Take 5 with the Team

25 Nov 2022

by Sarah Holloway

An abstract colourful drawing of a full steaming cup of tea, sat in a saucer.

Taking stock…

We’ve gone through thousands of pieces of feedback (thank you everyone!) to help us understand how things went across the country… the good, the bad, and the bunting! We were delighted to see that the vast majority was good, even though the bunting was necessarily subdued this year in view of the timing.

Wonderful experience. Friendly, knowledgeable staff. Blew my socks off!

Visitor

2022

It really brought together people from different areas of interest, different backgrounds AND, importantly, very local people who had never ever visited their own Grade I listed church!

Organiser

2022

...and telling the world!

The bunting is not quite packed away for the team, we keep some on a shelf on standby, along with leaflets, badges and other festival ‘goodies’ for any events we attend. This helps us spread the word and again get more feedback as we meet up with old friends and make new ones at home and away!

Locally

Just down the road from our office the annual 'Historic Buildings Parks & Gardens' exhibition twinned with Historic Houses AGM takes place. Being so close we were able to tag-team at the event to meet as many people as possible. It was great to catch up with old friends like the Churches Conservation Trust team and one of our retired local coordinators from Warwick. We also had a great chat with the team from The Gardens Trust who held their Historic Landscapes Forum later in the week. They have an exciting Community Champions scheme and we are in discussions to work more with them to celebrate and share our wonderful garden history.

Internationally

In October I was lucky enough to be one of a series of speakers at the inspiring International National Trusts’ conference run in partnership with the V&A: ‘Heritage Now: Relevance and Community’. Representatives from 72 countries travelled to beautiful Dundee in Scotland to make new connections, discuss learnings and find inspiration on our work to engage communities sustainably with our heritage. It was great to share the work of our festival community with this amazing global network. Some of the sessions were recorded so we hope to have more news of follow up events soon!

A group of people sat in rows of chairs listening to a panel present a presentation. On the stage a women with ginger hair is standing holding a mic. — Sharing the work of our festival community with an international audience. (© INTO Dundee AR)

Firing up for next year!

Building on the feedback we’ve received we are busy preparing for next year. Alex and Charlotte have a whole wish list of IT changes to improve your experience. Liam is putting together those all important resources for organisers. And I’m pondering more events to connect our community – hopefully including more in person meet ups this time as well as our practical webinars

Hot off the press already though we have news of our theme and organiser training project:

Creativity Unwrapped!

Next year our festival theme will be unwrapping the colourful history of creativity. Covering everything from architecture, crafts, dance, film, garden design, literature, music, and more! We can’t wait to see and share what our festival community uncovers for this spotlight on the people and places who give England’s heritage the X factor!

New Wave

Applications are now OPEN for the next wave of our youth engagement project. If you’re interested in working with young people to create exciting new events, learning alongside other organisers (and getting £1,000 to help make it happen!) then please apply!