18 C O N T E X T 1 0 1 : S E P T E M B E R 2 0 0 7 The day’s first session focused on policy. Deborah Lamb spoke about policies and partnerships, and the heritage protection review from English Heritage’s perspective. She talked about the need for accountability, engagement and transparency. Lamb called for the conservation community to be robust, rather than apologising for heritage. Community engagement was not a threat, she said, it was a way of helping communities to find the value of heritage. Kate Clark spoke about the public value of heritage, from the perspective of Heritage Lottery Fund research and evaluation. She identified the elements that contribute to making a good scheme. She talked about the benefits – a feel-good factor and greater appreciation of heritage – but added that regeneration was a mixed picture, because job creation was not cheap. Clark questioned how useful economic value methods were for cultural heritage, because unquantifiable benefits help make up the full picture. She talked about how investing in heritage creates public value – intrinsic, instrumental and institutional. Her presentation was called: ‘Three minutes in a lift with Gordon Brown’. If she were given those three minutes she would give him the figures, but she would also explain the wider value of heritage. Graham Boxer spoke about cultural heritage and the regeneration of Liverpool. We heard that the renaissance of Liverpool is making use of its heritage assets. This shows the value of heritage, not as something preserved in aspic, but in forming part of dynamic urban change. Judy Ling Wong spoke about public perceptions of heritage, based on the work of the Black Environmental Network. She explained that so-called traditional cultures import ideas and things from abroad, and change through absorption. Cultures have always been about integration and diversity, and have always been about change. Ethnic minorities love British heritage, and the more welcome we make them feel, the more they will want to integrate. After lunch, Felicity Goodey spoke about the importance of heritage for the regional economy, and gave examples of heritage tourism and regeneration in the region. She explained that heritage is about the people who made it, that regeneration is about people not buildings, and that regeneration that ignores heritage destroys communities. With these ideas running through their heads, the delegates broke out into their workshop groups. Residential delegates stayed at the Britannia Adelphi Hotel, located within a short walk of Lime Street Station. This is Liverpool’s most famous and cherished hotel. The IHBC’s annual general meeting was held at the Adelphi at the end of Friday afternoon. In the evening, Lutyens’ sublime crypt of the Liverpool Metropolitan Catholic Cathedral was the venue for the conference dinner. Delegates were able to join a tour of the crypt, and end the evening dancing the night away to the sounds of Beatle Mania, a tribute band. Saturday morning was based at the Liverpool Medical Institute. The morning was chaired by Steven Parissien, from the Prince’s Foundation for the Built Environment. The day began with a session focusing on restoration. Kate Dickson made us think about where building preservation trusts are now, and how they should be getting the job done in the future. Two things are beginning to change: the number of available small-scale schemes has diminished, and the rules for obtaining Heritage Lottery Fund money have been getting more complex. Dickson gave us examples of new ways of working that can now be added to the traditional building preservation trust role: profit-sharing with friendly owners, or as part of a private sector joint venture scheme, and as a public sector delivery vehicle. Gill Wright talked about the restoration of Victoria Baths, the winning building in the first series of the BBC’s Restoration programme. She gave an update on the campaign and the trust. We heard that the financial security of the trust itself is not certain, although potentially the future for the Victoria Baths looked bright. The next session dealt with economic and environmental issues. Steve Parry, a property developer, gave delegates an economic reality check. He explained how property developers dealt in risk, but that developing historic buildings involved more risk. Grants were needed to offset the conservation deficit, but such buildings demanded more creative solutions and provided strong brands. Dennis Rodwell talked about heritage value and sustainability. He identified common perceptions of heritage as exclusive and top-down. He explained that the link between conservation and sustainability could be forged if historic cities were defined simply in terms of historic assets. He believed that the future lay in a move towards a more anthropological vision of heritage: a dynamic approach that was focused on processes that safeguarded geo-cultural identity and secured its creative continuity. In the afternoon the delegates departed on foot or by coach for the walking tours. The annual school certainly explored the values of heritage and ways of valuing it. We heard about the cultural, economic and environmental values of heritage. In terms of public value, some of these values are intrinsic and some are instrumental – like heritage tourism and regeneration. We also heard about institutional public value and the need for accountability, engagement and transparency. We heard about how communities valued heritage, and how heritage was about more than just buildings, it was about the people who made it. As we were told on the first night, in the welcome speech by John Hinchliffe: ‘be invigorated by the value of heritage and go forth and conserve!’ IHBC Annual School 2007 IHBC Annual School 2007 IHBC Annual School 2007 Keith Parsons is a principal lecturer at the University of Central Lancashire.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjgyMjA=