Conference / Call For Papers

Landscapes and legacy: critical partnerships between arts, culture and heritage
Introduction

Landscapes and Legacy is a two-day conference hosted at University of Derby on the 26th
and 27th June 2019 that will discuss how partnerships in the arts and cultural sector inform
heritage. The conference aims to respond to the demands and possibilities within different types of heritage and legacy making activity, natural, cultural and industrial within the managed urban and rural landscape. It intends to address questions regarding the interaction between public and private bodies tasked with maintenance, driven often by singular rather than collective needs and desires. This has sometimes surfaced in debates between the significance of natural versus cultural heritage and the widening desire to be more inclusive of under-represented sectors of the community.
This raises a number of questions such as: -
• Websites, social media, pamphlets, brochures, photographs, paintings,
performance, fashion and the graphic arts all communicate something of
themselves and their subject matter, but how important is it to bring them all into
one place when funding and changing priorities often drive them apart?
• We often talk about ‘visitor-friendly’ activity, but is there a typical visitor and what do they access and how?
• How does the heritage and landscape site attract visitors without the footfall
damaging their conditions?
• How does the notion of sustainable tourism fit with this ideal?
• Can we evidence how landscape improvements have enhanced biodiversity, and
their effect of economic or political changes and sustainability, and how this can be
archived and accessed for future communication of its significance?
• With as many different platforms as there are people willing to use them, how can a
coherent strategy be found that is or becomes future proof and on what ideological
position would it be based?
• What core heritage messages need to be communicated?
The conference aims to draw out some of the issues within this subject to inform how
planning effective heritage and legacy making can be created and maintained.
Presentations are invited for submission to, but are not limited, to address these themes.
The conference is established to compliment the legacy plan of the University of Derby’s
DerwentWISE project, their £2.5m partnership with Derbyshire Wildlife Trust, Derbyshire
County Council, Natural England, The Environment Agency, Derwent Valley Mills World
Heritage Site Partnership, The Forestry Commission, English Heritage, The National Stone
Centre, Fleet Arts, The Arkwright Society, Derby City Council, Derbyshire Dales District
Council, and Amber Valley CVS.
Working together over a five-year period the partners collectively worked on over sixty
different projects.

Landscapes and legacy: critical partnerships between arts, culture and heritage
Call for Papers

The conference is focused on the key themes of that critically examine partnerships between the arts, culture and heritage and we invite papers, presentations and ‘visual or audio formats’ (such as posters and short films) from artists, curators, heritage professionals, academics, researchers and research students. All presentation formats to be a maximum of
20 minutes in length. We particularly invite submissions which explore the following themes and topics:

Alternative Landscapes, heritage and social exclusion
Whose Land? ~
• How have people responded to and challenged notions of landscape in
images and words?
• Does gender/background/age play a significant part of the way in which we
engage with landscape and heritage?
• Are there different ways in which different groups might be encouraged to
engage with heritage and landscape in the light of climate change and the
challenges that presents?
• Are there class divides and what can be done to dismantle historic
perceptions of landscape and heritage which has been reinforced by many
artistic practices?

Communication
Connecting People and Place ~
• This may be a reflection on contemporary or historic practices which locate
the landscape in perception or which challenge the way we relate to the
space around us.
• How art is used to enable the public to appreciate, interpret and engage with
the practical work that has been or is being done as part of environmental
partnerships?
• What role does artistic research either as performance or academic
engagement play in the visibility of landscape legacy and in public
accountability?

Industry
Locating differences between natural, cultural and industrial heritage ~
• Sites of Conscience. Are there things that can be learned by the ecological
effects of industry that can inform the wider issues we now face?
• What role does or should industry play in its own legacy and heritage?
• Many ‘heritage’ sites are former industrial sites, what criteria should there be
in deciding what to preserve and what to repurpose?
• Agriculture plays an important part in the maintenance of the land and
natural heritage, how might they become more involved and what happens
when their needs compete with those of the other stakeholders?

Landscape, heritage and the arts
What role should the arts play in the partnerships ~
• This may be a reflection on contemporary or historic activity in artistic
research and practice
• How art is used to enable the public to appreciate, interpret and engage with
the practical work that has been or is being done as part of the partnership.
Abstracts of up to 300 words in length should be sent to either: ~

m.hall@derby.ac.uk
R.Jones3@derby.ac.uk
P.McCloskey2@derby.ac.uk

Abstract submission closes 22 March 2019.

Please include the following details:
• Your title, full name and affiliation (if applicable).
• Your email address.
• Working title of abstract.
• Presentation type (oral presentation, poster, film or audio formats).
• Abstract (up to 300 words total).
• A short list of Keywords.