Hi! Our names are Addie Race and Riley Schmidt and we are studying Cultural Heritage Management at the University of York. We both come from anthropology backgrounds but have always wanted to focus more on archaeology and heritage for our careers. Through our Masters Program we were able to get a placement at the CBA in York to help them prepare for the Festival of Archaeology and do some public outreach via blog posts. As two graduate students entering the world of heritage we thought it would be helpful to share about our experiences at our Council of British Archaeology (CBA) placement!

Riley

Over the course of my placement, I had a variety of tasks. I focused mainly on recent casework the CBA has been involved with, indexing interesting cases and writing about how the CBA interacts with and comments on these cases. This placement has contributed greatly to my knowledge of cultural heritage as I was able to see first hand how the built environment gets managed. I’ve looked at cases in which listed buildings are at threat of being knocked down in favour of newly built homes, or incredible renovations that end up saving the historic value of the building next to it. Our built environment is so rich and complex that at every corner we can find new and interesting sites to explore. I am thankful for my time at the CBA and for everything I’ve been able to learn!

Addie

I was tasked with creating an activity for the CBA’s Festival of Archaeology, this year's theme was Archaeology and Creativity. I wanted to do something that encouraged people to go out and explore, while still bringing awareness to archaeology and heritage. In order to do this I was able to partner with the StreetLife project to create a heritage trail map. The map is a self guided creativity walk that will highlight the city of York and guide you through exploring its popular sites as well as some hidden gems. The sites and stops people will visit while on this walk will focus on historic York as well as highlight some of the more modern community uses of the sites. The walk will also encourage participants to experience the history of the city through a creative lens as each stop will have a creative prompt, either a chance to write a poem, short story or create a small drawing. There is a digital version online that can be used via smartphone and there will also be an in person event held at the street life hub with printed versions of the map during the festival. I had so much fun thinking of all the creative prompts and loved learning more about York’s hidden gems! It was such a wonderful opportunity to work alongside CBA and the Streetlife project!