Historic Scotland: 2015 Scottish Heritage Angel Awards now open for entries

Volunteer groups and individuals from across Scotland are being urged to enter the 2015 Scottish Heritage Angel Awards.

EDINBURGH, 2015-4-20 — /Travel PR News/ — The Scottish Heritage Angel Awards, which acknowledge and celebrate the valuable contributions made to Scotland’s historic environment by volunteers or ‘Heritage Angels’, are now inviting entries. Community groups and individuals, country-wide, have from now until the 30th June 2015 to enter for an Angel Award.

Funded by the Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation, the Awards – the first of their kind in Scotland – will celebrate the significant role that is carried out by volunteers in helping to better understand, appreciate and protect Scotland’s heritage and history for current and future generations. This initiative will also support the delivery of the Historic Environment Strategy for Scotland – Our Place in Time, which places a strong focus on community participation and engagement in heritage.

Entries are being welcomed from volunteers, individuals and groups, involved in heritage projects of all scales, spanning the length and breadth of Scotland.

‘Heritage Angels’ are being sought whose voluntary work has benefited various types of heritage projects, including local volunteers working to engage the community with local history, architecture and archaeology; community groups undertaking local landscape surveys and restoration projects that have relied on and benefited from the involvement of local volunteers.

There will also be the opportunity to nominate an individual in recognition of their on-going commitment and dedication for the benefit of the wider historic environment.

The five Scottish Heritage Angel Awards categories are:

• Investigating and Recording
• Caring and Protecting
• Sharing and Celebrating
• Capacity Building
• Lifetime Contribution to the Historic Environment

Entries for the Angel Awards will be judged by a panel of experts from within the heritage sector before a shortlist is put before the judges, who will choose an overall winner from each category.

Andrew Lloyd Webber, whose charity, the Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation, established the Scottish Heritage Angel Awards in 2014, said: “I am delighted that the efforts of individuals and communities in Scotland working to preserve their heritage are to be recognised through these awards. I am passionate about saving heritage at risk and salute all those who volunteer – I urge you to come forward and let us celebrate your achievements.”

This year will see shortlisted entrants invited to the first Scottish Heritage Angel Awards in a ceremony announcing the winners of each Angel Award category. The inaugural ceremony will take place in Edinburgh, on Monday 28th September.

The Scottish Heritage Angel Awards are being delivered in a partnership between the Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation, the Scottish Government, Historic Scotland, The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland, Scottish Civic Trust and Archaeology Scotland.

John Pelan, Director of the Scottish Civic Trust, said: “We’re pleased to be able to invite nominations and entries for the very first Scottish Heritage Angel Awards celebrating community groups and volunteers, from across the country, who are delivering heritage projects.

“The Angel Awards initiative, new to Scotland, is a wonderful opportunity to recognise the significant contribution that volunteers throughout Scotland make to our culturally rich historic environment.”

Applications for the inaugural 2015 Scottish Heritage Angel Awards are now open. For more information and for full details on how to enter, or nominate someone else, for an Angel Award please visit www.scottishheritageangelawards.org.uk

Notes for editors:

Scottish Heritage Angel Awards Categories

1.	Investigating and Recording Volunteer/community-based projects recording local history and heritage.Examples: this particular category could include projects such as recording of churchyards; landscape surveys; analysis of old architectural drawings.
2.	Caring and Protecting Volunteer-led involvement in saving/restoring heritage sites and buildings.Examples: this category applies to community development trust-led projects; restoration projects that have relied on or benefited from local volunteers
3.	Sharing and celebrating Volunteer-led projects promoting local history, architecture and archaeology.Examples: Volunteers or voluntary groups working across a range of projects, this could include interpretation boards; heritage trails; websites; virtual access projects. Projects helping to encourage wider engagement and interest in Scottish local heritage.
4.	Capacity Building Projects that demonstrate a sharing of specific skills with volunteers and volunteer community groups.Examples: this can include a range of projects such as fieldwork involving training; fieldwork involving volunteers; voluntary groups passing on skills to other groups; or creating online resources that others go on to benefit other.
5.	Lifetime Contribution to the Historic Environment This category is to celebrate and recognise the work of individuals and the lifetime contribution that they have made to the wider benefit of Scotland’s historic environment. This award seeks local groups and communities to nominate a person that they think should be awarded for their commitment and dedication.

About the Scottish Heritage Angel Awards
The Scottish Heritage Angel Awards are supported by the Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation. The initiative is a partnership between the Foundation, the Scottish Government,  Historic Scotland, the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland, the Scottish Government, Scottish Civic Trust, and Archaeology Scotland.
The first such awards in Scotland, the programme supports the delivery of the Historic Environment Strategy, Our Place in Time, with its strong emphasis on community participation in heritage.

www.scottishheritageangelawards.org.uk

Twitter: @ScotAngelAwards

About the Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation
The Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation was set up by Andrew in 1992 to promote the arts, culture and heritage for the public benefit; since inception Andrew has been the principle provider of funding for all its charitable activities.

In 2010, the Foundation embarked on an active grant giving programme and has now awarded grants of over £9m to support high quality training and personal development as well as other projects that make a real difference to enrich the quality of life both for individuals and within local communities.  Significant grants include £3.5m to Arts Educational Schools, London to create a state of the art professional theatre, £1m to The Architectural Heritage Fund, £1m to The Music in Secondary Schools Trust and over £350,000 annually to fund 30 performing arts scholarships for talented students in financial need.  The Foundation owns two important paintings, a Canaletto “Old Horse Guards from St James’s Park”, currently on exhibition at Compton Verney and a Stanley Spencer “The Garage” on exhibition at The Stanley Spencer Gallery in Cookham, Berkshire.

In 2014, the Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation awarded 36 new grants to organisations, a third more than 2013, made 15 grants to projects in their second and third year of funding and provided 30 musical theatre scholarships to young performers on the brink of their careers.

www.andrewlloydwebberfoundation.com

Twitter:  @ALWFoundation

For further information on the Scottish Heritage Angel Awards contact:
Grant Thomson, Communications Officer
Historic Scotland Media Office
0131 668 8074 or 07580 702 611
grant.thomson@scotland.gsi.gov.uk

For further information on the Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation contact:

Truda Spruyt and Hannah McMillan
Four Colman Getty
0203 697 4248 / 0203 697 4260
truda.spruyt@fourcolmangetty.com or hannah.mcmillan@fourcolmangetty.com

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