Gateways into Heritage

Held at Greenwich Theatre in March 2024, Gateways into Heritage was the first of what is to become an annual event in our calendar.

The English Heritage Youth Engagement team hosted a day of talk, panels, workshops and performances to showcase the creative and collaborative nature of our programme, the young people we work with and our many partner organisations from across the heritage, creative and youth sectors.

Three young people looking at a heritage ceiling, photo taken through a doorway.

During the full day event we learnt about the range of creative skills and experiences that have enabled ‘gateways’ into heritage for young people in exciting ways, from photography and theatre, to stargazing and musical composition.

We explored English Heritage sites and stories that inspired and fueled this creativity, enabling young people to share their unique perspectives on heritage with others.

Amongst our audience were representatives from national and local youth organisations, creative industries, funding bodies, other museum and heritage organisations, and young people.

If you couldn’t make it on the day, or did but are longing to re-live some of the best moments, then this is the page for you!

Keep scrolling to catch up on all the talks, panels and performances from the day.

Photo of Gerard Lemos CMG CBE, a brown skinned man, with round glasses and white hair.

Welcome from Gerard Lemos CMG CBE

Gerard Lemos, English Heritage’s Chair of Trustees, provided the official welcome address for the event.

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Group of young people in yellow shout out loud hats taking a selfie

Introduction to Shout Out Loud

An introduction to English Heritage’s national youth engagement programme, ‘Shout Out Loud’ by Senior Youth Engagement manager, Dr Kirsty McCarrison.

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Image of four girls dressed in period costume at a castle

Reflections from Kick the Dust

We were then joined by Melissa Strauss, Policy Manager from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, for reflections on the Kick the Dust initiative, designed to engage more young people with heritage. The English Heritage youth engagement programme ‘Shout Out Loud’ started as a Kick the Dust project back in 2018.

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Image of a group of young people and youth workers standing in front of Stonehenge with the sunset

‘No Aspiration without Inspiration’

Kate Parish, Transition and Young Persons Youth Worker from the NHS, then talked us through how she has seen heritage used as inspiration for project work, and how vital such opportunities are for young people. 

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Photo of Chiswick House

Black Chiswick through History: Re-interpreting our histories and collections with young people

Xanthe Arvanitakis, Director, and Harvinder Bahra, Community Participation Manager, both of Chiswick House and Gardens Trust shared with us their ongoing Black Chiswick through History project. They were joined by Joshua Olumodi, a participant who performed poetry he developed as part of the project.

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Picture of two young black men, in dress from different decades greeting each other

Fluid process of heritage

Kemka Ajoku, Photographer and commissioned artist from the ‘England New Lenses’ project was joined by Julia Bunnemann, Curator of Photoworks, to discuss his experience and the impact this opportunity had on his practice and career ambitions.

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Image of a person at a podium energetically addressing an audience

‘Nominating a Blue Plaque recipient’

Lightning talk: Chania Fox, Youth Participation Officer, and inaugural Youth Blue Plaque Panelist at English Heritage talked about the Blue Plaque nomination process.

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Image of a person at a podium energetically addressing an audience

Heritage Youth Partnership: Setting the challenge

Lightning talk: Ed Sherry OBE, Trustee of the Youth United Foundation, introduced us all to the Heritage Youth Partnership.

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Image of a young man dressed in period costume with a walking cane.

Reverberate: How youth groups can be inspired by heritage

Panel discussion about Reverberate, an English Heritage youth engagement initiative to support grass-root organisations to to run small, locally-based projects that enable and empower young people to re-discover, re-imagine and re-create their local heritage through creativity.

Panel Chair: Dr Kirsty McCarrison, Senior Youth Engagement Manager, English Heritage

Panelists:

Ben Turner, Toni Olabanji and Tyrelle Boyce – RAP Club Productions

Laura Brewis and Ami McGuinness – We Make Culture

Jonty Lees – Falmouth University/ Pool School Gallery

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Outline of girls faces on a black background

Performance by Ami McGuinness

A live performance of the beautiful work Ami created as part of the We Make Culture ‘Lasses and Lyrics’ project from Reverberate 2020 (discussed in the Reverberate panel).

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young people in historical outfits filming in character

Performance by Toni Olabanji and Tyrelle Boyce

A live performance of a scene from ‘Kill the King’, a short film created by RAP Club Productions and Spit Game. Developed as a follow on project after RAP Club’s involvement in Reverberate 2023 (discussed in the Reverberate panel).

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Image of a young women with lots of curly ginger hair laughing

The impact of Youth Voice

Youth Panel

Co-chairs:

Celine Elliott, Youth Development Manager, English Heritage

& Leonie Price, English Heritage Young Producer Alumni

Panelists:

Jo MacQueen, Carefree Cornwall

Dr Sadia Habib, Manchester Museum/Manchester University

Hawwa Alam & Maya Chowdhury, Manchester Museum OSCH Young Collective

Dr Joanne Kirton, Council for British Archaeology

Jess Ellison, Youth Advisory Board, Council for British Archaeology

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Image of a group of young people standing around the legs of a giant model of Shawn the Sheep

Architectural Inspiration in Animation

Our keynote address for the day came from Sarah Hauldren, Art Director representing Aardman Academy, who shared how magical animated sets and locations can be created based on real heritage spaces!

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Image of two young people smiling whilst looking around a heritage space

Closing Panel

Closing panel

Panel chair:
Dr Nick Merriman OBE, CEO, English Heritage

Panelists:

Laura Brewis, Founder and Director, We Make Culture

Dr Kirsty McCarrison, Senior Youth Engagement Manager, English Heritage

Melissa Strauss, Policy Manager, National Lottery Heritage Fund

Janie Winter, Year 2 Young Producer

Yoyo Lam, Year 1 Young Producer

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