The first steps are done: Industrial heritage owes its existence to the structural changes in industry in the last third of the 20th century. Abandoned factories were transformed into venues of culture, preserving the memory of the lives and achievements of engineers and entrepreneurs as well as, and especially, of the workers. These sites convey the legacy of industrial heritage that - despite its many crises - enabled large parts of Europe to experience an era of mass prosperity.

Today, industrial societies are facing another transformation that calls its very foundations into question. “Protecting, linking and promoting Europe's industrial heritage in a changing world” is the title for our new Creative Europe programme 2022-24. This "changing world" is the generic term for challenges and new developments such as climate change, digitalisation, pandemic, gender equality, inclusion and new values - the world is in a state of transformation and this naturally also has an impact on industrial heritage.

This transformation can be considered as the next “Industrial Revolution”. With climate crisis, it has become obvious that the way we produce and use things has to change fundamentally. This transformation is not only aiming at a new industry. It changes the way we look back at the industrial age. Especially younger people value it much more critically, not only in terms of its ecological consequences, but also of the intertwining of the industrial age with colonialism.

Without an understanding of this history and legacies of industrial heritage, the upcoming transformation of industrial society won’t be successful. But when the smoking chimney of the steam engine becomes a portent of the climate crisis and the miner in the coal mine is no longer a working hero but also a symbol of a "fossil" patriarchy, the image of industrial heritage is questioned, as well as the way we communicate with the public.

These are important, justified insights. They force us to play a more active role in this transformation, to rethink our own operations and make them more sustainable. And in order to reach people, we have to tell our stories differently. We need to address also critical issues inextricably linked to industry. This requires new ways of storytelling at the venues of European industrial heritage.

Conference programme

The topic of the conference was “Resilience”. The event explored how industrial heritage sites have survived the Covid-19 pandemic and developed interesting and imaginative ideas for ongoing development in a post-pandemic world.

Resilience is defined as “being able to recover quickly from difficulty or distress”. The conference provided a timely opportunity to share experience on how sites and attractions are recovering from the impact of Covid and extended periods of closure. The conference also explored ways to mitigate against wider and long-term impacts on the protection and promotion of our industrial heritage.

Conference programme

Industrial Heritage is more than just industrial buildings and machinery, that is, the “tangible” remnants of industry. Industrial Heritage also includes the complex knowledge of running and maintaining machines, of numerous techniques and skills as well as of sector-specific social routines and intangible heritage. But this knowledge is in danger of being lost with the passage of time. Today heritage organisations are increasingly facing the retirement of their first generation professionals and volunteers – staff who experienced at first-hand life within these industrial communities. Against this background effective methods are needed for transferring and sharing knowledge with new staff and volunteers that engage in the field.

Most heritage institutions are facing these problems in a more or less similar ways. Therefore the presentations held at the conference introduced excamples how we can protect industrial heritage by ensuring that skills and knowledge are passed on to future generations. It also provided a platform for exchange and critical debate of experiences in the field of knowledge transfer and succession planning.

Conference programme

The growth of international tourism during the 21st century has been phenomenal and industrial heritage tourism is losing more and more its niche market image and is on its way to be recognized as a respected part of our cultural heritage. Although this is good news, the question is if industrial heritage on its own is enough for long-term attraction of visitors and for the stimulation of repeated visits? Or if linking the promotion of industrial heritage more fully with other sectors of tourism is the success factor for future tourism marketing?

Conference programme