Heritage and Crafts: working together to develop skills and sustain the sector, 24 March 2011

One of the outcomes of the exploratory Round Table held on 13 July 2010 was the co-organisation, in partnership with the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), of a follow-up event which took place on 24 March 2011 at Mary Ward House in London. This was attended by over 130 organisations from the Heritage and Crafts sectors, including funders, beneficiaries, support agencies and stakeholders.The aim of this day-long conference was to build on and give a much wider airing to the issues raised at the Radcliffe Round Table 2010. Our joint objective was to identify the strong messages that could be taken forward and acted upon, both by HLF and the Radcliffe Trust and by participants themselves.

The day was divided into: Radcliffe Trust and HLF grantee sharing workshops; plenary sessions on Qualifications and Standards, HLF’s future directions on heritage skills and Issues affecting the future of the Heritage and Crafts sector; a concluding Round Table for funders only. As a result of this final discussion amongst funders, a Heritage & Crafts Funders’ Network is now being set up, to be administered initially by The Trust Partnership.

The notes below include comments from participants on the event itself. The most frequently heard of these was that it had been a truly unique event and the first time ever that such a range of people – public and independent funders, support agencies, beneficiaries and fundraisers – had been assembled to work together so successfully.

The following documents provide more detailed information:

i) Summary notes of all the sessions

ii) Appendix 1: written responses to HLF’s skills questions

iii) Qualifications and Credits Framework:

iv) List of attendees