Highlights

FAI’s little film is inspired by Jean Luc Godard’s movie A Bande Apart, in which the main characters race through the Louvre in 9 minutes and 47 seconds!Total Positivity at Belle Grove in the northern Shenandoah Valley near Middletown, Virginia, USA

The National Trust for Jersey’s mysterious sign, which they have left in place as a good suggestion!

NTEWNI: “With your help, we’ll be here when this is over, helping people and nature to thrive.”

NTEWNI property staff in quarantine

FAI has created #ItaliaMiManchi (I miss you Italy)

Under the banner of #ItaliaMiManchi, FAI – Fondo Ambiente Italiano, The National Trust for Italy, is sharing lots of great online content with its members and supporters, including this wonderful virtual visit.  Introduced by our friend, Daniela Bruno (who you may remember from INTO Cambridge 2015), it’s a five-minute tour of Villa Panza.

The INTO Trustees visited Villa Panza in 2016 and were struck by the juxtaposition of modern art in the 18th Century property.  I remember being taken quite aback at James Turrell’s Skyspaces – openings cut into the ceiling and wall that frame the sky.  But as Daniela says, it’s not a museum, it’s a home.  I love that this film also highlights that FAI members get in free (at this and every other FAI property) – and that it finishes “we’re waiting to see you as soon as possible”.

FAI’s latest member newsletter contains some other good ideas.

How places save and sustain us all!

The US National Trust for Historic Preservation has been sharing lots of wonderful content and resources around visiting your favourite historic place, supporting local businesses, keeping your family engaged with learning. All with a focus on the power of place.

• 13 Ways to ‘Edutain’ kids at home
• 11 National Trust historic sites and national treasures to explore virtually
• 5 Ways you can support local business during coronavirus

And I really liked reading INTO Trustee, Katherine Malone-France’s take on virtual tours, like this one of James Madison’s Montpelier which “like thousands of historic places across the nation, embodies our capacity to persevere, adapt, and endure in ways that are incredibly inspiring, especially in a time of crisis and uncertainty.”

Total Positivity

Katherine also just mentioned on our call this lovely twitter feed from Belle Grove, one of the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s historic sites.  They are using TP or Total Positivity as a banner for posts about anything uplifting from rainbows and signs of spring to news from the community and local businesses.

Mysterious sign

National Trust for Jersey is just finishing it’s ‘Things to Do’ pages, including children’s activities and some nice walks and trails.

Staff have been sharing photos of their new office views (all incredibly beautiful it seems).  CEO Charles Alluto also reported a mysterious sign which had appeared at one of their properties advising people to all walk around clockwise to ensure social distancing.  Some of their self-catering property is also being made available to people who might need to self-isolate.

The Lady with the Unfortunate Shoulders

Personally, I’m loving the Bermuda National Trust’s exploration of items in their collection, including Who was the Lady with the Unfortunate Shoulders, Where to Park a Prominent Posterior and The Mystery of the James Madison Tea-set!

It’s quiet without you …

The ‘places sustain us’ sentiment of the US National Trust is echoed by the National Trust of England, Wales and Northern Ireland in its latest video.   The message is simple: “Nature, beauty and history are for everyone. With your help, we’ll be here when this is over, helping people and nature to thrive. It’s quiet without you … and we can’t wait to welcome you back. Until then, be inspired online at nationaltrust.org.uk”

Many NTEWNI colleagues are contributing to wider civil society and community efforts, particularly now they are on temporary leave.   They have been devising rotas to phone elderly and isolated volunteers, picking flowers from closed gardens and leaving out bouquets for people to collect, donating leftover food from tearooms to local communities.  And there has been some light-heartedness as well.  I love this re-interpretation of the 1st Viscount Bangor at Castle Ward!

Through it all, NTEWNI is encouraging multi-voice dialogue: so lots of friendly social media flow from individuals (like simple daily updates from Ranger Toby), inviting people to share their memories of past visits and encouraging followers to share and respond to one another’s stuff.

What do people want?

We were reminded on our Trustee call that many countries are focussing on basic survival at the moment.  And heritage conservation is not high on government agendas.  But it was good to hear from CCFU that they are researching stories of how communities have survived epidemics in the past.  That the Indian Trust for Rural Heritage and Development is supporting craft workers who have lost their incomes.  And BPPI (Indonesian Heritage Trust) is writing a book about the value of traditional culture.

INTO members that rely on membership income and property visitation highlighted the following as important for their supporters:

• Families want simple solutions for parents under pressure – have a look at these children’s activities from the NTEWNI as it pivots its ’50 things to do before you’re 11¾’ programme for the Easter holidays
• Mature adults want to maintain connection and stave off boredom
• INTO member organisations can provide added member value to defend against cancellation through the promise of special online content to give them things to look forward to and fill their diaries with!
• Members and supporters want to feel connected to their local places and people (so INTO members can focus on bringing nature and history into people’s own homes when they can’t actually visit)
• But remember, they are not really expecting much from us as they already have so much else to think about so let’s not bombard them with irrelevant content!