website.
Engine Shed, Northampton, opening 14 September
At one time, steam trains on the Bedford to Northampton line pulled into The Engine Shed for a service. The 1870s building has had many further uses in its 150-year history, but it was gutted by an arson attack in 2000. After a National Lottery-funded restoration, the building now serves as the Students’ Union for University of Northampton’s Waterside Campus. Members of the public can also pull in for a drink and slice of cake.
Read more on The Engine Shed website.
Calderstones Mansion, Liverpool, opening 14 September
Liverpool's Calderstones Mansion House has been transformed into The International Centre for Shared Reading. Previously derelict, the mansion is now home to reading rooms, workshop and community spaces and a café. An outdoor Art Deco theatre has been returned to its original splendour. The Neolithic Calder Stones, dating from the time of Stonehenge, have undergone specialist conservation to set them ready for their next 5,000 years.
Read all about it on charity The Reader's website.
Pilgrims Gallery at Bassetlaw Museum, Retford, opening 19 September
2020 marks the 400th anniversary of the sailing of the Mayflower, which carried the first English Puritans from Plymouth to the New World. This innovative new gallery tells the story of Mayflower Pilgrim and Plymouth Colony elder William Brewster, born in Scrooby, Bassetlaw. Explore ideas such as religious tolerance, freedom and migration alongside less well-known stories focusing on the experiences of women, children and the Wampanoag, the Native Americans living in Massachusetts when the Mayflower landed in 1620.
Find out more on the Pilgrim Roots website.
Women’s history mosaics, Newport, unveiled 20 September
Inspirational women who played an important role in Newport’s life and success are the subjects of six new mosaics on St Pauls Walk, Newport. The mosaics have been created by Newport artist Stephanie Roberts with support from local schoolchildren and community groups. The beautiful mosaics celebrate the achievements of Chartists, Suffragists and Suffragettes, Second World War factory workers, athletes, Newport’s first female mayor, Mary Hart, and contemporary women of Newport.
Read more on Newport City Council's website.
Cambridge Museum of Technology, Cambridge, opening 5 October
Delve into an often forgotten side of Cambridge. Housed in a former sewage pumping station, Cambridge Museum of Technology’s exhibits include working engines, telephone exchanges, printing presses and many more wonderful contraptions. New displays will open on 5 October, including two engines and exhibitions showcasing brickmaking, brewing, food production and the town gas works.
Find all you need to know on the museum website.
Aldeburgh Museum, Suffolk, opening October/November
The Moot Hall was built by the Burgesses of Aldeburgh over 450 years ago as a symbol of the seaside town’s burgeoning wealth and civic pride. Over the centuries this beautiful Tudor building has housed a court, jail, the Town Council (which continues to meet there), local traders and, more recently, a museum. Thanks to The National Lottery Heritage Fund, the museum has been redeveloped to better reveal the town’s intriguing history of seafaring heroes, dramatic coastal erosion, witches, wartime action, Anglo-Saxon ship burials, fishing, trade, world-famous artists, holiday makers and much more.
The museum's website has all the latest information.
Aberdeen Art Gallery, Aberdeen, opening 2 November
Aberdeen Art Gallery has undergone a major transformation thanks to £10m from The National Lottery. Art lovers of all ages will find much more space for artworks, a new exhibition gallery and a refurbished Cowdray Hall and Remembrance Hall. Visitor access and facilities have been dramatically improved – essential as the revitalised Gallery is expected to attract over 250,000 visits annually, making it one of Scotland’s most-visited galleries.
Why working with communities can be 'transformational' for museums
The queer times school prints exhibition was held at Glasgow's Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA) from 1 December 2018 to 10 March 2019.
It was a big success, attracting more than 29,000 visitors over three months, and much of this was due to conversations held with the LGBT+ community before it even began.
Led by charity Glasgow Life for its Queer Times project, this dialogue has opened up a new way of improving representation in GoMA’s exhibitions and collection. We found out more.
After Dark and queer times school
The first part of the project took place during the After Dark and queer times school series of events, held in museums, libraries and archives across Glasgow in July and August 2018.
Speakers from a diversity of backgrounds and professions gave talks and led conversations on key LGBT+ issues in Scotland from 1967 (the year when homosexuality was partially decriminalised in England and Wales) to the present day.
These included:
- the decriminalisation of homosexuality in Scotland in 1980, 13 years after England and Wales
- opposition to Section 28 (Clause 2A in Scotland), the law which prohibited local authorities and schools from “promoting” homosexuality
- the AIDS epidemic
- the experiences of LGBT+ people in ethnic minority communities
- recent changes to the Scottish curriculum to include LGBT+ topics
Many speakers and participants had not been involved in a heritage project before and their perspectives shone new light on these histories.
queer times school prints exhibition
The outcomes of the queer times school events inspired GoMA's queer times school prints exhibition, which was commissioned by artist and queer times school participant, Jason E Bowman.
It centred on a commissioned set of prints from ten LGBT+ artists that responded to themes identified in the queer times school. These prints were later acquired by Glasgow Museums for its collection.
The exhibition also included a changing display of LGBT+ heritage items, a reading resource space, a wall painting and a programme of films – all developed by queer times school participants.
"Queer history must be documented and remembered, for it illuminates the struggles which still take place today for queers in their family, community and workplaces."
queer times school participant
It attracted 29,294 visitors, and a further 546 attended readings, tours, screenings, workshops and discussions.
Going forwards
Queer Times project manager Katie Bruce said: “It was wonderful to see how popular the exhibition was after everyone’s hard work and belief.
"The planning process has been transformational for GoMA; in how it acquires works, interprets collections and curates exhibitions.
"We’re keen to work with other communities in a similar way in future.”
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For this too is history – four ways to change
It is difficult to think of a month like the last. Despite our many differences, people across the world have come together, joined by shared experiences and common causes.
Whether it is the climate emergency, coronavirus (COVID-19) or the issues of racial injustice stirred by the death of George Floyd in the USA, people from Korea, Kenya and Kent have connected on concerns at once both personal and universal.
How can the heritage sector respond to this time of upheaval?
"This we are all living through is history. From the perspective of future generations, this too is heritage."
The challenge is to capture these moments of shared meaning. And then to reflect them well. For this we are all living through is history. From the perspective of future generations, this too is heritage.
But what should be collected? Whose heritage should be conserved? Who decides? And is the sector moving fast enough to capture the nuances as well as headlines of current events? Are different perspectives being given a fair representation? We are hearing loud and clear that there is little tolerance for a single lens view.
Here are some questions we could all think about:
Who is on our staff?
Are you making the most of your teams’ experiences and connections? Are their networks contributing to the mix at this critical time? Who are the well-connected individuals with the insights, understanding and community links necessary to capture the range of narratives we will wish to tell?
Many heritage organisations have long moved to reflect a broader range of perspectives and experiences. Has that gone far enough? Is it embedded practice?
Without a diverse workforce the challenge will continue to be steep.
A review of the workforce to inform team planning after the pandemic could be helpful. And how can we ensure that the line of least resistance is not the first answer?
Who are we talking to?
Paradoxically, while in lockdown, we have experienced a great opening up of institutions – illuminating access to collections, catalogues and treasures. It has been joyful to see heritage humour brought forward through Yorkshire Museum’s #CuratorBattle or the #GettyMuseumChallenge (other heritage humour examples are available!).
What these projects have in common is the way in which they invite you to engage with heritage professionals alongside heritage objects – the personalities of curators meeting the creativity of the public.
These innovations also bring significant numbers of new audiences to heritage.
Some may never have the opportunity for a site visit or membership, but might their curiosity still be encouraged, to build on this audience adventure beyond the period of lockdown?
How are we funded?
One of the most dramatic shifts of the coronavirus (COVID-19) experience has been the ways in which sector funders have responded with dynamism and speed.
Asking questions, listening, releasing new resources, flexing schedules, connecting and creating timely responses to urgent needs. And that is in addition to providing essential information and guidance, and a genuinely empathetic approach. It is, rightly, being applauded.
Might we stick with the lean and nimble processes of this dynamic response, seeing this as the new way forward rather than simply an emergency measure?
"This funding response need not fade as a one-off gesture. Rather, it could be marked as the catalyst for innovation, spurring adaptations and new ways of investing in cultural heritage."
It could be an opportunity to prioritise innovative organisations and ways of thinking, focusing on curation, capacity building and engagement – particularly with those who have found barriers in their way in the past. That truly would be "future heritage".
As a former member of The National Lottery Heritage Fund’s London committee, I do not underestimate the challenge. But I believe this funding response need not fade as a one-off gesture. Rather, it could be marked as the catalyst for innovation, spurring adaptations and new ways of investing in cultural heritage.
How do we invest in leadership?
Clore Leadership has had the pleasure of working with, supporting and nurturing many of the heritage sector’s professionals. Responding to the pandemic, we:
- shared resources for crisis management
- offered timely perspectives to deal with immediate challenges
- facilitated peer-to-peer support
- created the Clore Leadership Experience (short-form professional development opportunities for staff on furlough or freelance)
We too face the challenge of learning and adapting – of balancing our highly regarded Fellowship and Intensive Courses with the new webinars and online learning that have brought fresh successes and keen new learners to our table.
For us, as for the heritage sector, our challenge is to look sufficiently far ahead. We need to combine urgent needs with a strong foundation for the future we want to create.
By strengthening leadership right across the sector, from established to new professionals, we share the aspirational load.
Shared experiences mark this time. Let’s ensure equitable outcomes mark the future.
Carpe diem.
About Hilary Carty
Hilary Carty is the Executive Director, Clore Leadership, a role she took up after six years as a consultant, facilitator and coach specialising in leadership development, management and organisational change.
Hilary’s earlier roles include:
- Director of the Cultural Leadership Programme
- Director, London (Arts) at Arts Council England
- Director, Culture and Education at London 2012
- Director of Dance for Arts Council England
- Visiting Professor on leadership (Austria)
- The National Lottery Heritage Fund London Committee Member
In recognition of her contribution to the arts, culture and heritage, Hilary has been awarded three honorary doctorates and three fellowships from UK universities. Hilary is a governor of The Royal Ballet.
- Views expressed in the Future Heritage blog series are those of the authors, not necessarily of The National Lottery Heritage Fund.
You might also be interested in...
Returning to a changed heritage world
Today is my second day back at work after abruptly having to put my life on hold in November 2019. Six months ago, out of the blue, I was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukaemia.
But, if it is possible to be lucky when having cancer, I have been (so far). I had a speedy diagnosis, excellent medical care from all the NHS staff at The Royal Marsden, and successfully completed intensive treatment before the onset of the coronavirus (COVID-19). My thoughts are very much with those being diagnosed or in treatment right now.
"The world, the workplace, and the heritage sector that I am returning to, are, of course, not normal."
Thankfully, I am now cancer free and, despite having a lot less hair (which is, at least, practical during lockdown) I am more or less back to normal.
But the world, the workplace, and the heritage sector that I am returning to, are, of course, not normal.
Facing the crisis
This is the biggest crisis I have seen in my lifetime. I’m very proud of the way everyone at The Fund has mobilised to support people and organisations working in heritage across the UK.
Within days of moving all our 300 staff to home working, my team surveyed over 1,000 heritage organisations to understand the immediate impact of coronavirus (COVID-19). Using this evidence, we launched our Heritage Emergency Fund, offering emergency grants of between £3,000 and £50,000. We have already approved the first round of applications.
We increased our investment in digital skills for the sector, recognising how important digital expertise will be in a ‘social distancing’ world. And we firmly committed to supporting our existing grantees through this most difficult of times, providing them with greater flexibility on grant payments and making over £31m of grant payments in April.
Next phase of financial help
But we also recognise that some organisations, particularly independent heritage attractions that are highly dependent on visitor income, may have a higher level of financial need than our initial emergency funding can cover.
I’m pleased to announce therefore – as my first action since returning – a new strand to our Heritage Emergency Fund.
Within the current £50m Heritage Emergency Fund, we’re creating a new grant range of £50,000–£250,000. It will be open to past and current grantees.
This new strand will help us:
- respond to exceptional cases of larger-scale need
- protect heritage at severe immediate risk
- and, crucially, safeguard the heritage that can play a key role in the UK’s economic and community regeneration from the impacts of coronavirus (COVID-19)
We are developing the detail for how to apply for these new grants in the coming week. We will actively communicate this when applications are open. In the meantime you can keep up to date with the latest information by following us on social media.
The future for heritage
The Heritage Emergency Fund will enable us to help those most in need in the immediate term. Our non-financial support, such as the additional investment in digital skills, will help many more organisations adapt to new ways of working and be better equipped to survive.
This crisis, however, brings new and unique challenges.
Even heritage organisations that have built successful income streams are vulnerable. The impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) will be uneven – the consequences for some communities, regions and types of organisations will be far more significant than for others. And I recognise that despite all our efforts at the Heritage Fund, the difficult fact is that we will not have the resources to help everyone we would like to.
Some heritage organisations are going to have to rethink their future. Given the uncertainty we face, some may have to do so despite their own Herculean efforts even if they have received support from us.
"We are living through an extraordinary time, and neither we – nor our vital, creative sector – will look quite the same again."
We are living through an extraordinary time, and neither we – nor our vital, creative sector – will look quite the same again. But the fundamental importance of heritage in people’s lives, the contribution that it makes to people’s wellbeing, sense of self and of place, the need to protect it for future generations and its value as an employer and to the economy means we must all work together to achieve the best possible outcome.
So, beyond the immediate funding support we have already launched, I see our role at The Fund as supporting the heritage sector to work through how the future will be different. This must be a joint endeavour, and we will work with the widest group of partners and draw on different and new perspectives to reimagine the heritage sector in the future.
New views
To start this conversation, this month we are launching ‘Future Heritage’, a series of opinion pieces from a range of leaders across our sector. We hope these diverse views will stimulate new thinking, ideas and debate about the future of heritage in a world after coronavirus (COVID-19).
"All of us involved in heritage know – beyond its economic contribution – how critically important it is."
All of us involved in heritage know – beyond its economic contribution – how critically important it is. The benefits it delivers will be just as important as we look to the future, if not more so, but our sector will need to innovate and embrace new ways of working to thrive.
It is an unfamiliar landscape that I find myself returning to, but I'm very pleased that I’m back and able to contribute at a time when there’s so much that needs to be done.
Cancer makes you stop and reassess your life. I’ve come out the other end of it feeling that what we as a sector do, and the work of The Fund is more important than ever. Working with our stakeholders, our Board of Trustees, committee members and my team, I look forward to tackling the challenges ahead for the heritage community.
In the meantime, stay safe and look out for each other. I know how important it is to have the support of family and friends during these extraordinary times.
Independent museums can shine a light after the darkness
When in doubt, revel in the darkness.
Each act of celebration is a spark.
Gathered together
they call back the sun.
- from Revelers, by Lynn Ungar
Disregard statistics for a moment. At a human level, these are dark days.
As in many other workplaces, in an independent museum, where you know the name not just of every colleague but also their children and pets, the individual cost of the pandemic is everywhere.
"This crisis has shown the remarkable capacity for people to adapt and bring their human instincts and resilience to the fore."
Our team has had its share of anxiety, illness and grief. The toll is only exacerbated by the fact we can’t reach out and touch those who most need it.
Yet this crisis has also shown the remarkable capacity for people to adapt and bring their human instincts and resilience to the fore.
The future museums face
Museums face an unimaginable future. Writing in mid-May, I hope the sector might reopen in time for the summer. But I don’t quite know how, nor whether people will come.
My own museum, the Thackray Museum of Medicine in Leeds, faces a double whammy as the lockdown started during a major refurbishment. Not only did we lose our trading income, but delay to the project means we have lost the opportunity of even an uncertain summer reopening. Government assistance, such as rates relief and furloughing, has helped us stay afloat, just.
Funders such as The National Lottery Heritage Fund and Arts Council England have been quick to provide emergency funding for those in the most need. But we know that it won’t be enough for everyone. Many museums will need to make difficult choices after coronavirus (COVID-19).
The value of independent museums
The irony is that independent museums will be needed more than ever post pandemic.
"Where better to make sense of what we have all been through than in a medical museum?"
People will need places in which to reconnect with relatives and friends. Families will need affordable destinations for previously cooped-up children to decompress. Where better to take your gran for her first cup of tea out? Where better to make sense of what we have all been through than in a medical museum?
The UK doesn’t have a national museum of medicine. Most of our medical museums are away from the bustle of the nationals, tucked in corners of medical associations and colleges or else independent charities like Thackray Museum. They don’t have the larger museums’ access to resources.
Yet these are the very times that people need to know that the Anaesthesia Heritage Centre, the George Marshall Medical Museum, the Florence Nightingale Museum, or the many others across the country, will continue to bear witness to this remarkable moment and to inspire the next generation of health heroes.
Galvanised by crisis
Even during the lockdown, the value of our sector has been proved.
Like many, we contributed to #MuseumFromHome. We have supported wellbeing through activities such as our Lorina Bulwer Sew-In and initiated coronavirus (COVID-19) collecting and co-curation initiatives, including a very hastily built Health Heroes microsite.
We made our car park free for NHS staff and hosted a food distribution point for frontline workers. We provided details of ventilator parts held in our collection to engineering companies to help make new ventilators. We worked round normally time-consuming and complex rules on disposal of museum objects to make useful kit available to the people who needed it.
"Those furloughed staff who could do so signed up as NHS volunteers while others found creative and daft ways to keep the team talking."
Those furloughed staff who could do so signed up as NHS volunteers while others found creative and daft ways to keep the team talking, laughing and even crying together, while apart.
Our trustees have been re-galvanised by the crisis, helping us to add coronavirus-related objects from the closing Nightingale Hospital and elsewhere to our museum collection, bringing both time and an enormous range of expertise to our cause. We have been in touch with other teams across the region to plan collecting strategies and digital engagement and sometimes, as in the case of Yorkshire Museum’s Curator Battles, just to be very silly indeed.
Preparing for a different future
Expectations have been (carefully) thrown out the window. And I've found that when freed from constraints of process, people’s deeper instincts and values have kicked in. That's why I’m optimistic about our capacity to meet the future. We don’t yet know quite what to expect, but we can have a good guess.
With fewer resources and audiences under pressure, our production costs will need to come down. More than ever, we will need to find ways to make every penny count, adding value and finding extra uses for everything we produce, from exhibitions to events.
"Museums that fail to reflect our collective recent experience on a human scale will seem aloof."
That will mean including more digital content in our projects and tailoring that content to a far greater range of communities’ needs, from training resources and apprenticeships, to advocacy tools, social prescribing opportunities and a whole host of other applications and re-uses that genuine collaboration will define.
Big, expensive, blockbuster projects are, I think, going to feel unworldly after the crisis. Museums that fail to reflect our collective recent experience on a human scale will seem aloof.
Sharing for the common good
I believe that, with museums struggling to survive, remaining resources need to be shared for common good. This is not simply for the museums themselves, but for public benefit too.
This presents a fantastic opportunity for independent museums.
We are more agile, less process-driven and less beholden to patronage than many larger museums. We can get ahead of the curve.
I see this happening in a number of ways:
- It could mean finding ways to share investment in projects across multiple organisations and sites, both physical and digital.
- Contracts could follow models like Integrated Project Insurance to share risk.
- We need to share operations too. Administration and HR could be more efficiently delivered through collaboration.
- We need to find better ways of pooling our trustees’ time and expertise – why not have shared boards overseeing multiple independent museums? Put aside technical preconceptions (and a few egos) and it makes sense.
For the past bunkered weeks, we’ve all been reduced to identical digital boxes on the screen. A virtual existence that encourages democracy.
Let’s not forget how easy it is to connect and work together when the sun comes out again.
About Nat Edwards
Nat Edwards is Chief Executive of the Thackray Museum of Medicine in Leeds, one of the UK’s largest independent medical museums.
Currently he is based in his daughter’s bedroom, both overseeing a £4million refurbishment of the museum and trying to get the virtual backgrounds on Zoom to work.
- Views expressed in the Future Heritage blog series are those of the authors, not necessarily of The National Lottery Heritage Fund.
You might also be interested in...
Returning to a changed heritage world
Today is my second day back at work after abruptly having to put my life on hold in November 2019. Six months ago, out of the blue, I was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukaemia.
But, if it is possible to be lucky when having cancer, I have been (so far). I had a speedy diagnosis, excellent medical care from all the NHS staff at The Royal Marsden, and successfully completed intensive treatment before the onset of the coronavirus (COVID-19). My thoughts are very much with those being diagnosed or in treatment right now.
"The world, the workplace, and the heritage sector that I am returning to, are, of course, not normal."
Thankfully, I am now cancer free and, despite having a lot less hair (which is, at least, practical during lockdown) I am more or less back to normal.
But the world, the workplace, and the heritage sector that I am returning to, are, of course, not normal.
Facing the crisis
This is the biggest crisis I have seen in my lifetime. I’m very proud of the way everyone at The Fund has mobilised to support people and organisations working in heritage across the UK.
Within days of moving all our 300 staff to home working, my team surveyed over 1,000 heritage organisations to understand the immediate impact of coronavirus (COVID-19). Using this evidence, we launched our Heritage Emergency Fund, offering emergency grants of between £3,000 and £50,000. We have already approved the first round of applications.
We increased our investment in digital skills for the sector, recognising how important digital expertise will be in a ‘social distancing’ world. And we firmly committed to supporting our existing grantees through this most difficult of times, providing them with greater flexibility on grant payments and making over £31m of grant payments in April.
Next phase of financial help
But we also recognise that some organisations, particularly independent heritage attractions that are highly dependent on visitor income, may have a higher level of financial need than our initial emergency funding can cover.
I’m pleased to announce therefore – as my first action since returning – a new strand to our Heritage Emergency Fund.
Within the current £50m Heritage Emergency Fund, we’re creating a new grant range of £50,000–£250,000. It will be open to past and current grantees.
This new strand will help us:
- respond to exceptional cases of larger-scale need
- protect heritage at severe immediate risk
- and, crucially, safeguard the heritage that can play a key role in the UK’s economic and community regeneration from the impacts of coronavirus (COVID-19)
We are developing the detail for how to apply for these new grants in the coming week. We will actively communicate this when applications are open. In the meantime you can keep up to date with the latest information by following us on social media.
The future for heritage
The Heritage Emergency Fund will enable us to help those most in need in the immediate term. Our non-financial support, such as the additional investment in digital skills, will help many more organisations adapt to new ways of working and be better equipped to survive.
This crisis, however, brings new and unique challenges.
Even heritage organisations that have built successful income streams are vulnerable. The impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) will be uneven – the consequences for some communities, regions and types of organisations will be far more significant than for others. And I recognise that despite all our efforts at the Heritage Fund, the difficult fact is that we will not have the resources to help everyone we would like to.
Some heritage organisations are going to have to rethink their future. Given the uncertainty we face, some may have to do so despite their own Herculean efforts even if they have received support from us.
"We are living through an extraordinary time, and neither we – nor our vital, creative sector – will look quite the same again."
We are living through an extraordinary time, and neither we – nor our vital, creative sector – will look quite the same again. But the fundamental importance of heritage in people’s lives, the contribution that it makes to people’s wellbeing, sense of self and of place, the need to protect it for future generations and its value as an employer and to the economy means we must all work together to achieve the best possible outcome.
So, beyond the immediate funding support we have already launched, I see our role at The Fund as supporting the heritage sector to work through how the future will be different. This must be a joint endeavour, and we will work with the widest group of partners and draw on different and new perspectives to reimagine the heritage sector in the future.
New views
To start this conversation, this month we are launching ‘Future Heritage’, a series of opinion pieces from a range of leaders across our sector. We hope these diverse views will stimulate new thinking, ideas and debate about the future of heritage in a world after coronavirus (COVID-19).
"All of us involved in heritage know – beyond its economic contribution – how critically important it is."
All of us involved in heritage know – beyond its economic contribution – how critically important it is. The benefits it delivers will be just as important as we look to the future, if not more so, but our sector will need to innovate and embrace new ways of working to thrive.
It is an unfamiliar landscape that I find myself returning to, but I'm very pleased that I’m back and able to contribute at a time when there’s so much that needs to be done.
Cancer makes you stop and reassess your life. I’ve come out the other end of it feeling that what we as a sector do, and the work of The Fund is more important than ever. Working with our stakeholders, our Board of Trustees, committee members and my team, I look forward to tackling the challenges ahead for the heritage community.
In the meantime, stay safe and look out for each other. I know how important it is to have the support of family and friends during these extraordinary times.
Rejecting nostalgia for positive change
The show, which now regularly attracts 6million viewers, is set in the bucolic surroundings of the Weald & Downland Living Museum, West Sussex. It features skilled craftspeople repairing the shabby but much-loved personal items of members of the public.
The items tell touching stories of lost family members and distant childhoods. Binoculars and glassware, chipped cups and grimy oil paintings are all treated with the same reverence that you’d see on Antiques Roadshow, except here the value is not financial, it’s emotional. In our Amazon Prime era of immediate gratification, it is a rare showcase for the luxury of taking time and care.
Facing up to false histories
I think it tells us something else too. At the moment, the future feels daunting and uncertain. The past, in contrast, is reassuringly definite.
We may not know where we are going but we can take comfort in knowing where we came from.
Just as visits to historic houses surge at times of recession and austerity – and, in particular, an increased interest in visiting the ‘downstairs’ parts of these great houses – other consumer behaviours change too. During the last economic recession, between 2008 and 2013, TV programmes like Downton Abbey and Upstairs Downstairs were commissioned, so too were The Great British Bake Off and The Great British Sewing Bee.
Nostalgia for a past that may never have happened, and a delight in ‘make do and mend’ pervaded.
And during lockdown, it still does. Many of us have appreciated home comforts and crafts; visitor attractions have seen recipes and gardening tips downloaded by hundreds of thousands of people. Home baking has exploded, occasionally literally.
"The confluence of lockdown and #BlackLivesMatter has been an astonishing moment."
But nostalgia can also be toxic. The false histories and fabricated truths. The whitewashing of uncomfortable legacies. Our cities and historical prosperity, the UK’s global power and influence, may have been created and carried on the shoulders of giants but also on the backs of slaves and slavery.
The confluence of lockdown and #BlackLivesMatter has been an astonishing moment.
As a white, middle-aged male, the last couple of weeks have been, for me, an utterly extraordinary educational period. Many of us have learned more about the scale, horrors and the local legacies of slavery than we ever did in school. We are being forced to confront unpalatable truths and question accepted wisdom and history. Lockdown has made many of us yearn for a nostalgic, simpler past (one – it must be acknowledged – that benefited white people more) and when it is shown to us in its unvarnished horror, people like me are realising that we don’t like it after all.
Discussing unsafe issues
If we ever needed a mandate from the public for us to tell full, unadulterated stories of people, places and collections, this is it. When public trust in politicians has reached the lowest level in my lifetime, people are looking to museums and galleries, historic houses and heritage sites, the repositories of national DNA and memory, to get it right. To be safe places in which to honestly discuss unsafe issues.
There are so many fantastic examples of this already:
- the Troubles and Beyond gallery at the Ulster Museum, a brilliant example of navigating contested history
- the Prejudice and Pride initiative of the National Trust and its partners, telling the hidden stories of LGBT+ people, places and collections
- the work of MuseumDetox in challenging systems of inequality
- the Slavery Museum in Liverpool's work to increase the understanding of enslavement as well as actively engaging with contemporary human rights issues
Funders, like The National Heritage Lottery Fund, can use their power to encourage debate, to highlight best practice and to support bold, creative storytelling.
Beyond museums
The confidence to tell unpalatable truths cannot be simply be a matter for museums. It should be heritage and cultural economy-wide.
Our landscapes and countryside are every bit the physical manifestations of choices and power. The further away you travel from cities and towns in England, the less likely you are to see someone who is Black, Asian or another minority ethnic community as Jesse Bernard wrote in The Guardian in 2017. It is one of the reasons that Black and minority ethnic communities disproportionately don’t access the countryside, our landscapes and our rural economies, and, therefore often don't feel part of the stories of those places. The onus is on those with the power to do so to make the welcome more explicit and authentic.
We must not sacrifice inclusion
Lockdown has, for me, prompted a further question.
"Has lockdown just been a pause before normal service resumes? Or can we do better?"
Before we rush headlong to open our attractions, are we content that we just unlock and welcome back the people we said goodbye to in early March?
Has lockdown just been a pause before normal service resumes? Or can we do better?
Work differently, more creatively. Ensure that not only are diversity and inclusion budgets and programmes not sacrificed in the inevitable cost-cutting, but that we work to ensure that our audiences, visitors, staff, governance structures and partnerships, are reflective of the communities that we serve.
Being bold about our value
Tourism is the UK’s fifth biggest industry and third-largest employer. In a normal year it is worth £157bn to the economy. It is one of the largest employers in every part of the nation.
We know that our heritage and our culture are the principal reasons that overseas visitors cite for visiting the UK, regardless of their age, gender or nationality. We know that our fellow citizens say that our heritage and culture, and their access to and enjoyment of these, are vital to their happiness and wellbeing.
Much of the visitor economy will take the longest to recover from coronavirus (COVID-19). There will be redundancies, hard decisions to make and certain losses. There will, inevitably, be economic calculations which will dominate conversations about value.
"We, in the heritage sector, cannot let GDP be the only benchmark of success."
But we, in this sector, cannot let GDP be the only benchmark of success. Heritage and tourism is where you grow people, communities and shared principles and values. It is also the backdrop for people’s happiest memories, of respite, learning, mental and physical exercise, illuminating our future through understanding and explaining our past. That’s of great value.
Now, as never before, we have an opportunity to be bolder and more authentic in our storytelling, to be more creative in our partnerships, to be better neighbours. To mend and to celebrate what really matters.
About Bernard Donoghue
Bernard Donoghue has been the Director of ALVA since September 2011 following a career in advocacy, communications and lobbying, latterly at a senior level in the tourism and heritage sector.
In May 2017 the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, appointed Bernard to be the Mayor's Ambassador for Cultural Tourism and a member of the Mayor's Cultural Leadership Board.
He has been a member of of the UK Government's Tourism Industry Council since 2016.
- Views expressed in the Future Heritage blog series are those of the authors, not necessarily of The National Lottery Heritage Fund.
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For this too is history – four ways to change
It is difficult to think of a month like the last. Despite our many differences, people across the world have come together, joined by shared experiences and common causes.
Whether it is the climate emergency, coronavirus (COVID-19) or the issues of racial injustice stirred by the death of George Floyd in the USA, people from Korea, Kenya and Kent have connected on concerns at once both personal and universal.
How can the heritage sector respond to this time of upheaval?
"This we are all living through is history. From the perspective of future generations, this too is heritage."
The challenge is to capture these moments of shared meaning. And then to reflect them well. For this we are all living through is history. From the perspective of future generations, this too is heritage.
But what should be collected? Whose heritage should be conserved? Who decides? And is the sector moving fast enough to capture the nuances as well as headlines of current events? Are different perspectives being given a fair representation? We are hearing loud and clear that there is little tolerance for a single lens view.
Here are some questions we could all think about:
Who is on our staff?
Are you making the most of your teams’ experiences and connections? Are their networks contributing to the mix at this critical time? Who are the well-connected individuals with the insights, understanding and community links necessary to capture the range of narratives we will wish to tell?
Many heritage organisations have long moved to reflect a broader range of perspectives and experiences. Has that gone far enough? Is it embedded practice?
Without a diverse workforce the challenge will continue to be steep.
A review of the workforce to inform team planning after the pandemic could be helpful. And how can we ensure that the line of least resistance is not the first answer?
Who are we talking to?
Paradoxically, while in lockdown, we have experienced a great opening up of institutions – illuminating access to collections, catalogues and treasures. It has been joyful to see heritage humour brought forward through Yorkshire Museum’s #CuratorBattle or the #GettyMuseumChallenge (other heritage humour examples are available!).
What these projects have in common is the way in which they invite you to engage with heritage professionals alongside heritage objects – the personalities of curators meeting the creativity of the public.
These innovations also bring significant numbers of new audiences to heritage.
Some may never have the opportunity for a site visit or membership, but might their curiosity still be encouraged, to build on this audience adventure beyond the period of lockdown?
How are we funded?
One of the most dramatic shifts of the coronavirus (COVID-19) experience has been the ways in which sector funders have responded with dynamism and speed.
Asking questions, listening, releasing new resources, flexing schedules, connecting and creating timely responses to urgent needs. And that is in addition to providing essential information and guidance, and a genuinely empathetic approach. It is, rightly, being applauded.
Might we stick with the lean and nimble processes of this dynamic response, seeing this as the new way forward rather than simply an emergency measure?
"This funding response need not fade as a one-off gesture. Rather, it could be marked as the catalyst for innovation, spurring adaptations and new ways of investing in cultural heritage."
It could be an opportunity to prioritise innovative organisations and ways of thinking, focusing on curation, capacity building and engagement – particularly with those who have found barriers in their way in the past. That truly would be "future heritage".
As a former member of The National Lottery Heritage Fund’s London committee, I do not underestimate the challenge. But I believe this funding response need not fade as a one-off gesture. Rather, it could be marked as the catalyst for innovation, spurring adaptations and new ways of investing in cultural heritage.
How do we invest in leadership?
Clore Leadership has had the pleasure of working with, supporting and nurturing many of the heritage sector’s professionals. Responding to the pandemic, we:
- shared resources for crisis management
- offered timely perspectives to deal with immediate challenges
- facilitated peer-to-peer support
- created the Clore Leadership Experience (short-form professional development opportunities for staff on furlough or freelance)
We too face the challenge of learning and adapting – of balancing our highly regarded Fellowship and Intensive Courses with the new webinars and online learning that have brought fresh successes and keen new learners to our table.
For us, as for the heritage sector, our challenge is to look sufficiently far ahead. We need to combine urgent needs with a strong foundation for the future we want to create.
By strengthening leadership right across the sector, from established to new professionals, we share the aspirational load.
Shared experiences mark this time. Let’s ensure equitable outcomes mark the future.
Carpe diem.
About Hilary Carty
Hilary Carty is the Executive Director, Clore Leadership, a role she took up after six years as a consultant, facilitator and coach specialising in leadership development, management and organisational change.
Hilary’s earlier roles include:
- Director of the Cultural Leadership Programme
- Director, London (Arts) at Arts Council England
- Director, Culture and Education at London 2012
- Director of Dance for Arts Council England
- Visiting Professor on leadership (Austria)
- The National Lottery Heritage Fund London Committee Member
In recognition of her contribution to the arts, culture and heritage, Hilary has been awarded three honorary doctorates and three fellowships from UK universities. Hilary is a governor of The Royal Ballet.
- Views expressed in the Future Heritage blog series are those of the authors, not necessarily of The National Lottery Heritage Fund.
You might also be interested in...
Returning to a changed heritage world
Today is my second day back at work after abruptly having to put my life on hold in November 2019. Six months ago, out of the blue, I was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukaemia.
But, if it is possible to be lucky when having cancer, I have been (so far). I had a speedy diagnosis, excellent medical care from all the NHS staff at The Royal Marsden, and successfully completed intensive treatment before the onset of the coronavirus (COVID-19). My thoughts are very much with those being diagnosed or in treatment right now.
"The world, the workplace, and the heritage sector that I am returning to, are, of course, not normal."
Thankfully, I am now cancer free and, despite having a lot less hair (which is, at least, practical during lockdown) I am more or less back to normal.
But the world, the workplace, and the heritage sector that I am returning to, are, of course, not normal.
Facing the crisis
This is the biggest crisis I have seen in my lifetime. I’m very proud of the way everyone at The Fund has mobilised to support people and organisations working in heritage across the UK.
Within days of moving all our 300 staff to home working, my team surveyed over 1,000 heritage organisations to understand the immediate impact of coronavirus (COVID-19). Using this evidence, we launched our Heritage Emergency Fund, offering emergency grants of between £3,000 and £50,000. We have already approved the first round of applications.
We increased our investment in digital skills for the sector, recognising how important digital expertise will be in a ‘social distancing’ world. And we firmly committed to supporting our existing grantees through this most difficult of times, providing them with greater flexibility on grant payments and making over £31m of grant payments in April.
Next phase of financial help
But we also recognise that some organisations, particularly independent heritage attractions that are highly dependent on visitor income, may have a higher level of financial need than our initial emergency funding can cover.
I’m pleased to announce therefore – as my first action since returning – a new strand to our Heritage Emergency Fund.
Within the current £50m Heritage Emergency Fund, we’re creating a new grant range of £50,000–£250,000. It will be open to past and current grantees.
This new strand will help us:
- respond to exceptional cases of larger-scale need
- protect heritage at severe immediate risk
- and, crucially, safeguard the heritage that can play a key role in the UK’s economic and community regeneration from the impacts of coronavirus (COVID-19)
We are developing the detail for how to apply for these new grants in the coming week. We will actively communicate this when applications are open. In the meantime you can keep up to date with the latest information by following us on social media.
The future for heritage
The Heritage Emergency Fund will enable us to help those most in need in the immediate term. Our non-financial support, such as the additional investment in digital skills, will help many more organisations adapt to new ways of working and be better equipped to survive.
This crisis, however, brings new and unique challenges.
Even heritage organisations that have built successful income streams are vulnerable. The impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) will be uneven – the consequences for some communities, regions and types of organisations will be far more significant than for others. And I recognise that despite all our efforts at the Heritage Fund, the difficult fact is that we will not have the resources to help everyone we would like to.
Some heritage organisations are going to have to rethink their future. Given the uncertainty we face, some may have to do so despite their own Herculean efforts even if they have received support from us.
"We are living through an extraordinary time, and neither we – nor our vital, creative sector – will look quite the same again."
We are living through an extraordinary time, and neither we – nor our vital, creative sector – will look quite the same again. But the fundamental importance of heritage in people’s lives, the contribution that it makes to people’s wellbeing, sense of self and of place, the need to protect it for future generations and its value as an employer and to the economy means we must all work together to achieve the best possible outcome.
So, beyond the immediate funding support we have already launched, I see our role at The Fund as supporting the heritage sector to work through how the future will be different. This must be a joint endeavour, and we will work with the widest group of partners and draw on different and new perspectives to reimagine the heritage sector in the future.
New views
To start this conversation, this month we are launching ‘Future Heritage’, a series of opinion pieces from a range of leaders across our sector. We hope these diverse views will stimulate new thinking, ideas and debate about the future of heritage in a world after coronavirus (COVID-19).
"All of us involved in heritage know – beyond its economic contribution – how critically important it is."
All of us involved in heritage know – beyond its economic contribution – how critically important it is. The benefits it delivers will be just as important as we look to the future, if not more so, but our sector will need to innovate and embrace new ways of working to thrive.
It is an unfamiliar landscape that I find myself returning to, but I'm very pleased that I’m back and able to contribute at a time when there’s so much that needs to be done.
Cancer makes you stop and reassess your life. I’ve come out the other end of it feeling that what we as a sector do, and the work of The Fund is more important than ever. Working with our stakeholders, our Board of Trustees, committee members and my team, I look forward to tackling the challenges ahead for the heritage community.
In the meantime, stay safe and look out for each other. I know how important it is to have the support of family and friends during these extraordinary times.
Independent museums can shine a light after the darkness
When in doubt, revel in the darkness.
Each act of celebration is a spark.
Gathered together
they call back the sun.
- from Revelers, by Lynn Ungar
Disregard statistics for a moment. At a human level, these are dark days.
As in many other workplaces, in an independent museum, where you know the name not just of every colleague but also their children and pets, the individual cost of the pandemic is everywhere.
"This crisis has shown the remarkable capacity for people to adapt and bring their human instincts and resilience to the fore."
Our team has had its share of anxiety, illness and grief. The toll is only exacerbated by the fact we can’t reach out and touch those who most need it.
Yet this crisis has also shown the remarkable capacity for people to adapt and bring their human instincts and resilience to the fore.
The future museums face
Museums face an unimaginable future. Writing in mid-May, I hope the sector might reopen in time for the summer. But I don’t quite know how, nor whether people will come.
My own museum, the Thackray Museum of Medicine in Leeds, faces a double whammy as the lockdown started during a major refurbishment. Not only did we lose our trading income, but delay to the project means we have lost the opportunity of even an uncertain summer reopening. Government assistance, such as rates relief and furloughing, has helped us stay afloat, just.
Funders such as The National Lottery Heritage Fund and Arts Council England have been quick to provide emergency funding for those in the most need. But we know that it won’t be enough for everyone. Many museums will need to make difficult choices after coronavirus (COVID-19).
The value of independent museums
The irony is that independent museums will be needed more than ever post pandemic.
"Where better to make sense of what we have all been through than in a medical museum?"
People will need places in which to reconnect with relatives and friends. Families will need affordable destinations for previously cooped-up children to decompress. Where better to take your gran for her first cup of tea out? Where better to make sense of what we have all been through than in a medical museum?
The UK doesn’t have a national museum of medicine. Most of our medical museums are away from the bustle of the nationals, tucked in corners of medical associations and colleges or else independent charities like Thackray Museum. They don’t have the larger museums’ access to resources.
Yet these are the very times that people need to know that the Anaesthesia Heritage Centre, the George Marshall Medical Museum, the Florence Nightingale Museum, or the many others across the country, will continue to bear witness to this remarkable moment and to inspire the next generation of health heroes.
Galvanised by crisis
Even during the lockdown, the value of our sector has been proved.
Like many, we contributed to #MuseumFromHome. We have supported wellbeing through activities such as our Lorina Bulwer Sew-In and initiated coronavirus (COVID-19) collecting and co-curation initiatives, including a very hastily built Health Heroes microsite.
We made our car park free for NHS staff and hosted a food distribution point for frontline workers. We provided details of ventilator parts held in our collection to engineering companies to help make new ventilators. We worked round normally time-consuming and complex rules on disposal of museum objects to make useful kit available to the people who needed it.
"Those furloughed staff who could do so signed up as NHS volunteers while others found creative and daft ways to keep the team talking."
Those furloughed staff who could do so signed up as NHS volunteers while others found creative and daft ways to keep the team talking, laughing and even crying together, while apart.
Our trustees have been re-galvanised by the crisis, helping us to add coronavirus-related objects from the closing Nightingale Hospital and elsewhere to our museum collection, bringing both time and an enormous range of expertise to our cause. We have been in touch with other teams across the region to plan collecting strategies and digital engagement and sometimes, as in the case of Yorkshire Museum’s Curator Battles, just to be very silly indeed.
Preparing for a different future
Expectations have been (carefully) thrown out the window. And I've found that when freed from constraints of process, people’s deeper instincts and values have kicked in. That's why I’m optimistic about our capacity to meet the future. We don’t yet know quite what to expect, but we can have a good guess.
With fewer resources and audiences under pressure, our production costs will need to come down. More than ever, we will need to find ways to make every penny count, adding value and finding extra uses for everything we produce, from exhibitions to events.
"Museums that fail to reflect our collective recent experience on a human scale will seem aloof."
That will mean including more digital content in our projects and tailoring that content to a far greater range of communities’ needs, from training resources and apprenticeships, to advocacy tools, social prescribing opportunities and a whole host of other applications and re-uses that genuine collaboration will define.
Big, expensive, blockbuster projects are, I think, going to feel unworldly after the crisis. Museums that fail to reflect our collective recent experience on a human scale will seem aloof.
Sharing for the common good
I believe that, with museums struggling to survive, remaining resources need to be shared for common good. This is not simply for the museums themselves, but for public benefit too.
This presents a fantastic opportunity for independent museums.
We are more agile, less process-driven and less beholden to patronage than many larger museums. We can get ahead of the curve.
I see this happening in a number of ways:
- It could mean finding ways to share investment in projects across multiple organisations and sites, both physical and digital.
- Contracts could follow models like Integrated Project Insurance to share risk.
- We need to share operations too. Administration and HR could be more efficiently delivered through collaboration.
- We need to find better ways of pooling our trustees’ time and expertise – why not have shared boards overseeing multiple independent museums? Put aside technical preconceptions (and a few egos) and it makes sense.
For the past bunkered weeks, we’ve all been reduced to identical digital boxes on the screen. A virtual existence that encourages democracy.
Let’s not forget how easy it is to connect and work together when the sun comes out again.
About Nat Edwards
Nat Edwards is Chief Executive of the Thackray Museum of Medicine in Leeds, one of the UK’s largest independent medical museums.
Currently he is based in his daughter’s bedroom, both overseeing a £4million refurbishment of the museum and trying to get the virtual backgrounds on Zoom to work.
- Views expressed in the Future Heritage blog series are those of the authors, not necessarily of The National Lottery Heritage Fund.
You might also be interested in...
Returning to a changed heritage world
Today is my second day back at work after abruptly having to put my life on hold in November 2019. Six months ago, out of the blue, I was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukaemia.
But, if it is possible to be lucky when having cancer, I have been (so far). I had a speedy diagnosis, excellent medical care from all the NHS staff at The Royal Marsden, and successfully completed intensive treatment before the onset of the coronavirus (COVID-19). My thoughts are very much with those being diagnosed or in treatment right now.
"The world, the workplace, and the heritage sector that I am returning to, are, of course, not normal."
Thankfully, I am now cancer free and, despite having a lot less hair (which is, at least, practical during lockdown) I am more or less back to normal.
But the world, the workplace, and the heritage sector that I am returning to, are, of course, not normal.
Facing the crisis
This is the biggest crisis I have seen in my lifetime. I’m very proud of the way everyone at The Fund has mobilised to support people and organisations working in heritage across the UK.
Within days of moving all our 300 staff to home working, my team surveyed over 1,000 heritage organisations to understand the immediate impact of coronavirus (COVID-19). Using this evidence, we launched our Heritage Emergency Fund, offering emergency grants of between £3,000 and £50,000. We have already approved the first round of applications.
We increased our investment in digital skills for the sector, recognising how important digital expertise will be in a ‘social distancing’ world. And we firmly committed to supporting our existing grantees through this most difficult of times, providing them with greater flexibility on grant payments and making over £31m of grant payments in April.
Next phase of financial help
But we also recognise that some organisations, particularly independent heritage attractions that are highly dependent on visitor income, may have a higher level of financial need than our initial emergency funding can cover.
I’m pleased to announce therefore – as my first action since returning – a new strand to our Heritage Emergency Fund.
Within the current £50m Heritage Emergency Fund, we’re creating a new grant range of £50,000–£250,000. It will be open to past and current grantees.
This new strand will help us:
- respond to exceptional cases of larger-scale need
- protect heritage at severe immediate risk
- and, crucially, safeguard the heritage that can play a key role in the UK’s economic and community regeneration from the impacts of coronavirus (COVID-19)
We are developing the detail for how to apply for these new grants in the coming week. We will actively communicate this when applications are open. In the meantime you can keep up to date with the latest information by following us on social media.
The future for heritage
The Heritage Emergency Fund will enable us to help those most in need in the immediate term. Our non-financial support, such as the additional investment in digital skills, will help many more organisations adapt to new ways of working and be better equipped to survive.
This crisis, however, brings new and unique challenges.
Even heritage organisations that have built successful income streams are vulnerable. The impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) will be uneven – the consequences for some communities, regions and types of organisations will be far more significant than for others. And I recognise that despite all our efforts at the Heritage Fund, the difficult fact is that we will not have the resources to help everyone we would like to.
Some heritage organisations are going to have to rethink their future. Given the uncertainty we face, some may have to do so despite their own Herculean efforts even if they have received support from us.
"We are living through an extraordinary time, and neither we – nor our vital, creative sector – will look quite the same again."
We are living through an extraordinary time, and neither we – nor our vital, creative sector – will look quite the same again. But the fundamental importance of heritage in people’s lives, the contribution that it makes to people’s wellbeing, sense of self and of place, the need to protect it for future generations and its value as an employer and to the economy means we must all work together to achieve the best possible outcome.
So, beyond the immediate funding support we have already launched, I see our role at The Fund as supporting the heritage sector to work through how the future will be different. This must be a joint endeavour, and we will work with the widest group of partners and draw on different and new perspectives to reimagine the heritage sector in the future.
New views
To start this conversation, this month we are launching ‘Future Heritage’, a series of opinion pieces from a range of leaders across our sector. We hope these diverse views will stimulate new thinking, ideas and debate about the future of heritage in a world after coronavirus (COVID-19).
"All of us involved in heritage know – beyond its economic contribution – how critically important it is."
All of us involved in heritage know – beyond its economic contribution – how critically important it is. The benefits it delivers will be just as important as we look to the future, if not more so, but our sector will need to innovate and embrace new ways of working to thrive.
It is an unfamiliar landscape that I find myself returning to, but I'm very pleased that I’m back and able to contribute at a time when there’s so much that needs to be done.
Cancer makes you stop and reassess your life. I’ve come out the other end of it feeling that what we as a sector do, and the work of The Fund is more important than ever. Working with our stakeholders, our Board of Trustees, committee members and my team, I look forward to tackling the challenges ahead for the heritage community.
In the meantime, stay safe and look out for each other. I know how important it is to have the support of family and friends during these extraordinary times.
Independent museums can shine a light after the darkness
When in doubt, revel in the darkness.
Each act of celebration is a spark.
Gathered together
they call back the sun.
- from Revelers, by Lynn Ungar
Disregard statistics for a moment. At a human level, these are dark days.
As in many other workplaces, in an independent museum, where you know the name not just of every colleague but also their children and pets, the individual cost of the pandemic is everywhere.
"This crisis has shown the remarkable capacity for people to adapt and bring their human instincts and resilience to the fore."
Our team has had its share of anxiety, illness and grief. The toll is only exacerbated by the fact we can’t reach out and touch those who most need it.
Yet this crisis has also shown the remarkable capacity for people to adapt and bring their human instincts and resilience to the fore.
The future museums face
Museums face an unimaginable future. Writing in mid-May, I hope the sector might reopen in time for the summer. But I don’t quite know how, nor whether people will come.
My own museum, the Thackray Museum of Medicine in Leeds, faces a double whammy as the lockdown started during a major refurbishment. Not only did we lose our trading income, but delay to the project means we have lost the opportunity of even an uncertain summer reopening. Government assistance, such as rates relief and furloughing, has helped us stay afloat, just.
Funders such as The National Lottery Heritage Fund and Arts Council England have been quick to provide emergency funding for those in the most need. But we know that it won’t be enough for everyone. Many museums will need to make difficult choices after coronavirus (COVID-19).
The value of independent museums
The irony is that independent museums will be needed more than ever post pandemic.
"Where better to make sense of what we have all been through than in a medical museum?"
People will need places in which to reconnect with relatives and friends. Families will need affordable destinations for previously cooped-up children to decompress. Where better to take your gran for her first cup of tea out? Where better to make sense of what we have all been through than in a medical museum?
The UK doesn’t have a national museum of medicine. Most of our medical museums are away from the bustle of the nationals, tucked in corners of medical associations and colleges or else independent charities like Thackray Museum. They don’t have the larger museums’ access to resources.
Yet these are the very times that people need to know that the Anaesthesia Heritage Centre, the George Marshall Medical Museum, the Florence Nightingale Museum, or the many others across the country, will continue to bear witness to this remarkable moment and to inspire the next generation of health heroes.
Galvanised by crisis
Even during the lockdown, the value of our sector has been proved.
Like many, we contributed to #MuseumFromHome. We have supported wellbeing through activities such as our Lorina Bulwer Sew-In and initiated coronavirus (COVID-19) collecting and co-curation initiatives, including a very hastily built Health Heroes microsite.
We made our car park free for NHS staff and hosted a food distribution point for frontline workers. We provided details of ventilator parts held in our collection to engineering companies to help make new ventilators. We worked round normally time-consuming and complex rules on disposal of museum objects to make useful kit available to the people who needed it.
"Those furloughed staff who could do so signed up as NHS volunteers while others found creative and daft ways to keep the team talking."
Those furloughed staff who could do so signed up as NHS volunteers while others found creative and daft ways to keep the team talking, laughing and even crying together, while apart.
Our trustees have been re-galvanised by the crisis, helping us to add coronavirus-related objects from the closing Nightingale Hospital and elsewhere to our museum collection, bringing both time and an enormous range of expertise to our cause. We have been in touch with other teams across the region to plan collecting strategies and digital engagement and sometimes, as in the case of Yorkshire Museum’s Curator Battles, just to be very silly indeed.
Preparing for a different future
Expectations have been (carefully) thrown out the window. And I've found that when freed from constraints of process, people’s deeper instincts and values have kicked in. That's why I’m optimistic about our capacity to meet the future. We don’t yet know quite what to expect, but we can have a good guess.
With fewer resources and audiences under pressure, our production costs will need to come down. More than ever, we will need to find ways to make every penny count, adding value and finding extra uses for everything we produce, from exhibitions to events.
"Museums that fail to reflect our collective recent experience on a human scale will seem aloof."
That will mean including more digital content in our projects and tailoring that content to a far greater range of communities’ needs, from training resources and apprenticeships, to advocacy tools, social prescribing opportunities and a whole host of other applications and re-uses that genuine collaboration will define.
Big, expensive, blockbuster projects are, I think, going to feel unworldly after the crisis. Museums that fail to reflect our collective recent experience on a human scale will seem aloof.
Sharing for the common good
I believe that, with museums struggling to survive, remaining resources need to be shared for common good. This is not simply for the museums themselves, but for public benefit too.
This presents a fantastic opportunity for independent museums.
We are more agile, less process-driven and less beholden to patronage than many larger museums. We can get ahead of the curve.
I see this happening in a number of ways:
- It could mean finding ways to share investment in projects across multiple organisations and sites, both physical and digital.
- Contracts could follow models like Integrated Project Insurance to share risk.
- We need to share operations too. Administration and HR could be more efficiently delivered through collaboration.
- We need to find better ways of pooling our trustees’ time and expertise – why not have shared boards overseeing multiple independent museums? Put aside technical preconceptions (and a few egos) and it makes sense.
For the past bunkered weeks, we’ve all been reduced to identical digital boxes on the screen. A virtual existence that encourages democracy.
Let’s not forget how easy it is to connect and work together when the sun comes out again.
About Nat Edwards
Nat Edwards is Chief Executive of the Thackray Museum of Medicine in Leeds, one of the UK’s largest independent medical museums.
Currently he is based in his daughter’s bedroom, both overseeing a £4million refurbishment of the museum and trying to get the virtual backgrounds on Zoom to work.
- Views expressed in the Future Heritage blog series are those of the authors, not necessarily of The National Lottery Heritage Fund.
You might also be interested in...
Returning to a changed heritage world
Today is my second day back at work after abruptly having to put my life on hold in November 2019. Six months ago, out of the blue, I was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukaemia.
But, if it is possible to be lucky when having cancer, I have been (so far). I had a speedy diagnosis, excellent medical care from all the NHS staff at The Royal Marsden, and successfully completed intensive treatment before the onset of the coronavirus (COVID-19). My thoughts are very much with those being diagnosed or in treatment right now.
"The world, the workplace, and the heritage sector that I am returning to, are, of course, not normal."
Thankfully, I am now cancer free and, despite having a lot less hair (which is, at least, practical during lockdown) I am more or less back to normal.
But the world, the workplace, and the heritage sector that I am returning to, are, of course, not normal.
Facing the crisis
This is the biggest crisis I have seen in my lifetime. I’m very proud of the way everyone at The Fund has mobilised to support people and organisations working in heritage across the UK.
Within days of moving all our 300 staff to home working, my team surveyed over 1,000 heritage organisations to understand the immediate impact of coronavirus (COVID-19). Using this evidence, we launched our Heritage Emergency Fund, offering emergency grants of between £3,000 and £50,000. We have already approved the first round of applications.
We increased our investment in digital skills for the sector, recognising how important digital expertise will be in a ‘social distancing’ world. And we firmly committed to supporting our existing grantees through this most difficult of times, providing them with greater flexibility on grant payments and making over £31m of grant payments in April.
Next phase of financial help
But we also recognise that some organisations, particularly independent heritage attractions that are highly dependent on visitor income, may have a higher level of financial need than our initial emergency funding can cover.
I’m pleased to announce therefore – as my first action since returning – a new strand to our Heritage Emergency Fund.
Within the current £50m Heritage Emergency Fund, we’re creating a new grant range of £50,000–£250,000. It will be open to past and current grantees.
This new strand will help us:
- respond to exceptional cases of larger-scale need
- protect heritage at severe immediate risk
- and, crucially, safeguard the heritage that can play a key role in the UK’s economic and community regeneration from the impacts of coronavirus (COVID-19)
We are developing the detail for how to apply for these new grants in the coming week. We will actively communicate this when applications are open. In the meantime you can keep up to date with the latest information by following us on social media.
The future for heritage
The Heritage Emergency Fund will enable us to help those most in need in the immediate term. Our non-financial support, such as the additional investment in digital skills, will help many more organisations adapt to new ways of working and be better equipped to survive.
This crisis, however, brings new and unique challenges.
Even heritage organisations that have built successful income streams are vulnerable. The impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) will be uneven – the consequences for some communities, regions and types of organisations will be far more significant than for others. And I recognise that despite all our efforts at the Heritage Fund, the difficult fact is that we will not have the resources to help everyone we would like to.
Some heritage organisations are going to have to rethink their future. Given the uncertainty we face, some may have to do so despite their own Herculean efforts even if they have received support from us.
"We are living through an extraordinary time, and neither we – nor our vital, creative sector – will look quite the same again."
We are living through an extraordinary time, and neither we – nor our vital, creative sector – will look quite the same again. But the fundamental importance of heritage in people’s lives, the contribution that it makes to people’s wellbeing, sense of self and of place, the need to protect it for future generations and its value as an employer and to the economy means we must all work together to achieve the best possible outcome.
So, beyond the immediate funding support we have already launched, I see our role at The Fund as supporting the heritage sector to work through how the future will be different. This must be a joint endeavour, and we will work with the widest group of partners and draw on different and new perspectives to reimagine the heritage sector in the future.
New views
To start this conversation, this month we are launching ‘Future Heritage’, a series of opinion pieces from a range of leaders across our sector. We hope these diverse views will stimulate new thinking, ideas and debate about the future of heritage in a world after coronavirus (COVID-19).
"All of us involved in heritage know – beyond its economic contribution – how critically important it is."
All of us involved in heritage know – beyond its economic contribution – how critically important it is. The benefits it delivers will be just as important as we look to the future, if not more so, but our sector will need to innovate and embrace new ways of working to thrive.
It is an unfamiliar landscape that I find myself returning to, but I'm very pleased that I’m back and able to contribute at a time when there’s so much that needs to be done.
Cancer makes you stop and reassess your life. I’ve come out the other end of it feeling that what we as a sector do, and the work of The Fund is more important than ever. Working with our stakeholders, our Board of Trustees, committee members and my team, I look forward to tackling the challenges ahead for the heritage community.
In the meantime, stay safe and look out for each other. I know how important it is to have the support of family and friends during these extraordinary times.
Returning to a changed heritage world
Today is my second day back at work after abruptly having to put my life on hold in November 2019. Six months ago, out of the blue, I was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukaemia.
But, if it is possible to be lucky when having cancer, I have been (so far). I had a speedy diagnosis, excellent medical care from all the NHS staff at The Royal Marsden, and successfully completed intensive treatment before the onset of the coronavirus (COVID-19). My thoughts are very much with those being diagnosed or in treatment right now.
"The world, the workplace, and the heritage sector that I am returning to, are, of course, not normal."
Thankfully, I am now cancer free and, despite having a lot less hair (which is, at least, practical during lockdown) I am more or less back to normal.
But the world, the workplace, and the heritage sector that I am returning to, are, of course, not normal.
Facing the crisis
This is the biggest crisis I have seen in my lifetime. I’m very proud of the way everyone at The Fund has mobilised to support people and organisations working in heritage across the UK.
Within days of moving all our 300 staff to home working, my team surveyed over 1,000 heritage organisations to understand the immediate impact of coronavirus (COVID-19). Using this evidence, we launched our Heritage Emergency Fund, offering emergency grants of between £3,000 and £50,000. We have already approved the first round of applications.
We increased our investment in digital skills for the sector, recognising how important digital expertise will be in a ‘social distancing’ world. And we firmly committed to supporting our existing grantees through this most difficult of times, providing them with greater flexibility on grant payments and making over £31m of grant payments in April.
Next phase of financial help
But we also recognise that some organisations, particularly independent heritage attractions that are highly dependent on visitor income, may have a higher level of financial need than our initial emergency funding can cover.
I’m pleased to announce therefore – as my first action since returning – a new strand to our Heritage Emergency Fund.
Within the current £50m Heritage Emergency Fund, we’re creating a new grant range of £50,000–£250,000. It will be open to past and current grantees.
This new strand will help us:
- respond to exceptional cases of larger-scale need
- protect heritage at severe immediate risk
- and, crucially, safeguard the heritage that can play a key role in the UK’s economic and community regeneration from the impacts of coronavirus (COVID-19)
We are developing the detail for how to apply for these new grants in the coming week. We will actively communicate this when applications are open. In the meantime you can keep up to date with the latest information by following us on social media.
The future for heritage
The Heritage Emergency Fund will enable us to help those most in need in the immediate term. Our non-financial support, such as the additional investment in digital skills, will help many more organisations adapt to new ways of working and be better equipped to survive.
This crisis, however, brings new and unique challenges.
Even heritage organisations that have built successful income streams are vulnerable. The impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) will be uneven – the consequences for some communities, regions and types of organisations will be far more significant than for others. And I recognise that despite all our efforts at the Heritage Fund, the difficult fact is that we will not have the resources to help everyone we would like to.
Some heritage organisations are going to have to rethink their future. Given the uncertainty we face, some may have to do so despite their own Herculean efforts even if they have received support from us.
"We are living through an extraordinary time, and neither we – nor our vital, creative sector – will look quite the same again."
We are living through an extraordinary time, and neither we – nor our vital, creative sector – will look quite the same again. But the fundamental importance of heritage in people’s lives, the contribution that it makes to people’s wellbeing, sense of self and of place, the need to protect it for future generations and its value as an employer and to the economy means we must all work together to achieve the best possible outcome.
So, beyond the immediate funding support we have already launched, I see our role at The Fund as supporting the heritage sector to work through how the future will be different. This must be a joint endeavour, and we will work with the widest group of partners and draw on different and new perspectives to reimagine the heritage sector in the future.
New views
To start this conversation, this month we are launching ‘Future Heritage’, a series of opinion pieces from a range of leaders across our sector. We hope these diverse views will stimulate new thinking, ideas and debate about the future of heritage in a world after coronavirus (COVID-19).
"All of us involved in heritage know – beyond its economic contribution – how critically important it is."
All of us involved in heritage know – beyond its economic contribution – how critically important it is. The benefits it delivers will be just as important as we look to the future, if not more so, but our sector will need to innovate and embrace new ways of working to thrive.
It is an unfamiliar landscape that I find myself returning to, but I'm very pleased that I’m back and able to contribute at a time when there’s so much that needs to be done.
Cancer makes you stop and reassess your life. I’ve come out the other end of it feeling that what we as a sector do, and the work of The Fund is more important than ever. Working with our stakeholders, our Board of Trustees, committee members and my team, I look forward to tackling the challenges ahead for the heritage community.
In the meantime, stay safe and look out for each other. I know how important it is to have the support of family and friends during these extraordinary times.
For this too is history – four ways to change
It is difficult to think of a month like the last. Despite our many differences, people across the world have come together, joined by shared experiences and common causes.
Whether it is the climate emergency, coronavirus (COVID-19) or the issues of racial injustice stirred by the death of George Floyd in the USA, people from Korea, Kenya and Kent have connected on concerns at once both personal and universal.
How can the heritage sector respond to this time of upheaval?
"This we are all living through is history. From the perspective of future generations, this too is heritage."
The challenge is to capture these moments of shared meaning. And then to reflect them well. For this we are all living through is history. From the perspective of future generations, this too is heritage.
But what should be collected? Whose heritage should be conserved? Who decides? And is the sector moving fast enough to capture the nuances as well as headlines of current events? Are different perspectives being given a fair representation? We are hearing loud and clear that there is little tolerance for a single lens view.
Here are some questions we could all think about:
Who is on our staff?
Are you making the most of your teams’ experiences and connections? Are their networks contributing to the mix at this critical time? Who are the well-connected individuals with the insights, understanding and community links necessary to capture the range of narratives we will wish to tell?
Many heritage organisations have long moved to reflect a broader range of perspectives and experiences. Has that gone far enough? Is it embedded practice?
Without a diverse workforce the challenge will continue to be steep.
A review of the workforce to inform team planning after the pandemic could be helpful. And how can we ensure that the line of least resistance is not the first answer?
Who are we talking to?
Paradoxically, while in lockdown, we have experienced a great opening up of institutions – illuminating access to collections, catalogues and treasures. It has been joyful to see heritage humour brought forward through Yorkshire Museum’s #CuratorBattle or the #GettyMuseumChallenge (other heritage humour examples are available!).
What these projects have in common is the way in which they invite you to engage with heritage professionals alongside heritage objects – the personalities of curators meeting the creativity of the public.
These innovations also bring significant numbers of new audiences to heritage.
Some may never have the opportunity for a site visit or membership, but might their curiosity still be encouraged, to build on this audience adventure beyond the period of lockdown?
How are we funded?
One of the most dramatic shifts of the coronavirus (COVID-19) experience has been the ways in which sector funders have responded with dynamism and speed.
Asking questions, listening, releasing new resources, flexing schedules, connecting and creating timely responses to urgent needs. And that is in addition to providing essential information and guidance, and a genuinely empathetic approach. It is, rightly, being applauded.
Might we stick with the lean and nimble processes of this dynamic response, seeing this as the new way forward rather than simply an emergency measure?
"This funding response need not fade as a one-off gesture. Rather, it could be marked as the catalyst for innovation, spurring adaptations and new ways of investing in cultural heritage."
It could be an opportunity to prioritise innovative organisations and ways of thinking, focusing on curation, capacity building and engagement – particularly with those who have found barriers in their way in the past. That truly would be "future heritage".
As a former member of The National Lottery Heritage Fund’s London committee, I do not underestimate the challenge. But I believe this funding response need not fade as a one-off gesture. Rather, it could be marked as the catalyst for innovation, spurring adaptations and new ways of investing in cultural heritage.
How do we invest in leadership?
Clore Leadership has had the pleasure of working with, supporting and nurturing many of the heritage sector’s professionals. Responding to the pandemic, we:
- shared resources for crisis management
- offered timely perspectives to deal with immediate challenges
- facilitated peer-to-peer support
- created the Clore Leadership Experience (short-form professional development opportunities for staff on furlough or freelance)
We too face the challenge of learning and adapting – of balancing our highly regarded Fellowship and Intensive Courses with the new webinars and online learning that have brought fresh successes and keen new learners to our table.
For us, as for the heritage sector, our challenge is to look sufficiently far ahead. We need to combine urgent needs with a strong foundation for the future we want to create.
By strengthening leadership right across the sector, from established to new professionals, we share the aspirational load.
Shared experiences mark this time. Let’s ensure equitable outcomes mark the future.
Carpe diem.
About Hilary Carty
Hilary Carty is the Executive Director, Clore Leadership, a role she took up after six years as a consultant, facilitator and coach specialising in leadership development, management and organisational change.
Hilary’s earlier roles include:
- Director of the Cultural Leadership Programme
- Director, London (Arts) at Arts Council England
- Director, Culture and Education at London 2012
- Director of Dance for Arts Council England
- Visiting Professor on leadership (Austria)
- The National Lottery Heritage Fund London Committee Member
In recognition of her contribution to the arts, culture and heritage, Hilary has been awarded three honorary doctorates and three fellowships from UK universities. Hilary is a governor of The Royal Ballet.
- Views expressed in the Future Heritage blog series are those of the authors, not necessarily of The National Lottery Heritage Fund.
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Returning to a changed heritage world
Today is my second day back at work after abruptly having to put my life on hold in November 2019. Six months ago, out of the blue, I was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukaemia.
But, if it is possible to be lucky when having cancer, I have been (so far). I had a speedy diagnosis, excellent medical care from all the NHS staff at The Royal Marsden, and successfully completed intensive treatment before the onset of the coronavirus (COVID-19). My thoughts are very much with those being diagnosed or in treatment right now.
"The world, the workplace, and the heritage sector that I am returning to, are, of course, not normal."
Thankfully, I am now cancer free and, despite having a lot less hair (which is, at least, practical during lockdown) I am more or less back to normal.
But the world, the workplace, and the heritage sector that I am returning to, are, of course, not normal.
Facing the crisis
This is the biggest crisis I have seen in my lifetime. I’m very proud of the way everyone at The Fund has mobilised to support people and organisations working in heritage across the UK.
Within days of moving all our 300 staff to home working, my team surveyed over 1,000 heritage organisations to understand the immediate impact of coronavirus (COVID-19). Using this evidence, we launched our Heritage Emergency Fund, offering emergency grants of between £3,000 and £50,000. We have already approved the first round of applications.
We increased our investment in digital skills for the sector, recognising how important digital expertise will be in a ‘social distancing’ world. And we firmly committed to supporting our existing grantees through this most difficult of times, providing them with greater flexibility on grant payments and making over £31m of grant payments in April.
Next phase of financial help
But we also recognise that some organisations, particularly independent heritage attractions that are highly dependent on visitor income, may have a higher level of financial need than our initial emergency funding can cover.
I’m pleased to announce therefore – as my first action since returning – a new strand to our Heritage Emergency Fund.
Within the current £50m Heritage Emergency Fund, we’re creating a new grant range of £50,000–£250,000. It will be open to past and current grantees.
This new strand will help us:
- respond to exceptional cases of larger-scale need
- protect heritage at severe immediate risk
- and, crucially, safeguard the heritage that can play a key role in the UK’s economic and community regeneration from the impacts of coronavirus (COVID-19)
We are developing the detail for how to apply for these new grants in the coming week. We will actively communicate this when applications are open. In the meantime you can keep up to date with the latest information by following us on social media.
The future for heritage
The Heritage Emergency Fund will enable us to help those most in need in the immediate term. Our non-financial support, such as the additional investment in digital skills, will help many more organisations adapt to new ways of working and be better equipped to survive.
This crisis, however, brings new and unique challenges.
Even heritage organisations that have built successful income streams are vulnerable. The impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) will be uneven – the consequences for some communities, regions and types of organisations will be far more significant than for others. And I recognise that despite all our efforts at the Heritage Fund, the difficult fact is that we will not have the resources to help everyone we would like to.
Some heritage organisations are going to have to rethink their future. Given the uncertainty we face, some may have to do so despite their own Herculean efforts even if they have received support from us.
"We are living through an extraordinary time, and neither we – nor our vital, creative sector – will look quite the same again."
We are living through an extraordinary time, and neither we – nor our vital, creative sector – will look quite the same again. But the fundamental importance of heritage in people’s lives, the contribution that it makes to people’s wellbeing, sense of self and of place, the need to protect it for future generations and its value as an employer and to the economy means we must all work together to achieve the best possible outcome.
So, beyond the immediate funding support we have already launched, I see our role at The Fund as supporting the heritage sector to work through how the future will be different. This must be a joint endeavour, and we will work with the widest group of partners and draw on different and new perspectives to reimagine the heritage sector in the future.
New views
To start this conversation, this month we are launching ‘Future Heritage’, a series of opinion pieces from a range of leaders across our sector. We hope these diverse views will stimulate new thinking, ideas and debate about the future of heritage in a world after coronavirus (COVID-19).
"All of us involved in heritage know – beyond its economic contribution – how critically important it is."
All of us involved in heritage know – beyond its economic contribution – how critically important it is. The benefits it delivers will be just as important as we look to the future, if not more so, but our sector will need to innovate and embrace new ways of working to thrive.
It is an unfamiliar landscape that I find myself returning to, but I'm very pleased that I’m back and able to contribute at a time when there’s so much that needs to be done.
Cancer makes you stop and reassess your life. I’ve come out the other end of it feeling that what we as a sector do, and the work of The Fund is more important than ever. Working with our stakeholders, our Board of Trustees, committee members and my team, I look forward to tackling the challenges ahead for the heritage community.
In the meantime, stay safe and look out for each other. I know how important it is to have the support of family and friends during these extraordinary times.
Independent museums can shine a light after the darkness
When in doubt, revel in the darkness.
Each act of celebration is a spark.
Gathered together
they call back the sun.
- from Revelers, by Lynn Ungar
Disregard statistics for a moment. At a human level, these are dark days.
As in many other workplaces, in an independent museum, where you know the name not just of every colleague but also their children and pets, the individual cost of the pandemic is everywhere.
"This crisis has shown the remarkable capacity for people to adapt and bring their human instincts and resilience to the fore."
Our team has had its share of anxiety, illness and grief. The toll is only exacerbated by the fact we can’t reach out and touch those who most need it.
Yet this crisis has also shown the remarkable capacity for people to adapt and bring their human instincts and resilience to the fore.
The future museums face
Museums face an unimaginable future. Writing in mid-May, I hope the sector might reopen in time for the summer. But I don’t quite know how, nor whether people will come.
My own museum, the Thackray Museum of Medicine in Leeds, faces a double whammy as the lockdown started during a major refurbishment. Not only did we lose our trading income, but delay to the project means we have lost the opportunity of even an uncertain summer reopening. Government assistance, such as rates relief and furloughing, has helped us stay afloat, just.
Funders such as The National Lottery Heritage Fund and Arts Council England have been quick to provide emergency funding for those in the most need. But we know that it won’t be enough for everyone. Many museums will need to make difficult choices after coronavirus (COVID-19).
The value of independent museums
The irony is that independent museums will be needed more than ever post pandemic.
"Where better to make sense of what we have all been through than in a medical museum?"
People will need places in which to reconnect with relatives and friends. Families will need affordable destinations for previously cooped-up children to decompress. Where better to take your gran for her first cup of tea out? Where better to make sense of what we have all been through than in a medical museum?
The UK doesn’t have a national museum of medicine. Most of our medical museums are away from the bustle of the nationals, tucked in corners of medical associations and colleges or else independent charities like Thackray Museum. They don’t have the larger museums’ access to resources.
Yet these are the very times that people need to know that the Anaesthesia Heritage Centre, the George Marshall Medical Museum, the Florence Nightingale Museum, or the many others across the country, will continue to bear witness to this remarkable moment and to inspire the next generation of health heroes.
Galvanised by crisis
Even during the lockdown, the value of our sector has been proved.
Like many, we contributed to #MuseumFromHome. We have supported wellbeing through activities such as our Lorina Bulwer Sew-In and initiated coronavirus (COVID-19) collecting and co-curation initiatives, including a very hastily built Health Heroes microsite.
We made our car park free for NHS staff and hosted a food distribution point for frontline workers. We provided details of ventilator parts held in our collection to engineering companies to help make new ventilators. We worked round normally time-consuming and complex rules on disposal of museum objects to make useful kit available to the people who needed it.
"Those furloughed staff who could do so signed up as NHS volunteers while others found creative and daft ways to keep the team talking."
Those furloughed staff who could do so signed up as NHS volunteers while others found creative and daft ways to keep the team talking, laughing and even crying together, while apart.
Our trustees have been re-galvanised by the crisis, helping us to add coronavirus-related objects from the closing Nightingale Hospital and elsewhere to our museum collection, bringing both time and an enormous range of expertise to our cause. We have been in touch with other teams across the region to plan collecting strategies and digital engagement and sometimes, as in the case of Yorkshire Museum’s Curator Battles, just to be very silly indeed.
Preparing for a different future
Expectations have been (carefully) thrown out the window. And I've found that when freed from constraints of process, people’s deeper instincts and values have kicked in. That's why I’m optimistic about our capacity to meet the future. We don’t yet know quite what to expect, but we can have a good guess.
With fewer resources and audiences under pressure, our production costs will need to come down. More than ever, we will need to find ways to make every penny count, adding value and finding extra uses for everything we produce, from exhibitions to events.
"Museums that fail to reflect our collective recent experience on a human scale will seem aloof."
That will mean including more digital content in our projects and tailoring that content to a far greater range of communities’ needs, from training resources and apprenticeships, to advocacy tools, social prescribing opportunities and a whole host of other applications and re-uses that genuine collaboration will define.
Big, expensive, blockbuster projects are, I think, going to feel unworldly after the crisis. Museums that fail to reflect our collective recent experience on a human scale will seem aloof.
Sharing for the common good
I believe that, with museums struggling to survive, remaining resources need to be shared for common good. This is not simply for the museums themselves, but for public benefit too.
This presents a fantastic opportunity for independent museums.
We are more agile, less process-driven and less beholden to patronage than many larger museums. We can get ahead of the curve.
I see this happening in a number of ways:
- It could mean finding ways to share investment in projects across multiple organisations and sites, both physical and digital.
- Contracts could follow models like Integrated Project Insurance to share risk.
- We need to share operations too. Administration and HR could be more efficiently delivered through collaboration.
- We need to find better ways of pooling our trustees’ time and expertise – why not have shared boards overseeing multiple independent museums? Put aside technical preconceptions (and a few egos) and it makes sense.
For the past bunkered weeks, we’ve all been reduced to identical digital boxes on the screen. A virtual existence that encourages democracy.
Let’s not forget how easy it is to connect and work together when the sun comes out again.
About Nat Edwards
Nat Edwards is Chief Executive of the Thackray Museum of Medicine in Leeds, one of the UK’s largest independent medical museums.
Currently he is based in his daughter’s bedroom, both overseeing a £4million refurbishment of the museum and trying to get the virtual backgrounds on Zoom to work.
- Views expressed in the Future Heritage blog series are those of the authors, not necessarily of The National Lottery Heritage Fund.
You might also be interested in...
Returning to a changed heritage world
Today is my second day back at work after abruptly having to put my life on hold in November 2019. Six months ago, out of the blue, I was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukaemia.
But, if it is possible to be lucky when having cancer, I have been (so far). I had a speedy diagnosis, excellent medical care from all the NHS staff at The Royal Marsden, and successfully completed intensive treatment before the onset of the coronavirus (COVID-19). My thoughts are very much with those being diagnosed or in treatment right now.
"The world, the workplace, and the heritage sector that I am returning to, are, of course, not normal."
Thankfully, I am now cancer free and, despite having a lot less hair (which is, at least, practical during lockdown) I am more or less back to normal.
But the world, the workplace, and the heritage sector that I am returning to, are, of course, not normal.
Facing the crisis
This is the biggest crisis I have seen in my lifetime. I’m very proud of the way everyone at The Fund has mobilised to support people and organisations working in heritage across the UK.
Within days of moving all our 300 staff to home working, my team surveyed over 1,000 heritage organisations to understand the immediate impact of coronavirus (COVID-19). Using this evidence, we launched our Heritage Emergency Fund, offering emergency grants of between £3,000 and £50,000. We have already approved the first round of applications.
We increased our investment in digital skills for the sector, recognising how important digital expertise will be in a ‘social distancing’ world. And we firmly committed to supporting our existing grantees through this most difficult of times, providing them with greater flexibility on grant payments and making over £31m of grant payments in April.
Next phase of financial help
But we also recognise that some organisations, particularly independent heritage attractions that are highly dependent on visitor income, may have a higher level of financial need than our initial emergency funding can cover.
I’m pleased to announce therefore – as my first action since returning – a new strand to our Heritage Emergency Fund.
Within the current £50m Heritage Emergency Fund, we’re creating a new grant range of £50,000–£250,000. It will be open to past and current grantees.
This new strand will help us:
- respond to exceptional cases of larger-scale need
- protect heritage at severe immediate risk
- and, crucially, safeguard the heritage that can play a key role in the UK’s economic and community regeneration from the impacts of coronavirus (COVID-19)
We are developing the detail for how to apply for these new grants in the coming week. We will actively communicate this when applications are open. In the meantime you can keep up to date with the latest information by following us on social media.
The future for heritage
The Heritage Emergency Fund will enable us to help those most in need in the immediate term. Our non-financial support, such as the additional investment in digital skills, will help many more organisations adapt to new ways of working and be better equipped to survive.
This crisis, however, brings new and unique challenges.
Even heritage organisations that have built successful income streams are vulnerable. The impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) will be uneven – the consequences for some communities, regions and types of organisations will be far more significant than for others. And I recognise that despite all our efforts at the Heritage Fund, the difficult fact is that we will not have the resources to help everyone we would like to.
Some heritage organisations are going to have to rethink their future. Given the uncertainty we face, some may have to do so despite their own Herculean efforts even if they have received support from us.
"We are living through an extraordinary time, and neither we – nor our vital, creative sector – will look quite the same again."
We are living through an extraordinary time, and neither we – nor our vital, creative sector – will look quite the same again. But the fundamental importance of heritage in people’s lives, the contribution that it makes to people’s wellbeing, sense of self and of place, the need to protect it for future generations and its value as an employer and to the economy means we must all work together to achieve the best possible outcome.
So, beyond the immediate funding support we have already launched, I see our role at The Fund as supporting the heritage sector to work through how the future will be different. This must be a joint endeavour, and we will work with the widest group of partners and draw on different and new perspectives to reimagine the heritage sector in the future.
New views
To start this conversation, this month we are launching ‘Future Heritage’, a series of opinion pieces from a range of leaders across our sector. We hope these diverse views will stimulate new thinking, ideas and debate about the future of heritage in a world after coronavirus (COVID-19).
"All of us involved in heritage know – beyond its economic contribution – how critically important it is."
All of us involved in heritage know – beyond its economic contribution – how critically important it is. The benefits it delivers will be just as important as we look to the future, if not more so, but our sector will need to innovate and embrace new ways of working to thrive.
It is an unfamiliar landscape that I find myself returning to, but I'm very pleased that I’m back and able to contribute at a time when there’s so much that needs to be done.
Cancer makes you stop and reassess your life. I’ve come out the other end of it feeling that what we as a sector do, and the work of The Fund is more important than ever. Working with our stakeholders, our Board of Trustees, committee members and my team, I look forward to tackling the challenges ahead for the heritage community.
In the meantime, stay safe and look out for each other. I know how important it is to have the support of family and friends during these extraordinary times.