Kate Clark

Kate_Clark
Kate is an industrial archaeologist with a career in museums and heritage leadership and policy, in the UK and Australia. After developing her craft skills in excavation and building analysis on sites in the UK, Australia, Zanzibar and Kenya, she was appointed Senior Nuffield Research Fellow, undertaking a major integrated landscape and building study of the Ironbridge Gorge. She taught heritage management and industrial archaeology for the University of Birmingham and worked with Ironbridge Gorge Museums. In the early 1990s, she joined English Heritage as an Inspector of Ancient Monuments, and later worked as Deputy Director for Policy and Research at the Heritage Lottery Fund, before joining the Historic Houses Trust of NSW (Sydney Living Museums) as Director. She also worked with the NSW Heritage Office and was appointed to the Australian Heritage Council. In 2014 she returned to the UK as CEO of Cadw, the Welsh heritage organisation (part of Welsh Government), retiring in 2020. Her initial research (with Judith Alfrey) sought to integrate landscape and building evidence into an archaeological framework of time and space. Since then she has written about industrial archaeology, the archaeology of buildings, heritage and sustainable development, and more recently about the recognition of multiple values in conservation practice. She has been directly involved in major heritage policy initiatives in the UK including Power of Place (2000), Heritage Counts (2002 onwards), Informed Conservation (2001) and the introduction of conservation management planning to the UK. She has lead or commissioned heritage policy research into topics such as local authority conservation capacity, heritage needs, economic and social impact assessments, the value of maintenance, conservation outcomes, and the impact of heritage-based regeneration. In 2006 she was a key player in a major English Heritage/National Trust/HLF initiative around heritage and public value. She is also interested in heritage leadership and institutional governance. Her latest book, Playing with the Past (2019) - contains around 80 activities and games to help community leaders and heritage practitioners understand what matters to people and how that might shape policy and practice. Her current research interests are around closing the gap between academics and policy-makers in and around heritage and archaeology - both to encourage a more critical approach to heritage policy, and, at the same time, a more informed approach to critical studies.

Qualifications

Research Focus

Awards and Recognition

Selected Publications

Clark, K. 2020. Power of Place - heritage policy at the start of the new millennium (opens in a new window). Historic Environment Policy & Practice Vol 10, issues 3-4.

Clark,K. 2019. Playing with the past – exploring values in heritage practice (opens in a new window). New York: Berghahn. https://www.berghahnbooks.com/title/ClarkPlaying

Clark,K. 2019, The shift towards values-based heritage practice in the UK. Contribution to ed. Erica Avrami, Susan MacDonald, Randall Mason and David Myers. Values in Heritage Management: Emerging Approaches and Research Directions (opens in a new window). Los Angeles: Getty Conservation Institute.

Clark,K. 2011. Only connect - the social, economic and environmental benefits of heritage in Australia (opens in a new window). Essay commissioned by the Australian Heritage Council.

Clark, K. & Maeer, G. 2008. The Cultural Value of Heritage – Evidence from the Heritage Lottery Fund (opens in a new window). Cultural Trends. Vol 17 no 1:25-63.

Clark, K. (ed) 2006. Capturing the Public Value of Heritage. Proceedings of the London Conference (opens in a new window). London: English Heritage. https://www.academia.edu/45146182/Capturing_the_public_value_of_heritage_Proceedings_of_the_London_Conference_January_2006

Clark, K. 2002. In small things remembered – significance and vulnerability in the management of Robben island world heritage site (opens in a new window). in Schofield, J. Johnson, W.G. and Beck, C.M. (eds.), Materiel Culture. One World Archaeology. London: Routledge 2002:266-280.

Clark, K. (ed.) 1999. Conservation Plans in Action (opens in a new window). London: English Heritage.

Clark, C. 1994.The English Heritage Book of the Ironbridge Gorge. London: Batsford.

Alfrey, J. & Clark, C. 1993. Landscape of Industry (opens in a new window). London: Routledge.

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