Hilary McGrady tells MPs that too many heritage professionals are white

Hilary McGrady addresses the Culture, Media and Sport Committee

Hilary McGrady, Director-General of the National Trust, has told a committee of MPs,

‘there is still a painful truth that the vast majority of people who work in the heritage sector still identify as white—over 90%. We are not representative of the communities we serve. Equally, I know from our membership base that we are improving. We are up to something like 22% from diverse communities. That is still not where we need to be, so I think it is a very real challenge for us.’

Mrs McGrady also told the committee that there was a shortage of new heritage craft practitioners coming through, due to a lack of employment opportunities for apprentices.

‘I think the apprenticeship structure needs to be amended. It needs to incentivise employers to employ as well as train for even two years or something to be able to get the experience they really need.’

With no apparent irony, she also said,

‘we came to the decision that the right thing for Clandon, specific to Clandon, is that we will restore, and in fact will be restoring fully, the exterior of the building. We will put a roof back on it so it makes it fully accessible and usable, and the interior will be left as this amazing inspirational space that will reveal how these places were built and why.’

She omitted to mention that the roof will not be constructed out of tiles to Giacomo Leoni’s ingenious eighteenth-century design, but will be an incongruous modern flat roof with a lift overrun and kiosk on top, made from energy-hungry, imported steel, glass and plastic. She also failed to mention that many conservation practitioners have said that reinstating the interiors of Clandon House would be the perfect opportunity to train and employ the next generation of freehand plaster modellers.

Restoration work after the fire at Uppark in 1989 created training and employment opportunities in endangered heritage crafts such as freehand plaster modelling.