Philip Barrett CCC Heritage Team Leader has generously supplied the text of his Memo (Report) on the "Reconnect" Heritage Event he sent to the Councillors. (The Memo was sent instead of a formal report being presented to the Community Committee.)

The event ran over three days with a one day heritage forum on the Friday and two days of events over the weekend.

The event was a partnership between the Christchurch City Council and the New Zealand Historic Places Trust (now Heritage New Zealand) with Heritage New Zealand co-ordinating the forum on Friday 18^th October and the Christchurch City Council co-ordinating the programme of events over the weekend of the 19^th and 20th October.

A brochure was compiled, printed and distributed and an online presence was established. Advertising/media releases and updates were placed in a variety of media outlets including Our Christchurch, the Press, the local newspapers, stuff on-line and Facebook.

Heritage Forum

The forum was held in the Function room in the Civic building and was a success with eight presentations through the day and an audience of about 30-40 people.

The speakers represented a range of organisations including New Zealand Historic Places Trust, Canterbury Museum, University of Canterbury, Waimakariri District Council, Arts Centre of Christchurch, and Lyttelton Museum. There were also presentations on archaeology, Akaroa heritage and repairing a domestic heritage building.

 

Heritage Events

There were 28 events in the programme including open days, tours, exhibitions and talks. Some of these were very popular while numbers on other events were a little disappointing. It appears that the events that needed to be pre-booked attracted less people.

Around ten events were associated with Council either directly or though libraries, museums or the facilities rebuild programme.

 

Events associated with Christchurch City Council were (numbers provided where reported or known)

Christchurch City Libraries:

• Photographic exhibition at Lyttelton Library
• Victoria/Market Square walking tour (approx 30-40 people)

Christchurch City Council Heritage Team:

• Provincial Council Buildings tours (with assistance from Insight Unlimited Project Managers, Simon Construction and Conservation Architect Tony Ussher) – about 22 people attended
• Guided walk central city walk – in collaboration with Greenspace Unit – not well attended

Akaroa Museum co-ordinated two talks in Akaroa that attracted about 18 people to each.

Council also assisted in booking tours of Riccarton House – organised by the Riccarton Bush Trust with assistance from Simon Construction – 15-20 people

Avebury House – a Council owned building, recently repaired by Council, was opened to the public by the Trust that manages it. They had a constant stream of visitors, approx 85 people through the day.

 

Feedback from Community based events included

Heritage Hotel tours – very popular with approx 330 people taking a tour

Vintage Homes Tours – approx 25 people attended

Underground Overground archaeology – the open day was well attended

New Regent Street – went very well with a mixture of locals and tourists participating

Heritage Weekend 2013 (17-19^th October) Report by:
Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga

Heritage New Zealand were proud to partner with the Christchurch City Council for this first Heritage weekend since the February 2011 earthquakes.

Forum

The Friday forum that heritage New Zealand facilitated was a success. NZHPT Board Chair Shonagh Kenderdine was impressed with the presentations. Circa 50 persons attended.

Tours

The tours run by Heritage New Zealand were of varying success. Amy Findlater’s ‘Watermark – Avon River’ tour was a success with about 30 people attending. The High Street Stories augmented reality app. tour was unfortunately poorly attended. The low subscription for the app. tour was perhaps due to the technology requirements.