Elly Mackay
6 August 2021: The University of Canberra’s Professor Tracy Ireland – Director of the Centre for Creative and Cultural Research – has been awarded a $340,000 grant from the Australian Research Council (ARC) for her Everyday Heritage project.
The project is being conducted with industry partner GML Heritage.
According to Professor Ireland, Everyday Heritage is about the things and places that ordinary people value and how these can be better acknowledged. It particularly focuses on groups that haven’t traditionally had a voice or a strong presence in the national story.
“It’s a really practical project that looks at creating tools for heritage managers and communities to tackle this problem, and aims to help confront the social divisions and tensions that are caused when communities feel that their heritage is not valued,” Professor Ireland said.
“It can even be a case of what they value not qualifying as ‘heritage’.”
The research is an ARC Linkage Project, which relies on strong partnerships with industry and a deep understanding of challenges in the cultural sector for communities, government, and business.
Professor Ireland said the project had been a collaborative effort between several groups.
“The work was very much co-developed by our team of academics and industry leaders, who have extensive experience in working in the heritage and Galleries, Archives, Libraries and Museum (GLAM) sectors,” Professor Ireland said.
The significant funding will enable Professor Ireland and the research team to further develop their research methods.
She said that winning the funding was a testament to the importance of the University’s applied heritage research.
“Winning ARC funding is always an important endorsement of the quality and innovation of both our past work and our proposed new projects,” Professor Ireland said.
“The Centre for Creative and Cultural Research is now well established as a national leader in innovative heritage research with our members currently working on three ARC Linkages, two ARC Discovery Projects, and a broad range of other nationally competitive funded projects.”
Professor Ireland’s hopes that the project will promote public debate on the role of the past in modern Australia through a range of new forms of history and heritage, digital resources and heritage management tools.
