Working with a heritage expert

When introducing heritage to a community art education programme, it can help to engage someone who has expertise in the area of heritage you wish to explore. In this way you can help nurture and strengthen your local intangible cultural heritage while also adding depth and meaning to your art education programme.

Selecting a heritage form

The first step in this process is selecting the heritage form you would like to use in your project. It is advisable to start with the traditions which are part of your particular local community and culture. Are there any activities, customs, skills, languages or pieces of knowledge which are unique to where you are based?

In the case of Oideas Gael we focused on storytelling, in particular storytelling based on the mythology of placenames and geographical features. Some factors in selecting this particular heritage form were:

• It is still practiced as a living tradition in the locality.
• It is unique to Ireland.
• It is in danger of vanishing within the next generation.
• It is not widely known about or practiced.

Recruiting a heritage expert

It can be helpful to explore what the term ‘heritage expert’ will mean within the context of your programme. A heritage expert will look different according to the heritage form chosen, the aims of your project, and your distinct national and local context.

For the Irish project we knew that we needed to recruit someone with a deep knowledge of the oral storytelling tradition. Academic or professional qualifications were not a priority for us. Our heritage expert would be an active participant in the heritage form, a community member with a rich store of indigenous knowledge. In choosing who to approach we prioritised candidates whom we felt had valuable knowledge that needed to be recorded and shared.

The Irish pilot

The way in which you work with and include the heritage expert will look different according to each specific project. In the Irish pilot, the art form and heritage form were quite different (music and storytelling). It had been decided that the structure of the programme would be left open, and that it would be co-designed with participants rather than mapped out in advance. Due to these factors, it made sense for the heritage expert to be involved as a participant.

Our work with the heritage expert involved the following steps:

1. Deciding on art form and heritage form (project staff).
2. Deciding on the overall approach of co-designing project with participants (staff and art educator)
3. Researching and deciding on a heritage expert (staff and art educator).
4. Making contact and arranging a meeting with the heritage expert, in order to explain the project (staff, art educator and heritage expert).
5. Information night / open night. The local community were invited to meet the heritage expert, art educator and project staff. The attendees were encouraged to ask questions, make suggestions, and sign up for the programme.
6. Initial meeting. At this meeting the heritage expert told two stories he had selected to use for the project. Participants had the opportunity to listen and ask questions.
7. A further 7 meetings followed, during which the musical aspect of the project was developed, planned and carried out. The heritage expert was involved as a participant from this point on.

It is worth noting that each of our pilot participants was a heritage community member, and each could be seen as a heritage expert in their own right. We therefore focused on drawing out the expertise that participants may have without even being aware of it themselves. We hoped that participants would realise their own value and role as heritage community members, and become empowered by this.

The Finnish pilot

The artform applied and the craft of the intangible cultural heritage expert were quite different also in the Finnish pilot. The art form was creative writing and the heritage form folk music. The heritage expert Olli Seikkula has grown up at the municipality of Kaustinen and has learnt the traditional way of playing the violin there. Besides his skill to play the traditional tunes and improvise using the specific tonal language of Kaustinen, he has a vast knowledge of the tradition and the musicians who have carried it through decades and centuries.

But when considering how literary art and folk music complemented each other in the pilot, simply playing the music was most important. Literary art involves a lot of self reflection and thinking. This is particularly true outside of informative writing, when the beauty of words, rhythms and silence are emphasised instead. Literary art is word pondering. There is a danger that it happens only inside your head and becomes wearisome. So it was very important to have the chance to simply listen to the expert playing beautiful music.

The participants were also given small dancing instructions and they moved to the music. The music and dancing made talking about the holistic meaning of intangible cultural heritage a lot more meaningful. The music empowered writing, opened a more nurturing space for self reflection and thinking. The Finnish pilot suggests that combining a form of heritage with a different art form should perhaps be considered in other projects too.