Do zoos around the world get sufficient acknowledgement for their place within that incredibly difficult to define expresssion, culture..? Do we ourselves think of our own organisations often enough in this way?
I was very interested in a recent conversation with Harry Schram ( Executive Director of European Association of Zoos and Aquaria- EAZA) discussing an old idea called the ‘Ivy Zoos’, a loose collection of European Zoos, all in the middle of big cities with important heritage buildings, designed landscapes and a generally strong cultural offering. Seems like an intriguing concept. that should be taken forward..? Certainly many European zoo sites have very interesing architecture ( Budapest, Dublin, Artis..?)
A conversation in Brussels with Theo Mastrominas, Deputy Director of the Cultural Office for the EU also threw up the potential cultural importance of zoos in lots of different senses and their ‘fundability’ by the EU in this context.
A few years ago when I was compiling the UK Manifesto for Zoos ( PDF downloadable from our website) Amy Plowman from Paignton Zoo was very helpful in pointing out how zoos fit very well into the UK Government’s own definition of culture. I have also has two wide ranging conversations with Carole Souter, Chief Executive of the Heritage Lottery Fund which underline the fundability of zoo and aquarium sites as ‘designed landscapes’
Nice to see Melanie Cowlieson at Chester Zoo suceeded two years running in establishing the zoo as a finalist in the Lever Prize in the North West of England. As this is specifically for cultural organisations, and the zoo competes with prestigious organisations who are more obviously mainstream cultural providers, I would say this is quite an achievement.
For me, the most exciting cultural/ heritage role is our involvement in native species and landscapes ( see my post of couple of days ago), or exotic species of relevance to immigrant originating communities. Surely the intertwining of animals into human legend, myth, stories, religions, music, iconography, jokes, metaphor is a vastly rich area that we are only beginning to explore …? Part of a current Twycross Zoo project very much focusses on this theme
I was musing on the cross over between zoos and literature as well. Especially children’s literature. It is actually quite hard to think of a classic piece of children’s fiction that doesn’t feature animals! It is there an interpretative and funding avenue there we have not yet explored?
Be interested to hear from zoo people around the world as to how they have taken the cultural agenda forward
Best
John
Johnreganassociates.com
Posted by johnregan
