Why Heritage Matters
What is heritage?
In the framework for cultural statistics developed by Stats Canada Museums, Archives, and Libraries are categorized as heritage, NOT, arts or creative industries.
Baeker’s expertise within this area concerns specifically museums and “big tent” heritage policy.
Doesn’t have so much knowledge
Three categories of heritage resources:
Movable (collections, archives)
Immovable (buildings)
Intangible
What is heritage conservation?
The steps in heritage conservation are:
Identification
Preservation
Interpretation
Sustainable use
We usually just get stuck on preservation! We need to think more about the other three. Think about heritage as an active, living resource, not a passive thing to preserve and maintain.
Governance systems. Map them, distinguish their roles. Upside down pyramid graph, community at the top, federal government at the bottom.
The overall message is that this is the kind of policy work that never gets done well. But its so important!