HLF goes for the broad view

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The Heritage Lottery Fund is embarking on a mission to galvanise public support for the heritage over the next five years. The promotion of greater public awareness of and commitment to the heritage features strongly in the HLF’s new strategic plan for 2002-2007, launched in May.

In interview with Lottery Monitor, Liz Forgan, chair of the fund, empha-sises that the strategy goes beyond simply raising public awareness of designated heritage; what is needed is a redefinition of the concept to encompass a range of perceptions of what counts as part of people’s community history, cultural and social capital. ‘To persuade more people to like Botticelli is one thing,’ Forgan says, ‘but the really exciting thing is to engender a discussion in which we can figure out how important is Brick Lane?’ The HLF plan confirms a gradual but significant shift away from support for blockbuster official heritage sites, in favour of more, smaller awards for artefacts, natural sites, customs and traditions deemed locally to be of value from the past. The plan commits the HLF to the programme of devolved decision-making it has already begun to establish in the English regions. Seven regional operations are up and running, the last two offices open in July, and staff are being gradually relocated from the London office to their regional bases.

Development teams based in regional and country offices will carry out capacity building work to generate high-quality applications from hitherto underfunded localities and to boost the take-up of HLF’s medium-and small-grants schemes such as Your Heritage and Awards for All.

HLF Regional Offices