Heritage creativity and innovation

1. Heritage creativity and innovation Capturing the past or losing the future?

2. Cumbria – Essential FAQ’s • The second largest county in England • 500,000 population • 15 million visitors a year • Contains the Lake District a national park and prospective World Heritage Site • England’s highest mountain - Scafell Pike 978 m • England’s deepest lake - Wastwater 76m

3. Further FAQ’s • 70% of settlements have populations of less than 200 people • 19.5% fall in secondary school population by 2017 • 17% people live in the 10% most deprived in country • Pockets of severe deprivation in west Cumbria and Carlisle

4. Tourism • 13% growth in value from £947m in 2000 to £1billion in 2003. • 15.5 million tourist trips in 2003 = 5m overnight and 10m day visitors • Total number of tourism jobs around 43,000

7. The Contribution of Culture • Characterised by range and richness, not by scale of major venues • Defined by landscape, food and agricultural traditions • Recent innovations such as music and literature festivals, major public art – many strengthened by response to Foot and Mouth in 2001

8. Case Studies • WHS Inscription for Lake District • Lowther Castle • A Digital and Creative Industries Strategy

9. The Background for a Lake District bid for Inscription • The Lake District was nominated for inscription in 1986 and again in 1989 • The proposals were on the basis of both cultural and natural criteria • Both proposals were deferred principally due to the difficulty of assessing both types of criteria together • A new category of ‘Cultural Landscape’was included in the World Heritage List in 1993 partly as a result of the Lake District’s nomination

10. 1700s Today 1800s 1900s Early Lake’s tourists Visiting the lakes becomes fashionable during 18th Century. The first guide to the lakes published in 1778. Birth of the Romantic and Picturesque movements brings art and literature to the world stage. The Lake Poets A group of writers including Wordsworth became known as The Lake Poets. Tourism employs 100 times as many people as agriculture and fishing. John Ruskin Born 1819 Leading intellectual, conservationist, influential in shaping the cultural landscape. The Lake District National Park is established in 1951 as the largest English National Park, covering 2,292sq kms. Beatrix Potter Born 1865 Leaves 27 books, 14 farms and 4000 acres of land to the National Trust. World Heritage Site Status for the Lake District? Cultural Heritage The Lake District plays a key role in the formation of the UK conservation movement. Birth of National Trust (founded in 1895). 1700s to Today = period of Outstanding Universal Value - Global Significance

11. Outstanding Universal Value Core Values for Lake District Cultural Landscape • Continually Evolving Landscape of the Lake District over 14,000 Years (WHS Criteria (ii) (iii) (iv)) • Discovery and Appreciation of the Lakeland as Inspiration to the Search for the Picturesque and the Ideas of the Romantics (Criteria vi) • Influence of the Lake District in the Emergence, Growth, and Development of Environmental Conservation (Criteria vi) • “Many other Values” ….. but must be universal

12. WHS Areas of concern • The tension between conservation and development • Planning and development – amid fears that WHSI could increase planning constraint • The negative effects of more tourism and the need to balance conservation with any desire to increase numbers • Ensuring that benefits accrue across Cumbria and are not just contained within the Lake District • Connotations of ‘heritage’ and the impression of a static society unwilling to move with the times.

13. Lowther castle • Lowther Castle is a Grade II* listed building built during the height of the Romantic period of architecture in the early 19th Century. The Castle is surrounded by 500 acres of woodland and parkland. The castle is now derelict and closed to public use and has been for over 50 years. • The Lowthers are a medieval knightly family that can be traced back to the period just after the Norman Conquest. Both the arms and the family tree are documented from the late twelfth century making the Lowthers one of the oldest of recorded English families.

14. The Lowther Castle & Gardens Project will create a tourist attraction of international repute based on a 500 acres site at the core of the Lowther Estate in east Cumbria on the fringe of the national park . It will bring alive the heart of the estate, dramatically transforming this over a period of years from a ruin and an overgrown jungle into a high quality centre of creativity and enjoyment. The aim is to create a new centre of economic and creative growth for the local and sub-regional economy. The core theme of the project is the idea of people and landscapes; the project will explore and celebrate the interaction of people and landscapes through all that it does: The Lowther Castle Project

16. The Digital and Creative Industries • A Creative Industries Partnership was tasked with formulating an outline strategy for the development of the digital and creative industries (DCI’s) in Cumbria • Key findings raised some fundamental issues: • Lack of critical mass affects attractiveness to new business • Existing sector in Cumbria is small and unlikely to grow through internal growth • Inward Investment therefore recommended as key strategy • Perception issues as holiday destination • Holiday brand affects lifestyle orientated industry limited aspirations for growth • However strong relationship between certain arts and craft sectors and tourism which need to be reflected in tourism development

17. Putting culture at the heart of economic regeneration • Culture plays a crucial role in our lives • It complements and adds value to our world class landscape and heritage • Our pool of creative talent plays an important role as a generator of wealth and employment in Cumbria • We count creativity in our people as much of a cultural asset as our cultural venues and our aim is to foster and develop both, growing and retaining younger talent in the county and attracting new creative business into it.

18. ……but • Lack of strategic and joint marketing for the sector • No overall county ‘brand ‘ for culture • A need for strategic investment • Lack of diverse contemporary appeal • Little higher value added activity • Affected by wider issues of access and sparsity

19. Conclusions • Cumbria generates much emotion when it comes to discussing its strengths and weaknesses and the opportunities open to it. The stunning landscapes and the rich cultural heritage contrast with the high levels of economic deprivation in certain areas and the increasing numbers of, sometimes, undiscerning tourists. These circumstances generate high expectations from all sides on the public sector in particular to come up with all embracing solutions to the various problems. • One thing is certain no lasting sustainable solutions will emerge for the cultural sector unless they are clearly linked to wider social and economic regeneration for the county and take heed of the shared outcomes that all public agencies are now trying to achieve to improve the social and economic wellbeing of the people who live here.