Notice from the Heritage Council regarding Heritage Week 2020
In light of the restrictions on social gatherings due to COVID-19, we know that many of you have been wondering if National Heritage Week will be going ahead this year. We are delighted to announce that it is, albeit in a different format to previous years.
Since the emergence of the crisis, the Heritage Council has been examining how to deliver Heritage Week in a way that does not compromise public health. As restrictions are likely to still be in place in August, Heritage Week will not focus on the delivery of events this year.
Instead, we are inviting you to undertake projects that will culminate during Heritage Week. As such, you are invited to consider exploring a topic – with your family, your community, or your organisation – that is associated with this year’s theme of ‘Heritage and Education: Learning from our Heritage’.
Projects can comprise researching an aspect of heritage on your doorstep, sharing or re-learning a skill from our heritage, or exploring an aspect of Ireland’s educational heritage.
The results of your projects should be presented in a format that can be shared widely, for example through a video; podcast or oral history recording; a PowerPoint presentation or blog; through your community’s or organisation’s newsletter; via an online talk, workshop, demonstration or exhibition; or via an interview with your local radio station or newspaper. A newly opened – and moderated – social media account could also be used to tell others about your project.
We encourage heritage newcomers, who have recently become curious about aspects of our heritage, previous Heritage Week event organisers, and those with a track record in championing aspects of our heritage to participate in Heritage Week 2020. Projects can involve developing something new, or revisiting a heritage project or research into an aspect of our heritage that you have already worked on.
For now, we invite you to:
• Think about a project that is linked to this year’s theme, and that you, your family, community or organisation can develop or revisit for Heritage Week.
• Consider how you can engage with the community around you in building your project, and how to involve people across different generations.
• Mark Heritage Week in your diary: it takes place from 15th – 23rd August and is the time when projects from around the country will be shared on the Heritage Week website (https://www.heritageweek.ie/).
We will launch a national call for Heritage Week projects later this month, and registration for project ideas will open on the Heritage Week website then. Once you have registered your idea, you can move on to develop your project and to share your outcome with us in time for Heritage Week.
We are building a new website to take account of the changes to Heritage Week this year and this will go live very soon. In the coming weeks, we’ll be sharing ideas on projects you might consider exploring for Heritage Week 2020, as well as further information on how you might construct your project; on the terms and conditions you must comply with; and what resources will be available to you to help support the development of your project.