Support for the Heritage Sector

HI~Arts developed the Heritage North web resource (www.heritagenorth.org.uk), based on the existing HI~Arts website, in order to provide for the heritage sector the same range of services which the HI~Arts site had previously offered only to the arts sector.

The essence of the project was as follows:

To stimulate networking, improve communications, and enhance the marketing and dissemination of heritage activities and research, by building a web resource which will complement, and integrate with, the existing HI~Arts site.
 

 Immediate Outcomes:

• online guides to museums, visitor attractions, and natural and man-made heritage sites (see HI~Arts online Gallery Guide as model)
• Database of heritage-related groups and organizations
• A heritage focus within the HI~Arts online journal, with features, interviews, reviews, and other relevant articles (eg museum of the month)
• A library of online research, available as downloadable pdf files
• Information resources for heritage groups on topics such as training, conferences, funding sources, equipment suppliers, etc.
• An online heritage forum for sharing of ideas and expressions of need
• An e-mail bulletin.

Longer term Outcomes:

• A single portal for information, for specialists and lay visitors, on heritage in the Highlands and Islands
• Better links between the heritage and tourism sectors
• Greater visibility for the heritage sector
• Improved networking, sharing of information across sectors: voluntary, public and private
• Better planning of developments and funding applications
• Greater confidence in the voluntary heritage sector
• Greater awareness of issues and methods of capacity building for the voluntary heritage sector.
   

Wider Aims

By establishing this project, with dedicated staff, we were keen to work towards a number of wider aims in terms of supporting the heritage sector in the Highlands and Islands. These are:

• To work with the relevant national heritage bodies to develop, in the context of the recommendations of the Cultural Review, a coherent and coordinated approach to the voluntary heritage sector in the Highlands and Islands, potentially as a model for such an approach elsewhere in Scotland.
• To gather the intelligence and evidence to be able to advise Highlands and Islands Enterprise on a strategic approach to the voluntary heritage sector.
• For the duration of the programme, to act as a source of advice and information to the voluntary heritage sector: effectively to provide ‘traffic management’ to direct enquiries to the most suitable sources of assistance or funding.

The project was funded by Highlands and Islands Enterprise and the Scottish Museums Council.