Tradition, heritage and the creative industries

The Heritage Industry has expanded considerably in recent decades, and become a key aspect of the leisure and tourist offer. We have become accustomed to seeking out ‘the old’ and interesting, from redundant and rusting industrial plant to museums of the maritime. The National Trust remains a people’s favourite, but has had to do some serious thinking in recent years about the commonplace narrative attached to grand houses and their previous occupants. There have been several TV series recently, putting families in to ‘historical’ situations in order for them to both struggle, cope and have their consciousness raised about life ‘in the past.'

Can we, should we, reproduce ‘pasts’ (create a simulacrum) to try out how life and culture was, to help inform and educate, as well as with the TV stuff, entertain? Is there scope here to enliven the school based History curriculum for the benefit of children? I went to school in Southampton which has a very well preserved medieval town, by the sea of course. A lot of what is left is Tudor, and resonates with cross-channel trade (and wars). When our time came to discuss the Tudors at school I recall asking if we were going to do a field trip to the ‘old town’. The suggestion was met with a swift rebuke!

As the pages of The Journal demonstrate, many people do care a good deal about having an authentic ‘reading’ of our past. Music is a good example here; it really does matter to some people that a Beethoven sonata should be played on a ‘piano’ contemporary to the man himself; although later in his life he could not hear the end result anyway. In general terms the Heritage Industry, now a key consciousness raising and profit making part of the Cultural Industries in general, has a lot to answer for. Occasionally ‘searching the cultural archive’ can have beneficial effects. For example, the ‘re-discovery’ of many ‘artists’ consistently ignored because of their class, gender or ethnicity.

What constitutes ‘Heritage’? What are the criteria for any cultural artifact to be deemed to be of our heritage has become both vague, and ubiquitous. Whose heritage are we talking about? Our heritage, our cultural past, or, one imposed by someone in the ‘dream and aspiration factory’? Which in turn usually ends up being a set of easily-to-hand clichés; ‘freezing’ history. Statues are a good example of currently public consciousness. What we have seen recently is an oppositional movement to question the appropriateness of having public (place) statues of slave traders, or imperialists on horseback, and so on. Statues are aspects of visual culture, and often by the very nature of tradition, taken for granted. That frozen history already mentioned, does usually imply we are okay with the maintenance of the status quo socially and culturally. Recent actions would suggest that this no longer the case. Some people say that some statues, like Colston in Bristol, would be better off in a museum, a relic not quite confined to the ‘dustbin of history’, but certainly re-contextualised with a different narrative of role and value.

These issues are with us now as more and more cultural groups wish to assert their right to an identity with which they are comfortable. But, also more people are keen to adjust conventional, even traditional, perceptions and understandings of who they are. This demand for re-assessment of people, and their heritage, their past, is a question of value.

In general terms, Art in all its diversity can be a place to open up these questions, to reflect upon, and re-consider what we think we know about the human condition, about people’s lives and loves, as well as their frustrations and disappointments.

And, don’t forget that if you are active in the arts, and would like to share, develop, and access support for your practice, you can join us in Arts & Culture East Devon (ACED).

John Astley (astley.john@gmail.com)