September 2020

The topic of September’s Heritage Chat – ‘Ways out of crisis’ – was suggested by the team of the new Rebuilding Heritage programme based at The Heritage Alliance. Participants shared thoughts and ideas to help the heritage sector during the ongoing pandemic crisis. Discussion focussed on different elements connected to the present situation, such as the main challenges for the future of the sector, future training needs, partnerships that could be built and how the sector can work better together in future. A full summary of the chat can be found here.

The Rebuilding Heritage team used some of the outcomes of Heritage Chat to build a programme better tailored to the sector’s current needs.

August 2020

August’s Heritage Chat was organised in partnership with Paul Hibberd of the LNWR George the Fifth Steam Locomotive Trust and explored replicas as a means of creating ‘living’ heritage, interpretation and understanding. Topics covered included how to define a replica in the context of heritage and how replicas add value to heritage, particularly regarding enhancing understanding of past ways of living and in helping people with different types of disabilities to engage with heritage. Discussions also focussed on what value replicas have in addition to acting as a surrogate for originals, along with how the digital age has changed the role of replicas and more presently, how the use of replicas has and will change in light of the pandemic.

A full summary of the chat can be found here.

July 2020

During the Coronavirus pandemic, training providers and educators have increasingly been adapting their teaching to an online environment. In light of this, July’s Heritage Chat provided an opportunity to explore the benefits and challenges of online teaching, as well as the implications for the heritage sector.  Participants shared new techniques and technologies that have helped them to adapt to teaching online, and there was a great deal of discussion about how online teaching can be made accessible. Others discussed the potential for teaching heritage skills online in a post-lockdown world, particularly relating to apprenticeships.

The Heritage 2020 ‘Capacity Building’ group have been discussing the impact of Covid-19 on how training is provided, initially in the context of Apprenticeships, but they used the Heritage Chat as a way of widening the discussion. For anyone looking for examples of good resources or case studies regarding online teaching, the chat provided plenty of material, and we have summarised the discussions here.

June 2020

June’s Heritage Chat explored how collaboration can be strengthened between the heritage sector, higher education institutions and community groups. Participants discussed what the key elements are for positive collaboration and what can hinder progress. They also discussed how collaboration can proceed despite a lack of funding, with an additional focus on what collaboration will look like in a post-lockdown world. Many brilliant examples of collaborative projects were shared. The Heritage 2020 Discovery, Identification and Understanding group will use these to help with their work to build a selection of case studies that provide examples of a range of collaborative projects, how to get them started, the benefits they can bring, and how to get the best out of them.

Please find a full summary of the chat here.

May 2020

The May 2020 #HeritageChat was designed in collaboration with The Heritage Alliance which is one of four partners in the Heritage Digital consortium project focused on digital skills development for the heritage sector. The chat provided the opportunity to discuss the digital skills that heritage organisations see themselves as needing to improve upon, as well as providing an opportunity to celebrate success stories. Topics discussed included digital accessibility, the most effective means for which digital skills can be used in the heritage sector, and how digital tools can be used in the classroom for heritage purposes. There was also a focus on how ‘digital’ can be used to boost heritage tourism.

Read a full summary of the discussions here.

April 2020

April’s Heritage Chat was an opportunity to build on work being done by Historic England, The Heritage Alliance and through the Historic Environment Forum and Heritage 2020 to discuss the immediate and longer-term issues that heritage sector organisations (from self-employed individuals, to large organisations) are facing due to COVID-19. Topics included how they are addressing these issues; what support exists to help the sector through this very difficult time; and where there are gaps in support. Lots of resources were shared among participants, particularly relating to funding bids and building new digital skills. Read the full summary here.