The National Trust for Scotland (NTS) is hosting a free conference in Edinburgh on 15 May to explore the future of Scotland’s nationally significant collection of historic sites and the current challenges faced in funding and resourcing: ‘Towards a National Collection? Ownership, access and enjoyment in an age of austerity’.
IHBC Director Sean O’Reilly said: ‘We’re delighted that the NTS is taking a lead in these critical discussions about the future of Scotland’s most important historic sites and places. These are rapidly changing times for anyone interested in the future of our heritage collections as well as our heritage as a whole, so this is a great – and free – opportunity for anyone interested in these issues to come along and find out about current thinking both within and beyond Scotland’.
NTS writes:
Scotland’s historic environment, its buildings, monuments and sites, tells our story as a nation, shapes our present and will (we hope) be handed on to our successors. Now, in a time of reducing budgets and with a changing institutional landscape, we ask how Scotland might best conserve its most important historic sites. Faced with these pressures, can we learn from conservation practice in other countries and in other fields? We already have national collections for art, for books, for artefacts, amongst others – do we also need a national collection of historic buildings and places? We invite you to a thought-provoking day at the Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh to start this debate.
Speakers will include:
- Karin Gold Cox, National Property Board of Sweden
- Duncan Dornan and Alex Maclean, Glasgow Life
- Deborah Lamb, English Heritage
- Terry Levinthal, National Trust for Scotland
- Aileen McKechnie, Scottish Government
- Colin McLean, Heritage Lottery Fund
- Guy Morgan, Morgan McDonnell Architects
- Joanne Orr, Museums Galleries Scotland
- Sarah Troughton, Historic Houses Association
