The Heritage Field School 2021, organized by The Future is Heritage in the region of Arnhem has come to an end. A weekend full of inspiration, exchange of experiences, ambitious debates and especially full of conversations. Both participants and session leaders felt it was a blast to meet in real life again after so many online meetings. This year the conference was hosted by Erfgoed Brabant and Erfgoed Gelderland in the region of Arnhem in the province of Gelderland. The grand opening of The Heritage Field School was also held at the House of Province in Arnhem and opened by Dorine van Espelo. During the event we visited several regional heritage locations that exist mainly because of the efforts of many heritage volunteers, which causes that this years’ Field School felt like an international, regional event which gave a good impression of the Dutch heritage field.
For the organization of the Field School a project team was formed with members from The Netherlands, Ireland, Belgium, Spain, France and Rumania. They drew up a content program with four main themes:
Forty five participants from fifteen countries worked on these themes during several workshops and excursions. In all of these workshops we concluded that having an active community around heritage impacts the heritage itself but also possibilities to move forward to a more sustainable and inclusive heritage sector. During these workshops participants discussed the heritage policies in their own countries but also learned from their own and other’s experiences. This exchange, both international and intergenerational opted in an opportunity to develop skills and knowledge surrounding the themes that were discussed. The full programme of the weekend is available here. The conclusions of the Field School are shortly presented during the #EURegionsWeek 2021 but will also be made digitally available at the beginning of next month.
One of the most important goals of The Future is Heritage is the network that forms all of the events organized by The Future is Heritage. This year we saw a lot of new people, who never before participated in The Future is Heritage. We can look back on a successful Field School with very enthusiastic participants. The network of The Future is Heritage has grown significantly and we have no doubt that all of our participants have been able to add new contacts to their own network. During the weekend we already saw the first initiatives to keep in contact, also after The Heritage Field School.
Now the Field School is finished it is time for us to look forward. New contacts, both with participants and with heritage organizations have been made and will be discovered over the next period. There is no doubt that the participating young professionals, students and established professionals concluded this Field School with more energy and inspiration than before. We hope to built our network even further and intensify the contacts that have there base in this event. We are the future and the present. We must built the future of heritage together.
