This chapter studies how new perspectives on organisational practices are revealed when participants in an arts practice research project decide to focus on a local heritage subject. The Lavender Project, as this arts project became known, is a case study in an Arts and Humanities Research Council Connected Communities collaborative doctoral award between Robert Gordon University and community partner Woodend Barn, a rural arts centre in the North East of Scotland. The chapter shows how participants with different roles across their organisation reflect critically together upon difficult and complex topics, including the future direction of their arts centre. The dialogues are characterised by humour and metaphor, referencing the heritage subject and their experience of this research process. These reflections shed light on how collaborative participatory arts research, when combined with a local heritage subject identified by the participants, can open new spaces for criticality between communities, generating durable, negotiated change.
This book explores the nature of contemporary heritage research involving university and community partners. Putting forward a new view of heritage as a process of research and involvement with the past, undertaken with or by the communities for whom it is relevant, the book uses a diverse range of case studies, with many chapters co-written between academics and community partners. Through this extensive work, the book shows that the process of research itself can be an empowering force by which communities stake a claim in the places they live.Heritage as Community Research explores the nature of contemporary heritage research involving university and community partners. Putting forward a new view of heritage as a process of research and involvement with the past, undertaken with or by the communities for whom it is relevant, the book uses a diverse range of case studies, with many chapters co-written between academics and community partners. Through this extensive work, the Editors show that the process of research itself can be an empowering force by which communities stake a claim in the places they live.With a diverse range of case studies, and chapters co-written between academics and community partners, this book shows that co-produced research can be an empowering force by which communities stake a claim in the places they live.