26 C O N T E X T 1 4 1 : S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 5 Many synagogues had become redundant, leading to closure, abandonment and demolition. Jewish Heritage UK has slowly gained recognition for the unique Jewish architectural heritage and for its community being a part of the nation’s heritage. Twenty Jewish synagogues are open on Heritage Open Days. Many of them have received grant aid under the Repair Grant Scheme for Listed Places of Worship funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund. Rachael Parry Culture and significance Speaker: Kate Clarke, chief executive, Cadw ‘What’s aught but as ’tis valued?’ – Shakespeare Thus Kate Clarke began her talk on ‘Culture and significance’. The question she posed was how we, as heritage professionals, can explain the value of what we do. Perhaps more importantly, she proposed that we should engage with and listen to the public with more open minds.What was ‘value’ in a heritage context?The modern heritage professional was comfortable with the definition and importance of ‘significance’ when related to fabric and design. However, for example, the cultural significance of the Iron Bridge in Shropshire was inextricably linked with its location at the heart of the birthplace of the industrial Revolution. Might then its setting be of as great if not greater value than the fabric of the bridge itself?Were we in danger, perhaps, of identifying and protecting too narrow a range of values? Cultural significance was crucial to how we connect with the general public and we must therefore listen to what matters to them. Otherwise the reaction to the profession might be: ‘haven’t we done heritage?’ Heritage value was now commonly expressed in terms of ‘benefits’, particularly by organisations like the Heritage Lottery Fund which insisted that benefit must be counted by reference to much more than a carefully restored building or landscape. A successful lottery bid would need to demonstrate what the project would do for people, both those involved with its restoration and those who would visit it in the future.There must be economic benefits as well as environmental and social ones. Clarke’s recent sabbatical assisting the Historic Houses Trust (HHT) in New South Wales, Australia, had widened her understanding of significance still further. The HHT had had a low profile, and to the public its properties and collections had been stuffy and irrelevant. The organisation had needed to understand its audience and undertook extensive research to develop (in that maligned phrase) ‘brand values’. Dave Chetwyn, Sharman Kadish, Peter Aiers and Jonathan Foyle Kate Clarke: we may be in danger of identifying and protecting too narrow a range of values.
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