TRACS (Traditional Arts and Culture Scotland) is delighted to have been appointed by the UK Government’s Department of Culture Media and Sport as one of the UK’s Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) Community Support Hubs. As a Hub, our role is to support communities, practitioners, and tradition bearers to engage with the national Living Heritage Inventory process and to champion the richness of Scotland’s traditional arts and cultural practices.
What this means
As a Community Support Hub, we’ll provide practical guidance, create space for conversation, and help groups and individuals navigate the process of proposing elements for the Scottish ICH Inventory. We’ll also work to raise awareness of the importance of safeguarding our Living Heritage across Scotland and provide practical advice.
Our commitments
The first submission period to the Inventories of Living Heritage in the UK is now closed and we expect the first version of the Living Heritage Inventory to be published in the autumn.
If you would like to contact us to discuss Living Heritage and how we can support you, please get in touch by emailing intangibleculturalheritage@tracscotland.org.
We’ll continue to share Living Heritage updates on our social media channels – please follow us on Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn and subscribe to our TRACS Newsletter to stay in the loop.
Events
Living Heritage Discovery Day
Join TRACS and partners for a jam-packed all-day celebration of the very best in the Traditional Arts at the Scottish Storytelling Centre. Intrigued by Intangible Cultural Heritage and would love to know more? Come to the Living Heritage Fayre to find out all you want to know from Scotland’s experts in the field, whilst having a go yourself in our come and try craft, dance, music and storytelling taster workshops. This event is free and non-ticketed, just come along and enjoy!
Schedule
Living Heritage Fayre (10am-2pm, Storytelling Court)
Come & Try Sessions (10:30am-1:30pm, multiple spaces at SSC)
An Afternoon with Michael Fortune of folklore.ie (2-3:30pm, Theatre)
TRACS House Ceilidh (4-6pm, Storytelling Court)
Call for Submissions – Living Heritage in the UK
The first call for submissions to the inventories of living heritage in the UK, asking communities to submit their traditions and heritage practices, has now closed. We expect the first version of the Living Heritage Inventory to be published in the autumn, followed by a new consultation on ICH safeguarding and a second round of submissions later this year.
An area of heritage often overlooked, living heritage (or ‘intangible cultural heritage’) includes folklore, performance, customs and crafts that are passed on from generation to generation.
Living Heritage is a broad subject that can include everything from bell-ringing to boat-building, cèilidh to carnival, pantomime to pancake day, highland games to Eisteddfod, Lambeg drumming to long sword dancing, and dry-stone walling to wassailing.
Seven categories will be used for the inventories (although a lot of practices sit in multiple categories): oral expressions; social practices; performing arts; land, nature and spirituality; crafts; sports and games; and culinary practices.
The inventories are being set up by the Governments of the UK, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland following the UK joining the UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage last year.
The inventories will provide a snapshot of all the different types of living heritage across the UK: from popular to niche and old to new. Their purpose is to both raise awareness and to start a conversation about the value of this heritage, paving the way for future efforts to improve its safeguarding. More details here www.livingheritage.unesco.org.uk
Read TRACS’s Wee Guide to Intangible Cultural Heritage and find out more about ICH in Scotland.
