Getty – Values in Heritage Management Symposium

In February 2017 the Getty Conservation Institute convened a special symposium, at the Getty Center, in Los Angeles,  about values in heritage management, bringing together a diverse range of practitioners from around the world. The symposium looked at emerging trends and different cultural contexts and practices, in light of the previous work of the GCI in this area in the 1990s.

The symposium was developed in collaboration with Erica Avrami of Colombia University and Randall Mason from the University of Pennsylvania, who were both involved in the GCI’s previous value-based heritage management work. The aim was to review how values-based management has been applied and has influenced heritage practice, as well as to identify new challenges and trends.

Symposium participants examined issues such as understanding and managing tangible and intangible attributes, values in non-Western cultures, economics and conflict. Prof Richard Mackay presented an overview of the evolution of the Burra Charter of Australia ICOMOS and presented a case studies about, Luna Park, The BIG DIG site in Sydney’s historic Rocks precinct and the ‘Willowdale’ land development project, in southwestern Sydney,  where subdivision design has been informed by consultation with Traditional Owners and  an understanding of Indigenous heritage values.

Getty Publications will publish a volume resulting from the symposium and the work of the experts who were present in 2019. Read more in Conservation Perspectives – The GCI Newsletter Spring 2017.