Culture in the Making: a celebration of Intangible Craft Heritage

As the UK prepares to join the 2003 UNESCO Convention on Intangible Cultural Heritage, join Heritage Crafts and Derby Museums to celebrate.

In December the UK Government announced the historic decision that the UK would be joining 182 other countries around the world in ratifying the UNESCO Convention on the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage.


Image: Museum of Making and the River Derwent. Image courtesy of Derby Museums 2021. Image above: Culture in the Making.

But was is Intangible Cultural Heritage? Quite simply it means the knowledge, skills and practices that make up our cultural heritage… traditions that exist within humans and that come to life through performances… whether that be music, dance, festivities or making!

Join Heritage Crafts Co-Chair Jay Blades MBE and others for a celebration of craftsmanship and how it crosses over with other domains of living heritage, such as folk music and puppetry performances, and meet craft demonstrators and performers from across the UK talking about the skills they have inherited and hope to pass on to the future.


Image: Heritage Crafts 2021 event, Craft Skills for the future, image courtesy of Oliver Taylor. 

Learn how the decision to ratify the Convention might reinvigorate the way in which the UK thinks about itself and its heritage in its broadest sense, and how diverse communities from all across the country will be empowered to celebrate their distinctive making traditions.

This event is part of an ongoing partnership between Derby Museums and Heritage Crafts, the national charity set up to support, celebrate and safeguard traditional crafts skills in the UK.


Image: The Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 Engine in the Civic Hall at the Museum of Making. Image courtesy of Derby Museums.

Tickets range from £20 for members of Heritage Crafts to £30 for non-members, with an optional ‘grab and go’ lunch offer provided by The River Kitchen at the Museum of Making for an additional £8.

Find out more and book your ticket:
derbymuseums.org/culture-in-the-making-a-celebration-of-intangible-craft-heritage