Heritage in Motion: Empowering Communities through Arts Landscape-Based Participatory Methods for Cultural Connection and Activism. Drone photograph Harry Sutherland.
Posted by dom in Uncategorized
Heritage in Motion
Heritage in Motion presented at Hanaholmen Cultural Center for Sweden and Finland in Helsinki. Photograph Hanna Musiol
Empowering Communities through Arts Landscape-Based Participatory Methods for Cultural Connection and Activism
This is the title of a paper I presented at a conference called ‘Mobile heritage: Walking and the environment through future and historical perspectives’ organised by the One by Walking network. The conference took place at Hanaholmen Cultural Center for Sweden and Finland in Helsinki.
The paper examines a year-and-a-half-long project involving youth (both teenage and primary-aged) in co-producing heritage narratives while walking segments of heritage sites along the north and south sides of the River Tamar, UK. Combining walking and talking, digital and analogue arts-led methods, AI, and drafting policy documents (community approach), participants collaborated with researchers, artists and practitioners, and also engaged the broader community through heritage displays. These interactions took place not only in structured workshops but also through drop-ins, visits, and informal gatherings, reflecting a participatory and co-creative approach.
Mushroom near Hanaholmen Cultural Center for Sweden and Finland in Helsinki. Photograph Hanna Musiol
Drawing on theories of place-based education, with attention to neurodiversity and participatory arts that incorporate walking, the project explores how physical engagement with heritage sites, such as walking through Francis Drake’s home in Buckland Abbey, can shape creative outputs. For instance, objects brought by the teenage group inspired the creation of four mini landscapes, leading to diverse narrative forms: non-narrative, narrative, policy brief, and film.
Delegates consisted of an international audience who are engaged in heritage, environmentalism and walking. Most scholars and artists were from the Nordic North including the wider Baltic Basin (Poland, Slovenia etc) but there were also participants from China, Spain, Scotland, Ireland, England, Belgium, Israel and Italy with scholars from further afield also dialling in.Â
The paper was well-received, with eleven delegates from various parts of the world approaching me after the session to express how much they valued the presentation. During the brief question/comment session, which included discussions on three other presentations, attendees made the following remarks specifically about the paper:
“It’s really powerful—you’re giving people access to places near seats of power that they wouldn’t normally have a chance to experience.”
“This is action research on the ground, making a difference through arts-led research. It’s like a spider web, an entanglement. You’re one of those artists engaged in entanglement work with communities.”
“I wish my research made a difference like this. I’d like to work more on the ground to have a similar impact.”
“You’ve reminded us of ‘the other’ in research.”
“It was really good to see your methods, which some of us knew, being applied in the context of such a project.”
There were a number of brilliant papers presented which I can share through publication in 2025.