Why is Heritage Important?

‘If you only have arts, you don’t have culture; you need at least the arts and heritage before you have culture’.

We are often asked to envision of a community and a place without the arts – without theatre, dance, music, galleries, arts festivals, to say nothing of creative enterprises and creative spaces, to name just a few manifestations of the arts. It would be a less vibrant, creative or innovative a place.

But equally, imagine a place without heritage – heritage that is both natural and cultural, tangible and intangible - a place without libraries, archives and museums and their collections, without historic architecture and heritage districts, and without the living heritage of memories, stories, customs and traditions. Am I wrong to think it might be a less civil place, less reflective and humble place that acknowledges we are only its latest inhabitants, and that much wisdom has been held in this place by others before us.

An arts paradigm of culture deceives us. The arts are vital to communities, but people don’t travel for the arts. Think of the great cities of the world – Paris, Rome, Venice, Cairo, Beijing or anywhere. People travel to experience the unique histories and authentic urban environment – they travel for heritage. People do not visit Jerusalem for its lively local arts scene.

The arts community always seem surprised to learn all nations are bound by more UNESCO Heritage Conventions and Declarations than anything related to the arts and creative industries.

On a deeper level E. M. Forster, the English novelist famously wrote “if we cannot remember we cannot understand”.  The American architect Robert Stern famously said, “to look far ahead, look far behind”.

The level of destruction of cultural heritage in the world today – in Israel, Ukraine, Sudan and elsewhere - rises to the level of cultural genocide. If there is anything worse than human genocide it is the deliberate destruction of the memory and identity of a people.