What we do
Northamptonshire Heritage Forum was established to protect and preserve our county’s rich cultural heritage by celebrating, learning, developing, networking and promoting it in a variety of ways.
From the Wicksteed archive
Celebration
We believe that the heritage of Northamptonshire is unrivalled and deserves both national and international recognition. Our mission is to promote the work of the county’s heritage organisations in a variety of ways. We celebrate the county by presenting Heritage awards which recognise the achievements of members, and by producing Hindsight, an annual heritage publication available to members.
Networking
We host a number of heritage events which are wonderful opportunities to meet and share ideas with like-minded individuals and organisations. We hold at least three Forum meetings every year at different heritage locations across the county. In addition, the Forum works to provide information and develop networking with other regions, especially through Museum Development East Midlands (MDEM).
Learning and development
We raise awareness through grant funding, development opportunities and giving access to advice. We also encourage accreditation by facilitating peer support, and helping members who are looking to achieve museum accreditation. In addition, we share our skills, knowledge and experience, and support training by offering training opportunities centrally and at member locations.
Promotion
We believe strongly in advocacy and represent member organisations throughout the county. Our membership booklet outlining heritage attractions and organisations is distributed across the county and beyond. We also produce a quarterly newsletter with members’ news, information, events and opportunities. There’s our website giving an online presence to members’ heritage attractions and organisations, supported by Facebook which gives constant exposure for members’ news and events. We also carry out collaborative marketing encouraging members to help and support each other’s events and activities.
The future
We have a number of goals we would like to achieve to ensure the success of the Northamptonshire Heritage Forum in promoting our fascinating county.
We are looking at new ways to finance our ambitions so that we can increase participation in our awards. We want to access grant funding so that we can provide more support to members, and increase the diversity of learning opportunities including e-learning. We also want to engage more with similar bodies and organisations as well as schools, and work with the MDEM to establish new volunteering and learning networks.
Above all, we are committed to attracting wider age groups to the Forum to help support our ongoing work, and to sharing the invaluable knowledge and experience of our wide and varied membership.