Despite several local projects and national programmes, museums are still struggling to make major inroads in diversifying their workforce and visitors.
There is a perception that heritage bodies with a national remit are even further behind the inclusion agenda than museums and galleries.
Overall, there may be some truth in that, but dig below the surface and some good work is taking place. And it is quite often whole teams of staff that are pushing the agenda, with crucial backing from an organisation’s senior management.
The National Trust and English Heritage are undergoing changes in the way in which they operate. There seems to be a serious recognition from these organisations that inclusion is the way forward, and that it’s a case of get on board or get left behind.
Two relatively recent appointments have given a clearer direction to the role inclusion plays within the National Trust and English Heritage.
Heather Smith was appointed head of Access for All at the trust in 2005. The post developed from an advisory role around disability to a central post that now has a strategic remit across the organisation.
Rachel Hasted, meanwhile, became the head of social inclusion policy and diversity at English Heritage in 2006. There had been an outreach department at the organisation since 2003, and Hasted was brought in to look at how internal policy could be developed, and to make sure that government targets were reached. She sits in the National Advice policy department.
Smith’s post came about following a restructure of the organisation. It was at a time when it was becoming clear that National Trust properties were looking for support and guidance on inclusion issues.
In February, the National Trust launched its Going Local strategy, which aims to empower managers to make more decisions about the property in their care. This seems to imply that central directives will become less common as the trust shifts resources and staff closer to its 350 properties.
The trust has had one notable success with its inclusion agenda – a project in the West Midlands region (now called the Midlands region after being combined with the East Midlands) that has been extremely effective in bringing in new audiences and volunteers.
Whose Story?, which started in 2007, aims to highlight previously untold stories, hidden histories and cultural heritage links within four National Trust properties: Back to Backs, Birmingham; Charlecote Park, Warwickshire; Croome Park, Worcestershire; and Wightwick Manor and Gardens, Wolverhampton.
Whose Story? also includes research on properties and has helped to diversify the workforce. The National Trust is holding it up as a major success story (see p34).
By Smith’s own admission, the Midlands is way ahead. But what is happening in the rest of the trust? Smith says that the north-west has a strong programme for people with disabilities, London is good on family groups and Northern Ireland has been encouraging volunteering from those with refugee and asylum-seeker status.
Smith is concerned that these areas of good practice aren’t linked. “When they are, it will show us what we need to do next,” she says. But Smith says that things have improved considerably during her five years at the National Trust.
“The attitude of management has changed by seeing what other people [organisations working on inclusion initiatives] have achieved. There are no shut doors and more conversations.”
There is a concern that under the new National Trust structure, there will no longer be a separate status for Smith’s department. Consultation documents appear to confirm that this three-strong team will cease to exist.
At English Heritage, Hasted’s role is partly about ensuring that the organisation’s core work takes inclusion and diversity into account. There have been some successes.
Last year, an equality impact assessment, including consultation with minority faith groups, was undertaken to make sure that grants were accessible to all eligible groups. And 70 managers were trained on how the decisions they may make on projects and policy can affect different people in different ways.
Work with individual communities is also taking place in an effort to show that everyone can have a stake and a say in the historic environment.
“We want to establish ways in which we look at the core work of understanding and caring for the historic environment that everybody walks through every day, and show that we all can play a part in it,” says Hasted.
Many mosques are housed in listed buildings. Hasted says English Heritage is in dialogue with minority faith communities, and it has commissioned a book by mosque architect Shahed Saleem on the history of British mosques.
A faiths contacts database has been created to make sure that information goes to all faiths about the grants and advice available from English Heritage.
These are all examples of the organisation’s core work, says Hasted, and show that it is moving towards a more inclusive model of working. However, a recent announcement from English Heritage about the possible closure of its outreach department could jeopardise this area of work.
Other areas of note that English Heritage has been involved in are the Missing Out? Heritage and Social Class conference in 2008, and the Slavery and the British Country House conference in 2009.
The organisation also provided grant aid to the Black Environment Network, the Heritage Alliance’s Embracing Difference diversity project and the Opening all the Gates project, which is being run by the National Trust, Historic Houses Association, Royal Horticultural Society and Association of Gardens Trusts.
English Heritage has worked with a researcher and historian from the African Caribbean community on its own properties’ links to the slave trade, now searchable on its website.
It has also started to make its archives searchable by terms related to minority heritage, as well as publishing research on the website into the historic environment links to the transatlantic slave trade and abolition, and to women’s history nationally.
A national heritage protection plan is in development, looking into how listing building information is going to address different sites with different heritages, and at how people access information about buildings.
There is strong anecdotal evidence that things are changing in both organisations, but the financially driven restructures they are undergoing could threaten this work.
Under the new National Trust structure, directors of regions will be responsible for reaching new audiences and creating relevant experiences for them. And a “consultancy” team will work with the newly empowered property managers on business plans.
But some within the trust are concerned that on-the-ground-support for property managers is under threat. Who will they turn to if they have the will but lack the knowledge to work with local communities? And who will turn to them, if there is no understanding as to why there is a need to do it at all?
The Historic Environment Forum is made up of 18 heritage-related organisations including the National Trust, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and the Heritage Lottery Fund.
The Broadening Access group is a sub-group of the forum and has undertaken a joint project on youth involvement in heritage, and sponsored the Missing Out – Heritage and Social Class conference and several seminars on issues such as involving young people in the historic environment and learning from the bicentenary of the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade. It is a space for sharing research, experience and skills in the heritage sector.
www.english-heritage.org.uk/professional/advice/working-with-heritage-orgs/HEF/
Whose Story? is a four-year project at four National Trust properties in the West Midlands: Back to Backs, Birmingham; Charlecote Park, Warwickshire; Croome Park, Worcestershire; and Wightwick Manor and Gardens, Wolverhampton.
With £500,000 from a Heritage Lottery Fund grant and £200,000 from the National Trust, it aims to raise the trust’s profile in the region and to change perceptions, says audience development manager Sajida Aslam. Fewer than 1% of volunteers and members in the regions are from a visible minority community.
The project’s outreach officers engaged with local African, Asian and Caribbean communities, and young people. One strand of Whose Story? was a “community ambassadors” programme that worked with individuals connected to the new audiences, who would be enthused to raise awareness within their communities about opportunities within the trust. So far, 148 volunteers have been engaged.
Another initiative involved a research manager working with Birmingham University on commissioned research into community connections to properties. Many untold historical stories were revealed.
Many of the practices used in the Midlands have been rolled out to other trust properties.
www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-global/w-localtoyou/w-west_midlands.htm