A conference on Aesthetics and the Management of Heritage took place in the lovely surroundings of Churchill College, Cambridge, on 10th and 11th July 2025. There were five keynote speakers: Robert Bevan (London), Helen Frowe (Stockholm), Hélia Marçal (London), Max Ryynänen (Aalto), and Zoltán Somhegyi (Szeged). We were joined by some excellent up and coming aestheticians: Radu Bumbăcea (Munich), Maddy Page (Leeds), Camilla Palazzolo (Genoa), Manuel Martin Gallardo (Madrid), and Sukvinder Shahi (Arizona). In addition, Jeremy Musson (Chair of the Historic Houses Association) came along. A particularly good feature of the conference was the range of interests including (in addition to aesthetics) heritage management, just war theory and art history. The conversations where invariably stimulating and interesting; so much so that the two organisers (Derek Matravers and Zoltán Somhegyi) are pursuing ideas for an edited collection, which will have the papers from the conference at their core.
BPA/SWIP guidelines: Two of the five keynote speakers were women. It was originally two of four, but Rob Bevan offered us a paper and we did not want to turn him down. Of the other speakers, three of the five were woman giving women a 50% representation overall. The other guidelines were adhered to. The date was set to accommodate a female keynote speaker.