The National Churches Trust has awarded £2000 to The Yorkshire Historic Churches Trust for a partnership with colleagues from the Centre for the Study of Christianity and Culture at the University of York to create a series of digital technology apprenticeships for students and exploring new ways of promoting the county's churches in the future.
Over the past few years, many churches have sought to harness the power of digital technologies to share their history and heritage with visitors and local communities. From short entries on church websites to videos and social media, such technologies have the potential to encourage in-person, and virtual heritage tourism, helping them raise awareness and support as they care for their buildings.
Technology for the future
However, technology develops rapidly, and many churches may feel uncertain about what works best, how they can engage with these technologies and sustain them in the future.
The Yorkshire Historic Churches Trust's Digital Heritage apprenticeship scheme will invite interested churches across Yorkshire to an online workshop providing guidance on using digital heritage technologies to share their stories with different audiences. The workshop will showcase innovative ideas from creating a social media presence online - and maintaining it - to writing effective blog posts or online guides, and producing short videos and 360 tours and panoramas.
Interested churches will then be paired with students, who will be mentored by members of both The Yorkshire Historic Churches Trust and the Centre for the Study of Christianity and Culture to help co-design and co-create content for the churches over the course of Summer 2022.
As well as the digital apprenticeships, the Yorkshire Historic Churches Trust will be working on promoting a 'Yorkshire Churches Day', where every place of worship in the county is encouraged to open their doors and showcase the amazing history and heritage that can be found inside their buildings. This will be a day to highlight the variety, beauty, history and sheer wonder of Yorkshire's churches and places of worship, encouraging visitors to step foot inside a local church for the first time, or explore new parts of the county.
An exciting way forwards
"We are delighted to support the Yorkshire Historic Churches Trust with funding for their digital apprenticeships project with partners the Centre for the Study of Christianity and Culture at the University of York," says Claire Walker, Chief Executive of the National Churches Trust.
"Churches are exciting and historic buildings. Engaging audiences through digital technology offers a great way of showing more people that churches are the jewel in the heritage crown."
"We are delighted to have been awarded this funding and by the formation of this exciting partnership," continues Tom Ramsden, Chair of the Yorkshire Historic Churches Trust.
"The digital heritage project offers a fantastic opportunity to engage a new generation of church building enthusiasts, harnessing their interest in digital technologies and developing their skills to create sustainable, creative digital strategies and content for the wonderful historic churches of Yorkshire."
"No other buildings contain such an expanse of culture and history as our county's places of worship," concludes Dr Kate Giles, a Yorkshire Historic Churches Trust Trustee and Co-Director of the Centre for the Study of Christianity and Culture at the University of York.
"Both elements of the project will open up churches to a wider audience, offering the opportunity to learn more about an area's wider history and tell the story of a community over time. We can't wait to see the results."