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    • ICH: Creating a Community-Based Inventory
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Heritage BC
Membership Donate Newsletter
  • About

    About

    • What We Do
    • Advocacy
    • Heritage Update
    • Plans and Reports
    • Membership
    • Donate
    • Sponsors
    • Board of Directors
    • Staff
  • Events & Activities

    Events & Activities

    • 2022 Conference
    • BC Heritage Awards
    • Heritage Week
    • Dates to Know
  • Learning Centre

    Learning Centre

    • ICH: Creating a Community-Based Inventory
    • Intangible Cultural Heritage
    • Climate Adaptation: Making a Case
    • Climate Adaptation: Framework and Implementation
    • Setting the Bar: A Reconciliation Guide for Heritage
    • A Guide to Making a Case for Heritage
    • Heritage Conservation Tools: Resource Guides
    • Webinars On-Demand
    • Heritage Workshops
    • Other Heritage Education Programs
  • Cultural Maps

    Cultural Maps

    • Submerged Heritage Resources
    • Columbia Basin Region Heritage Places
    • Francophone Historic Places Map
    • Chinese Canadian Historic Places Map
    • Japanese Canadian Historic Places
    • South Asian Canadian Map
    • War Monuments and Memorials Map
    • Mapping Heritage
  • Resources

    Resources

    • Accessibility for Historic Places
    • Conservation in BC Reports
    • Definitions and Heritage FAQs
    • Funding Opportunities
    • Heritage Real Estate
    • State of Heritage: Provincial Roundtables
    • Indigenous Cultural Heritage
    • Local Government: Library of Source Documents
    • Racism: Do Not Let the Forgetting Prevail
    • Heritage Quick Studies
    • Other Tools, Publications, Guides
  • Heritage Legacy Fund

    Heritage Legacy Fund

    • Heritage Legacy Fund Review
    • Who Benefits?
    • Past Grant Recipients
    • Climate Disaster Response Fund
  • Job Board

    Job Board

    • Job Hunting Resources
    • Job Postings
    • Submit a Job
  • Contact
  • ICH: Creating a Community-Based Inventory
  • Intangible Cultural Heritage
  • Climate Adaptation: Making a Case
  • Climate Adaptation: Framework and Implementation
  • Setting the Bar: A Reconciliation Guide for Heritage
    • 1. Setting the Bar: Heritage and Reconciliation Pledge
    • 2. Setting the Bar: Acknowledging Land and People
    • 3. Setting the Bar: Celebrating Days of Recognition and Commemoration
    • 4. Setting the Bar: With a Commitment to Learn
    • 5. Setting the Bar: Committing to Strategic Organizational Diversity
    • 6. Setting the Bar: Mission-Making Room for Reconciliation
    • 7. Setting the Bar: Possession, Interpretation, Repatriation and Cultural Care
    • 8. Setting the Bar: Shared Decision Making
    • 9. Setting the Bar: Statements of Significance and other heritage planning documents
    • 10. Setting the Bar: Heritage Conservation Tools, Local Government Act
  • A Guide to Making a Case for Heritage
  • Heritage Conservation Tools: Resource Guides
  • Webinars On-Demand
    • Upcoming Webinars
  • Heritage Workshops
  • Other Heritage Education Programs
  • Learning Centre
  • A Guide to Making a Case for Heritage

Making a Case for Heritage: The Bigger Picture

This section will help you to describe heritage in a bigger context.

The first part provides impressive statistics, and the second part provides ideas to help you develop your local case.

Culture, including museums and historic sites, is big business and is a proven contributor to BC’s economy.

Culture boosts BC’s GDP by more than $7 billion, the third highest of the provinces across the county. Culture’s contribution is 9 times greater than that of sports.

Culture is an economic leader.

The estimated direct economic impact of cultural industries in Canada was $61.7 billion. Cultural industries outpaced other major sectors such as agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting ($29 billion); accommodation and food services ($38 billion); and utilities ($43 billion).

Museums and Cultural Heritage in B.C.

B.C.’s museums, galleries, cultural centres and historic places connect us to our history, art, science, creativity, culture, nature and each other.

  • 11 million annual visitors to B.C. cultural heritage institutions*
  • The collections of B.C. cultural institutions include more than 4.6 million artefacts and objects, 699,081 linear meters of textual records, 17.8 million graphic materials, 92,384 natural history/scientific specimens, 74,370 hours of film, video and sound recordings and over 2,300 permanent exhibitions*
  • 33.7 million visits to museums’ digital collections*
  • $213 million in revenue each year for BC museums
  • 1 million volunteer hours by more than 21,000 committee volunteers

Developing a Local Story: The Bigger Picture

Use the intrinsic-instrumental-institutional framework to develop a well-rounded description of heritage in your community. Here are some suggestions to help you get started. (Read this short introduction to our recommended approach to making a case.)

Intrinsic

What are people saying about your museum/heritage site?

  • Sometimes we receive priceless comments like, “Your organization was one of the reasons I moved here” or “I cannot imagine our community without your organization.” Consider community surveys that ask people to describe their association with your organization. Ask people to rate the importance of your organization to the community. See Making a Case for Heritage: Knowing Your Impact for two excellent methods to describe impact and support.
  • Ask business leaders and politicians (past and present) for statements. Do not be afraid to tell them what you want them to say; sometimes you can go so far as to write a statement that they can edit and approve.

Instrumental

How can you count the ways you go above and beyond?

  • Describe your outreach programs; for example, for a school program, consider the intrinsic values (e.g. What are the children saying?); instrumental values (e.g. How many children are involved and how often? What is your in-kind contribution?); and institutional value (how does the teacher, principal, superintendent describe the impact of your organization and your contribution to learning?)
  • Consider your cash and in-kind contributions to community causes.

Institutional

How is your organization part of a bigger picture?

  • Consider the ways your organization contributes to community causes and profile. Perhaps you donate space to an organization that serves families in need and you collect items for the food bank.
  • Consider how you represent your community; e.g. attending or presenting at a conference; membership with provincial and national organizations.
  • Describe how your organization profiles your community (e.g. multicultural exhibitions, special relationships with Indigenous organizations.
  • (note: these may not seem like front and centre issues, but they help to paint a picture of an organization that sees beyond its own needs.)

Provincial and Territorial Culture Indicators, 2017 – Statistics Canada (source)
Desjardins, E. (2016). Provincial and Territorial Culture Indicators, 2010 to 2014. Statistics Canada (source)

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As an organization of provincial scope, Heritage BC recognizes that its members, and the local history and heritage they seek to preserve, occupy the lands and territories of B.C.’s Indigenous peoples. Heritage BC asks its members and everyone working in the heritage sector to reflect on the places where they reside and work, and to respect the diversity of cultures and experiences that form the richness of our provincial heritage.