TRACS (Traditional Arts and Culture Scotland) is delighted to have been appointed by the UK Government’s Department of Culture Media and Sport as one of the UK’s Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) Community Support Hubs. As a Hub, our role is to support communities, practitioners, and tradition bearers to engage with the national Living Heritage Inventory process and to champion the richness of Scotland’s traditional arts and cultural practices.
What this means
As a Community Support Hub, we’ll provide practical guidance, create space for conversation, and help groups and individuals navigate the process of proposing elements for the Scottish ICH Inventory. We’ll also work to raise awareness of the importance of safeguarding our Living Heritage across Scotland and provide practical advice.
Our commitments
- Two practitioner roundtables bringing together artists, tradition bearers, and cultural organisations to discuss the Living Heritage Inventory process, good safeguarding practices and offer a chance to network with relevant organisations and key partners.
- Weekly ICH Office Hour with the TRACS team, open to anyone who wants to explore Living Heritage, ask questions, or seek support with preparing a Scottish Inventory submission.
- A series of online workshops for communities across Scotland covering traditional dance, storytelling, music, indigenous languages, and customs, all designed to offer guidance on the inventory process, answer questions, and strengthen understanding of Scotland’s Intangible Cultural Heritage.
We’ll be sharing full details and dates soon – follow us on Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn to stay in the loop. If you would like to contact us to discuss Living Heritage and how we can support you, please get in touch by emailing [email protected]
The ICH inventory process is now live, to learn more please visit the official Living Heritage in the UK website: www.livingheritage.unesco.org.uk
Call for Submissions – Living Heritage in the UK
A call for submissions has opened for inventories of living heritage in the UK, asking communities to submit their traditions and heritage practices.
An area of heritage often overlooked, living heritage (or ‘intangible cultural heritage’) includes folklore, performance, customs and crafts that are passed on from generation to generation.
Living Heritage is a broad subject that can include everything from bell-ringing to boat-building, cèilidh to carnival, pantomime to pancake day, highland games to Eisteddfod, Lambeg drumming to long sword dancing, and dry-stone walling to wassailing.
Seven categories will be used for the inventories (although a lot of practices sit in multiple categories): oral expressions; social practices; performing arts; land, nature and spirituality; crafts; sports and games; and culinary practices.
The inventories are being set up by the Governments of the UK, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland following the UK joining the UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage last year.
The call for submissions will be open for 4 months until Friday 27 March. During this period, there are a range of information sessions, workshops and events, including those from a range of designated Community Support Hubs who can provide help and guidance. More details here www.livingheritage.unesco.org.uk
The inventories will provide a snapshot of all the different types of living heritage across the UK: from popular to niche and old to new. Their purpose is to both raise awareness and to start a conversation about the value of this heritage, paving the way for future efforts to improve its safeguarding.
Read TRACS’s Wee Guide to Intangible Cultural Heritage and find out more about ICH in Scotland.
