www.flodden1513.com www.flodden1513.com Ecomuseums A Brave Community Response to Commemorating a Shared Heritage of Place in an Age of Austerity? Fortune Favours the Brave – MGS Biennial Conference Thursday 12 September 2013 Hampden Park, Glasgow Alistair Bowden, Project Co-ordinator
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www.flodden1513.com
www.flodden1513.com
EcomuseumsA Brave Community Response
to Commemorating a Shared Heritage of Place
in an Age of Austerity?
Fortune Favours the Brave – MGS Biennial Conference
Thursday 12 September 2013
Hampden Park, Glasgow
Alistair Bowden, Project Co-ordinator
www.flodden1513.com
www.flodden1513.com
1. What is an Ecomuseum?
2. Flodden 1513 Ecomuseum – Brief History
3. Model
4. So what is the Flodden 1513 Ecomuseum model
a. ...is it brave?
b. ...and can it be replicated?
Overview
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Normal Museum Ecomuseum
1. What is an Ecomuseum?
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Scottish examples
•Ceumannan Ecomuseum, Trotternish, Skye•Easdale Island Folk Museum•Kilmartin House Museum
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2. A brief history 2008-09
•Five members of the local community met in August 2008•What to do to mark the 500th anniversary?•How to create a lasting legacy?
•They wanted to find out what other local people were thinking
•Community is interdisciplinary: •what more can we learn about Flodden and its aftermath?
•Academic is interdisciplinary: •what is the nature of the Ecomuseum?
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Interpretation: holistic
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Interpretation: connections
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Sustainable Environmental Dev.
•Wise use of resources•Allow for development
•(except on the battlefield)
•Document past and present culture•Mainly about raising the profile of the past•Also about 500th commemorations and the huge community-led programme of events
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Sustainable Economic Development
•Responsible tourism
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Sustainable Community Development
•Establishing cross-border links amongst groups and communities
•where a border has on the one hand very little meaning (“we’re all Borderers”)•yet on the other hand significant meaning as a legal and administrative line (2014 Scottish Referendum on Independence!!)
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4. The Flodden 1513 Ecomuseum model ...is it brave? ...can it be replicated?
www.flodden1513.com
www.flodden1513.com
Mapped against National Strategy for Scotland’s Museums and Galleries
1b. Inspire and deliver new forms of audience engagement through research, interpretation and effective use of digital and emerging technologies.
2a. Increase the impact of museums and galleries on Scotland’s learning culture by providing a wider range of experiences for enjoyment, development and learning.
2b. Increase cultural participation, maximising the number and range of people who see collections and visit and enjoy museums.
2c. Deepen the connections between museums and communities, sharing knowledge and promoting well-being and understanding.
3a. Attract and nurture talent, share and develop the skills and competencies of all parts of the workforce including volunteers, and plan more effectively for succession.
4b. Increase the financial sustainability of sector organisations [and the wider economy] by exploiting a wider range of income sources and new ways of working.
5b. Develop collaborative approaches to achieve shared ambition, increase impact and enable an agile and adaptable sector to aim higher.
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Flodden model (1)
•Leader: strong, independent, capable, respected
•Steering group: strength & diversity
•Public service organisations have ALWAYS taken a support role, NEVER a leading / directing role
•Careful deliberate progress, keeping ALL stakeholders engaged, participating and contributing
•Three funding bids, each progressively larger and more ambitious: £30k, £80k, £1.3m
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•Outcomes have evolved, but built progressively:
•Mark the 500th anniversary
•Listen to, actively respond to, support and encourage local community to appreciate and benefit from Flodden
•Learn more about and give increased access to the tangible and intangible heritage
•Encourage businesses to contribute to and take advantage of the opportunity
Flodden model (2)
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•Strategy mix
Flodden model (3)
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•If we define brave as “high risk and high reward”, then the answer has to be YES
•Many similar projects have crashed and burned
•Many more are not robust, nor sustainable in the long term
•Traditional museums, leading limited community engagement is “lower risk and lower reward”:
•BUT more expensive, lower impact and unsustainable
Is it brave?
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•The ecomuseum framework is flexible•It gives enough structure to provide stimulation
•But not so much as to restrict innovation
•Depending on what sort of ecomuseum is desired, the Flodden 1513 Ecomuseum may provide a model