Arising from the findings of the 'Mapping Contemporary Art in the Heritage Experience: Creation, Consumption and Exchange' (MCAHE) research project (AH/N007557/1), Volunteer Voices will develop an innovative programme of heritage volunteer training on contemporary art interpretation, resulting in a resource that can be rolled out to the heritage sector nationally. MCAHE research revealed that while volunteers play a key role in engaging visitors with heritage sites, the volunteers often lack the knowledge and confidence to introduce this audience to the contemporary artworks that are increasingly a feature of heritage programming. Without interpretation, many visitors struggle to fully appreciate and enjoy the art they encounter. Volunteer Voices is designed to address this gap through a co-developed training programme rooted in the MCAHE research. Volunteers will meet and work with creative artists, heritage staff and other stakeholders, gaining the knowledge, practical skills and confidence to introduce and interpret commissioned contemporary artworks to visitors at their heritage sites. The training programme will use methods of peer-to-peer learning, group social interaction and knowledge exchange which MCAHE findings showed to increase confidence and enable a reflective rather than 'reflexive' response to contemporary artworks. This training need has been identified as an urgent priority within the heritage sector who are keen to implement change regarding volunteer training: 75% of heritage organisations identified volunteer development, training or experience enhancement as their top priority after recruitment (Heritage Volunteer Group survey 2019). Heritage organisations rely heavily on volunteers to enrich their visitors' experience: nearly half of all heritage volunteers work in front of house, education or engagement but only 3% work in exhibition-based roles. Working with new Project Partners and stakeholders, this Follow-On Funding for Impact and Engagement project places volunteers at the heart of its activities and seeks to create and promote 'best practice' training which will benefit both volunteer and audience experience, enabling the full value of heritage organisations' investment in commissioning contemporary art (in terms of time, money, HO resources and the creative energy of the artist) to be realised.

This Impact and Engagement project seeks to address two key issues: - the long-term legacy of, and access to, temporary site-specific art commissions - the potential of digital space for audience development within the heritage sector. Working with the National Trust's historic property and collection at Cherryburn, the birthplace of Thomas Bewick, and our new partner, The Bewick Society, this project seeks to address the issues of legacy, access and audience development through two strands of work. Firstly, two artworks created as part of the MCAHE project by Marcus Coates and Mark Fairington in 2018-19 will be revisited to create digitally accessible versions. This looks to demonstrate the potential of digital forms of contemporary art and dissemination which, in turn, has the capacity to generate new audiences and make commissioned artworks more accessible. Secondly, we will work with the Bewick Society to create a new digital-first artwork that follows the intentions of the original MCAHE artists' commission brief for Cherryburn. This born-digital work seeks to demonstrate an alternative commissioning and dissemination approach, which again might appeal to and help to develop different audiences. The experiences of this project will be shared at a project symposium designed to stimulate discussion and debate within the wider contemporary art, digital, heritage and museum communities around the value and future development of digital platforms for the preservation, representation and creation of site-specific art practice. The symposium will be delivered in partnership with the sector support organisation Arts&Heritage. Why is this needed? There has been a significant increase in the number of artworks being commissioned for heritage sites, and the the sites commissioning work have become increasingly varied - from country houses to historic waterways. Major schemes have emerged, such as the National Trust's 'Trust New Art' programme which between 2009-2019 commissioned over 300 artists for 150 of its properties. Despite this, until recently there was very little research on the practice of commissioning contemporary art for heritage or on its impact for artists, heritage sites and audiences. The AHRC funded Mapping Contemporary Art in Heritage (MCAHE) project (https://research.ncl.ac.uk/mcahe/) addressed this gap. MCAHE (2017-2020) was an interdisciplinary, practice-led research project that examined the role, scope and practice of commissioning contemporary art within heritage properties in the UK. The project brought together the knowledge and experience of academics, artists, heritage professionals, volunteers and visitors. Focused on a series of practice-led case studies which involved the creation of six new artworks for four heritage properties in the North East, key findings of the research included that contemporary art commissions could attract new audiences, provide important opportunities for artists to expand their practice, and can play an important role in public understanding of history. That said, it became clear that temporary site-specific art commissions tend to be poorly documented and have limited legacy. This is important for heritage organisations because commissioning contemporary art can be a resource intensive process, in terms of time and money, and yet its impact can be shortlived. It also has access implications in that only those who can physically visit the heritage site can engage with the artwork. These issues are particularly pertinent for heritage sites that might have limited opening hours or limited space. What are the benefits? By enhancing impact and dissemination this project will: - impact commissioning practices to consider legacy, accessibility & digital - further expand artists' practice - develop new audiences and enhance access - create better return on investment for those commissioning contemporary art.

The principal aim of this project is to initiate a new International Contemporary Art in Heritage Network that will bring together UK and overseas academics, curators, artists, heritage and historic landscape organisations, and museum sites to exchange and explore international and transnational approaches to contemporary art in heritage practice. Our Network will extend the interdisciplinary study of contemporary art in heritage practice, initiating the first international mapping and global overview of this field. The project will be delivered in partnership with four (UK and international) heritage sector partners: Arts&Heritage; National Trust; International Coalition of Sites of Conscience; and the Artists' Studio Museum Network. Building on learning from the cultural sector's pivot to digital during the Covid-19 Pandemic, and to maximise opportunities for international input, all our planned programme activity will take place online. Since the 1990s contemporary artists have been commissioned to create temporary, site-specific responses to a wide range of heritage places across the UK - from grand palaces and country houses to historic designed landscapes, industrial waterways, and cathedrals. While the UK may arguably be regarded as a leading proponent of such practice, pilot international mapping research undertaken through our AHRC-funded 'Mapping Contemporary Art in the Heritage Experience' (MCAHE) project (2017-2020), indicated that contemporary art in heritage is more than just a UK phenomenon. Reflecting expanded global agendas within the wider museum and heritage sector, much of this work is concerned with articulations of difficult heritage, including a key focus on artistic engagement with colonial and postcolonial narratives. Despite this engagement with global concerns, and strong arguments made for diversifying the presentation of heritage, existing academic literature on contemporary art in heritage in the UK has primarily focused on the national scene, with little exploration of a broader transnational context. It is this gap in international knowledge that our Network specifically seeks to address. Key Outputs of this networking activity include: - A series of 5 online Meet Ups co-hosted with UK and international partners and involving an interdisciplinary community of academics, researchers, curators, artists, and heritage professionals. - A newly created, publicly accessible online Google Map of international contemporary art in heritage practice that captures and links to current and recent activity in this field. - 4 pilot virtual transnational commissions/artists residencies hosted by UK and international network partners (heritage sites, museums, and historic landscapes). - 3 new Podcasts featuring UK and international curators, heritage sites and commissioned artists in conversation, co-produced with Arts&Heritage and made freely available via its existing Apple Podcasts and Soundcloud channels. - A closing online international symposium open to all interested academics, artists, curators, and other professionals working in, or with an interest in, this field. This project will benefit a broad and international constituency of academics, practice-based researchers, curators, artists, museum, and heritage professionals. This will be achieved through multiple and complementary dissemination routes, including public presentation of the virtual commissions/residencies on the Arts&Heritage website and through presentations at future academic and sector-based conferences (UK and international).