March 24, 2012
“The Many Voices of Heritage”
The Heritage Conservation stream of the School of Canadian Studies has hosted six symposia over the past eight years. This year’s symposium is being organized by the graduate students in the program and will be held on Saturday, March 24th, 2012 at the Bronson Centre in Ottawa. The symposium will explore the many voices of heritage conservation and how these messages are being conveyed.
Sharing similar concerns about the state of society, the heritage grassroots movement in Canada emerged around the same time as the environmental movement of the 1960s. Over the past few decades, although both fields have become well organized and have found their way into public policy, the Green Movement has captured a mass appeal that heritage has failed to elicit.
Communities are interested in understanding and protecting their cultural heritage, but often have no idea where to begin looking for information. The fragmented, multi-disciplinary nature of the field of heritage conservation and of the diversity of approaches to conserving heritage is embodied in the ways in which this knowledge is communicated to the general public: in short, we lack a streamlined and organized source of heritage conservation tools and information in Ontario; not just for communities but also for academics and professionals.
THE SYMPOSIUM WILL BE ORGANIZED INTO 4 BROAD CATEGORIES:
- What message is the heritage movement trying to convey?
- What other ‘heritage voices’ exist? Where/whom are they coming from?
- How are these voices being shared and disseminated?
- Opportunities & Challenges