One of a series of workshops and EU Leonardo da Vinci seminars organised by COTAC as part of the Transfusion programme.

With more than 80 papers there must have been something of interest at some time during the Heritage Forum conference for just about anyone involved in conservation. The conference itself was excellent. The papers were relevant and generally well presented with plenty of appropriate graphic support. Heritage Forum was an exhibition and conference at the Business Design Centre in Islington, north London, intended to be an English version of the German Denkmal event, held every other year in Leipzig. The London event was run by the organisers of Denkmal. The next Denkmal takes place 25-28 October 2000 and is expected to attract more than 600 exhibitors and 20,000 trade visitors. The Germans always knew the London event would he smaller, but being organised with the help of a 20 strong advisory board of representatives from various training bodies and conservation organisations including COTAC and with the support of 31 similar organisations, they expected a reasonable turnout.

Ulrich Kromer
Ulrich Kromer, managing director of the Leipzig Fair Authority, called it ‘a good result’, and confirmed that they intend to hold a second Heritage Forum in London in the future.

Lord Montagu of Beaulieu
The conference began with Lord Montagu of Beaulieu saying at the opening ceremony that it was breaking new ground, being both international and interdisciplinary.

The built heritage had always been under threat, he said – from wars, from neglect, from vandalism of all kinds – and continued to be, although the level of understanding of heritage was increasing, even if we were not so good at finding uses for conserved buildings.

‘Many historic English houses are still vibrant because they are homes,’ he said. He had known churches, which had become nightclubs, but, ‘better they should he used than stand idle.’

He thought those who attended the forum would go away with a stronger view that heritage is everyone’s responsibility, so that as much of the country’s heritage as possible could be passed on to the next generation.

Keynote Speaker
The keynote speaker at the opening was to have been Arts Minister Alan Howarth. Government ministers often discover at the last minute they are unable to keep appointments and Alan Howarth did here, so Nigel Pittman attended in his stead to read what the Minister would have said.

And what he would have said was that the creative and cultural industries were being increasingly recognised as areas of potential growth, with 16% of the world’s creative exports attributed to the UK. The Government’s Creative Industry Task Force with its Heritage Tourism & Museums Sub-Group showed how seriously the government took the matter. It was working with trade bodies to encourage small and micro-companies to work together to mutual advantage with, for example, inward and outward missions to important countries.

Reproduced in part from an article in Natural Stone Specialist Magazine, July 2000, by Eric Bignell.