"Reconnect: heritage event will be held over three days from October 18-20th 2013, offering the community an opportunity to reconnect with the city’s heritage."

Shout out to local heritage building and site owners

24 July 2013

Christchurch City Council is calling for owners of heritage buildings and spaces to open them up to the public as part of a one-off heritage event

Co-ordinated by the Council, Reconnect: heritage event will be held over three days from October 18-20th 2013, offering the community an opportunity to reconnect with the city’s heritage.

The event will kick off with a one-day forum on Friday October 18th, co-ordinated by the New Zealand Historic Places Trust. A range of speakers will discuss heritage repair and recovery issues.

Then, over the weekend of October 19th and 20th, a host of heritage buildings and sites throughout the city and Banks Peninsula will be opened up to the public for visits and hosted walks – some for the first time since the February 2011 earthquake

Each heritage group or building owner will manage their own opening, with Council co-ordinating the event, producing a print and web-based brochure detailing the heritage places that will be open over the two days.

“We’d love to hear from anyone in Christchurch and Banks Peninsula who would like their heritage space to be part of this exciting heritage weekend,” says Helen Beaumont, Natural Environment and Heritage Unit Manager at Christchurch City Council.

“Canterbury still has a great wealth of heritage, and we’d love to give people the opportunity to get up close and personal with as many of these places as possible, all packaged up into one big weekend of reconnection.”

Anyone interested in including a heritage building or site in Reconnect: Re-experience Heritage is asked to register their interest by August 16 latest by emailing heritageevent@ccc.govt.nz or phoning Clare Steel on 941 8789.