18 September 2012
The director of Britain’s most highly acclaimed sculpture park will be sharing her experiences with Jersey’s arts community at this year’s Council for Culture Conference, which takes place on Saturday 24 November in Highlands’ Great Hall.
Clare Lilley, from the award-winning Yorkshire Sculpture Park, will talk about the open-air gallery described by the Financial Times as ‘probably the finest exhibition site for sculpture in the world’. This supports the theme of this year’s event, which is the dual impact of culture on both local communities and tourism.
The Council for Culture Conference, now in its fifth year, has established itself as an important annual forum for the Jersey public to discuss the key issues affecting the cultural sector. It's open to all and it's free.
Attendees will also explore how destinations market themselves using their heritage, arts and creative skills. This is especially current given the recent discovery of the Celtic hoard and the national and international interest it has attracted.
World Heritage site
It is hoped a visiting speaker from Orkney will explain how the isles have used their heritage to attract visitors. Their experience as a World Heritage site is of particular interest given work undertaken locally to consider making an application for recognition of the Channel Islands.
Education Sport and Culture (ESC) Assistant Minister, Deputy Rod Bryans, who will be leading a session on creativity, said the conference had established itself as an important element in the continuing development of Jersey’s Cultural Strategy “The progress on the conference themes from 2011, such as cultural diplomacy and the possibilities of building links with the commercial sector, show how important the conference has become in shaping the way different organisations and States departments can work together.”
Cultural development officer Rod McLoughlin added “The Conference offers the chance to hear about developments across the arts and heritage sector elsewhere and also to connect with current issues in Jersey.”
The conference will also hear about the new Hepworth Gallery in Wakefield, which was expected to attract 150,000 visitors in its first year of opening in 2011. In fact, it took only five weeks to clear 100,000 and by the gallery’s first anniversary in May more than 500,000 people had made the trip to the site on the River Calder.
The full conference programme, with details of how to take part, will be published in mid October.
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