A week of international days (Weekly Update, 22 May 2020)

A blog by Catherine Leonard, Secretary-General

As usual, I’m sharing a brief update from us here at INTO.   It’s been a week of International Days!  Yesterday was World Day of Cultural Diversity, which many of our members celebrated.  We shared our ‘We are INTO’ video, which performed well on social media.  It made us think that we could do another version with more footage from more members … Watch this space!  (And here is also the Petra National Trust and CCFU celebrating International Museums Day on 18 May.)

World Biodiversity Day

And today is World Biodiversity Day.  One of the hallmarks of National Trusts is that they look after built and natural heritage so many INTO members are marking this UN International Day as well. And today I’m featuring the National Trusts of Fiji and Saint Lucia, and the Cross-Cultural Foundation of Uganda as they’ve all be very active on social media.  Here’s a lovely video from a Junior Ranger in Fiji and a calming scene from Saint Lucia (and a National Trust for Jersey Ranger too I’ve just seen this morning):

National Trust leadership

Our National Trust leaders have taken to the airwaves this week.   Here are Elizabeth, Bishnu and Emily doing their thing on social media, TV and webinars respectively:

I found the history of the Saint Lucia National Trust particularly interesting. The Trust was originally created to safeguard Pigeon Island when it was threatened with high rises and condominiums.  There will always be a tug-of-war between development and conservation, says Bishnu, and the National Trust helps maintain the balance.  The Trust was conceived as an organisation with minimal government control, that would protect for future generations “those elements of our existence that remind us who we are and where we came from”.

Reopening plans

And lastly, in other news this week – We still want to hear your about where you are with reopening your sites. Please share any documentation you have, like this new REMPART manual, prepared to help their members welcome visitors and volunteers whilst respecting the new sanitary rules (including museums and site visiting by individuals and groups and restoration work as well as working holidays).  Or these guidelines from the Czech National Heritage Institute.

REMPART have joined a communication campaign aimed at inviting people to stay at home this summer and visit the country and its natural and cultural sites.  It’s called #CetEtéJeVisiteLaFrance and is being used across the tourism and heritage sectors.  What a great idea!   REMPART have integrated the campaign as well, with an additional slogan “Cet été je fais un chantier”:

We published three new good practices as part of our EU project.  These are based on the National Trust of England, Wales and Northern Ireland’s experience with digitising historic collections, social prescribing (heritage is good for your health!) and collaborating with the National Lottery.   Links to these can be found on our Innocastle page.

Webinars …

Last night, we hosted a webinar on planning that was attended by 20 representatives of INTO member organisations. The team will be sharing highlights but do email us if you would like to see the accompanying training notes.   What stood out for me was the shared challenge INTO members are facing as governments try to build their way out of the coronavirus crisis.  And how we need to build the case for heritage as part of post-corona recovery.

Talking of webinars, we are partnering with INTO members, the Conservatoire du Littoral on 3 June to Celebrate Islands!  We’ll be joined by the National Trusts of the Cayman Islands, Saint Lucia and England, Wales and Northern Ireland.   More information can be found on the Celebrate Islands facebook page – we hope you might join us!

Covid-19 grants

Thanks to those who applied for a C-19 TAP-INTO grant. Due to the very high level of interest, it will take us slightly longer to confirm whether funding is available but we’re aiming to get back to everyone next week.

Lastly, Alex and I have been catching up on reports this week, including our first-year grant report to the Helen Hamlyn Trust.  We’ve created an infographic showing the beneficiaries of the grant (below).

Some of us are off on Monday for another long weekend – whatever you are doing, I hope you find something beautiful to relax with!