Butser Projects Co-ordinator Sue talks about our exciting plans to host an EXARC Experimental Archaeology conference in 2022 all about Sustainability in Open Air Museums.

While we spend a lot of time here at Butser thinking about the past, we also think about the future too. Next year, 2022, is a special year as it’s 50 years since Peter Reynolds started his experimental Iron Age farm on Butser Hill. We’ll be celebrating that anniversary, there will be lots more to come on that later, but one date for 2022 that is already in our calendar is the EXARC international conference that is coming to Butser Ancient Farm in May.

EXARC is an international cultural heritage network with over 350 members in 40 countries. The organisation works in the areas of Ancient Technology, Experimental Archaeology, Interpretation / education and Museum Practice. Butser Ancient Farm is a dedicated member.

International conferences get planned well in advance so we were already talking about 2022 before the 2021 conference got underway. 2021 was an online conference with 167 presentations that are now available on EXARC’s youtube channel.

We are hoping that 2022 will allow EXARC members to meet in person for a conference at Butser Ancient Farm on 19 and 20 May. The theme for the conference is “A Sustainable Revolution for Open Air Museums”.

The questions we will be talking about will include how to develop the strength of open-air museums by building partnerships with other organisations. Here at Butser we have been working together with universities, Wessex Archaeology and Operation Nightingale in partnerships that benefit and develop all the organisations.

The conference will also consider how open-air museums can become leaders in sustainable solutions. Ancient technology has much to offer the modern world. As well as a collection of buildings, Butser Ancient Farm is the centre of some amazing specialist knowledge in skills and crafts.

We will discuss how can we change internally, support others and eventually lead the way. We will include site and materials management but we look forward to hearing more examples from around the world.

EXARC members are in a unique position where our teaching of the past offers our visitors lessons for the future, so we are more relevant than ever before. Butser’s education programme offers something for all ages from school children to university students, and adults learning from our workshops.

But looking at our own strengths is not enough, we have to develop and find our audience where they feel comfortable, which means we should also, but not exclusively go online. How can the virtual world add to the real-life world? All in all, we need to re-imagine our museums and adapt to change. This is the new journey that Butser is now taking to the online world which will allow us to reach audiences who cannot visit the farm in person.

There will be a call for papers later this year, and we expect tickets for the conference to be on sale in October. https://exarc.net/meetings/2022-sustainable-revolution