Saved for the Nation
The Cultural Value of Conservation
Working with the Textile Conservation Centre at Southampton University, we are working to raise awareness of this pressing agenda, and stimulate deeper thought about the role of conservation amongst policymakers, cultural professionals and within the sector itself.
Protecting the Lord Protector
at 10:15am on Wednesday, 20th August 2008
We're currently doing some work on heritage conservation and the importance of caring for the material world.
Two of the core themes will be the symbolic importance of conservation, and the opportunities for engaging people in caring for different heritage and cultural forms and the implications that has for identity.
With this in mind, it is interesting to see the work currently being done to clean and restore the statue of Oliver Cromwell on Cromwell Green in front of the Houses of Parliament. The work is scheduled to finish in time for the 350th anniversary of his death and so conservation is an important part of creating a sense of moment that will contribute to the celebrations of an important figure in British History.
Another interesting aspect of the work is that the restoration is being documented on Flickr. So, the process of conservation is charted in a way that has the potential to reach new audiences, as well as those who pass the statue en route to an office in Whitehall and might not even notice the work underway.
That's an interesting combination of new technologies being used in heritage work, and I think it shows the potential of things like social networking not only in engaging people in heritage, but also bringing new opinion to bear on it that will be an important negotiation of assumptions about the past and its relationship to the present.
Two of the core themes will be the symbolic importance of conservation, and the opportunities for engaging people in caring for different heritage and cultural forms and the implications that has for identity.
With this in mind, it is interesting to see the work currently being done to clean and restore the statue of Oliver Cromwell on Cromwell Green in front of the Houses of Parliament. The work is scheduled to finish in time for the 350th anniversary of his death and so conservation is an important part of creating a sense of moment that will contribute to the celebrations of an important figure in British History.
Another interesting aspect of the work is that the restoration is being documented on Flickr. So, the process of conservation is charted in a way that has the potential to reach new audiences, as well as those who pass the statue en route to an office in Whitehall and might not even notice the work underway.
That's an interesting combination of new technologies being used in heritage work, and I think it shows the potential of things like social networking not only in engaging people in heritage, but also bringing new opinion to bear on it that will be an important negotiation of assumptions about the past and its relationship to the present.
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