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

• MA (Cantab) 1985
• Member, Chartered Institute of Field Archaeologists
• Member, Institute of Historic Buildings Conservation

Research Focus

• Cultural heritage policy and practice
• Multiple values for the past
• Values in conservation practice (buildings and landscapes)
• Industrial archaeology
• Transport policy

Awards and Recognition

• Awards for Sydney Living Museums: 2014
• International Design & Communication Awards - Bronze museum branding, Silver best museum website 2014
• National Trust Award for Education & Interpretation/BatesSmart Award for Architecture in the Media - Public Sydney book 2012
• National Trust of Australia (NSW) Heritage Award for Education Interpretation & Community Engagement – ‘The enemy at home’ book and exhibition 2012
• Australian Institute of Architects Greenway Award – Exeter Farm Project 2011
• National Trust of Australia Built Heritage Award - Exeter Farm Project 2009
• National Meetings & Events Industry Awards Specialty Venue – The Mint

Selected Publications

Access All Publications

• Academia Profile

Contact

• Contact Kate Clark