A People-Centred Approach to Heritage: The Experience of the Heritage Lottery Fund 1994–2014

Abstract

The strategic development of the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) from 1994 has demonstrated an increasing emphasis on pubic engagement and benefit. This paper uses evidence from HLF's evaluation and review work, along with my personal experience, to demonstrate how that increasing emphasis on people was achieved. It argues that it is this role of being a Lottery funder—with an imperative to deliver public benefit—that has been the most important factor in driving the organization's progression. The paper then assesses the limitations of HLF's people focussed approach, and the challenges it faces in more straitened financial times. I offer the paper, not from the standpoint of an academic, but as the personal perspective of a heritage professional employed at the Fund since 2004.

Keywords:

• heritage funding
• lottery
• HLF
• UK

Citation information

Maeer, Gareth. 2017. ‘A people-centred approach to heritage: The experience of the Heritage Lottery Fund 1994–2014’. Special Issue, Heritage Values and the Public, edited by Margarita Díaz-Andreu. Journal of Community Archaeology and Heritage 4(1): page 38–52.

Notes

1 See Journal of Community Archaeology and Heritage Volume 1 Issue 2, 2014, for articles from the Community Archaeology Bursaries Project which the ‘Skills for the Future’ funding stream supported.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Gareth Maeer

Notes on contributor

Gareth Maeer is Head of Research at the HLF, where he oversees the Fund's programme evaluation work and the research it undertakes to develop new initiatives. He has published research for general audiences and in journals including Cultural Trends and the Journal of Urban Regeneration and Renewal. He is a member of the editorial board of Cultural Trends, and has acted on the steering group for research projects for the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the Museums Association and the Arts Council. Before HLF he worked for four years as an economist at British Waterways, on canal regeneration and restoration schemes. And before that he spent 15 years working as a researcher and producer, first in community arts in east London and then in the independent television sector.