| KE Theme: Heritage |
While heritage is a broad term, the emphasis within the College of Arts is very much on cultural heritage. We strive to recognise, record, research, manage, maintain, debate, enjoy, and preserve this tangible and intangible inheritance for future generations to appreciate.
The College of Arts works with physical objects that represent the story of human development. This encompasses historic landscapes, buildings, and field monuments as well as cultural artefacts such as works of art, books and documents, clothing and personal items.
The College also deals with the intangible features which together help to define who we are and where we have come from – memories, stories, ideas, performances, even language itself.
We are actively engaged in the debate around how to preserve both past and present cultural heritage, as we recognise that the past of tomorrow is the present of today.
In response to this need for positive action, we make important contributions to policy and practice as well as the more traditional scholarly study and interpretation of cultural heritage. This covers areas such as strategic policy development and enhancement, curriculum development across a broad range of subjects, contributions and advice to heritage programmes and news items, as well as advising and supporting community engagement with aspects of their cultural heritage.
Academics across the College of Arts also provide cultural heritage consultancy and advice for a wide variety of organisations, encompassing government agencies, charitable bodies, businesses, media, local authorities and community groups.