Heritage Open Days in the UK: September 12-21 | California Open Days: September

 

I've written about the Heritage Open Day program a bunch over the years.  

In England for awhile, the program first began in France in the 1980s ("celebrating open heritage through heritage open days," Town and Country Planning).  

Wales and Scotland have separate programs.

Since then, many cities in North America such as Toronto, New York City, Boston, and Pittsburgh have taken up the idea, usually for a weekend or a week.  Convening groups include preservation, architecture, and/or city tourism offices.

I think most cities should do this as a way to promote the breadth of cultural resources they have, and as a a marketing tool.

====== From a 2019 blog entry:

22.  Create an annual city-wide "Doors Open" event for DC's local cultural institutions.  

"Doors Open" events were pioneered in Europe, and are when a community's culture organizations band together to provide a coordinated schedule of events, usually over a weekend, where people get free access to various cultural sites and events, many of which are not normally open to the public.

In North America, Doors Open Toronto is probably the biggest.  The Toronto Star even publishes an event guide. (2011 Doors Open Toronto Guide)

But Open House New York Weekend  is increasingly a big deal.  Pittsburgh created one, Doors Open Pittsburgh.

In DC the Dupont-Kalorama Museums Consortium has had a district-specific Doors Open event for many years, as do the art galleries on Upper Wisconsin Avenue in Georgetown, but including the participation of AU's Katzen Center for the Arts and the Kreeger Museum.  It's not exactly the same, but Georgetown Glow, an outdoor sculpture walk in December and January is growing into a great event.

Let's do this for the whole city.

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This page from the Beverley brochure discusses the use of brick in what are now historic buildings (in the UK they call this heritage preservation or conservation).

This week is Heritage Open Days in the UK.  Events include infrastructure, museums, gardens, estates, and a wide range of other types of buildings including house tours and sites that are not normally open to the public, like the Athenaeum in Liverpool, and arts and crafts studio tours.

I haven't delved into the website that much, but the Beverley Civic Society (a historic preservation group started in 1961) has been a long time participant.

Their 44-page brochure for the events is quite informative.  A model of great information provision.

California.  Held on weekends, California also has a statewide Open Doors event sponsored by the state historic preservation group.  It's not free.  A $20 pass is offered, providing entrance to 75 different sites.

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They're big on evaluation and continuous improvement.  From "Norwich Heritage Open Days Event Evaluation Report" (Norwich Economic and Regeneration Trust):