Forum Blog - Preservation Leadership Forum - A Program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation

"Doing Women’s History in Public": A Q&A with Heather Huyck

By Priya Chhaya posted 2 days ago

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All year long organizations across the country have been marking the centennial of the 19th Amendment. Along with that commemoration comes increased time and attention to the telling of women’s stories at historic places. This past spring Rowman & Littlefield (as part of their series with the American Association of State and Local History ) published " Doing Women’s History in Public: A Handbook for Interpretation at Museums and Historic Sites ." Written by Heather Huyck, this handbook, ...

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Forum Webinar (Online Training Course): Advocacy in Action

By Forum Online posted 4 days ago

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Cross posted from MainStreet.com Whether making a specific policy ask or maintaining sustained support, community revitalization professionals and historic preservationists need to develop and hone advocacy skills. View recordings of this online course offered in July/August 2020 through the Main Street America Institute and presented by the Preservation Leadership Forum for an in-depth overview of five key advocacy areas. This 5-part series features expert speakers and practitioners ...

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Forty Years of Supporting Main Streets, a Q&A with Main Street America’s Patrice Frey

By Priya Chhaya posted 8 days ago

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Forty years ago a group of like minded individuals came together to start the National Main Street Center, a program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Over the years, the program supported communities by building tools, a network, and a strategy for protecting the economic vitality of older and historic downtown and commercial district corridors against the threats of sprawl. Today, Main Street America continues to serve those same communities, supporting small businesses and ...

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The Road to the Great American Outdoors Act: Now Law

By Special Contributor posted 10 days ago

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By Priya Chhaya and Pam Bowman The Great American Outdoors Act is now law. For many years, the National Trust for Historic Preservation in collaboration with our local, state, and national partners have successfully made the case that establishing a dedicated fund for National Park Service (NPS) deferred maintenance needs and fully funding the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) will will provide essential support to preserve America’s historic places for generations to come. This work ...

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National Trust Awards $211,000 in Grant Funding to Organizations Nationwide

By Lizzy Barringer posted 11 days ago

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We are thrilled to announce the 2020 recipients of the Johanna Favrot Fund for Historic Preservation and the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Fund for Historic Interiors. Grants from these two funds will help preserve a diverse range of historic sites across the country. Between the two funds, the National Trust has granted a total of $211,000 to 26 organizations in 18 states and the District of Columbia. The Johanna Favrot Fund for Historic Preservation and the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Fund for Historic ...

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National Park Service Underrepresented Community Grants Help to Tell the Full American Story

By Special Contributor posted 15 days ago

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By Christine Grubbs and Tom Cassidy In early July, the National Park Service (NPS) announced the FY 2019 grants for the Underrepresented Community Grant Program, a competitive grant program that helps to protect and interpret the sites that tell the stories of all Americans. This small, but significant program was created to better recognize places of African American, Asian American, American Indian, American Latino, Native Alaskan, Native Hawaiian, LGBTQ, and women’s history. The Underrepresented ...

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Defending the National Environmental Policy Act

By Sharee Williamson posted 16 days ago

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Today, the National Trust for Historic Preservation and a coalition of partners filed a lawsuit challenging new National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) regulations issued earlier this month. Signed into law on January 1, 1970, Congress established NEPA to ensure that federal agencies consider the impacts of their actions on the human environment, including both cultural and natural resources. Like the National Historic Preservation Act, NEPA is a procedural statute intended to foster well-informed ...

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On the Hill: House Considering FY21 Appropriations with Historic Funding Levels for the Historic Preservation Fund

By Janelle DiLuccia posted 23 days ago

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Editor’s Note: The House of Representatives passed H.R. 7608—a package of four appropriations bills including the FY21 Interior Appropriations bill—by a vote of 224 to 189 on Friday, July 24, 2020. This week, the House is considering legislation that would provide a new record high of $136.425 million for the Historic Preservation Fund (HPF), a nearly $18 million (15%) increase from last year’s already record funding. The “minibus” package of appropriations bills that includes the FY21 Interior ...

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Outside the Box: A Reading List For Change

By Priya Chhaya posted 30 days ago

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Last week Preservation Leadership Forum published a piece by Brown University professor Marisa Angell Brown that addressed “Preservation’s Existential Crisis.” In that piece Brown examined some of the standard practices of preservation and described how some of these methods are used to create a culture of inequity. That piece is just the beginning of a conversation that the field will need to grapple with in the months and years to come, and we at Preservation Leadership Forum are committed ...

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Forum Webinar: What is Our ‘New Normal” Like

By Forum Online posted 07-10-2020

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On June 17, 2020, Preservation Leadership Forum held a webinar examining the economic and longer-term impacts of the pandemic across a variety of communities. The recording for the webinar is now available in the Forum Library . Credit: Neal Santos Description: Cultural institutions, historic sites, Main Street commercial districts and the small businesses they support, have all experienced severe economic impacts from the pandemic through job losses and business closures. In ...

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Forum Webinar: Creating a Successful Case Statement

By Forum Online posted 07-06-2020

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On June 24, Preservation Leadership Forum, in partnership with the Texas Historical Commission presented the Forum Webinar "Creating a Successful Case Statement." The webinar recording is now available along with some responses to follow up questions. Description : Fundraising is about building a compelling case for support for your organization—its mission, the programs you offer, and the projects that you implement to serve your constituency. This case is equal parts storytelling and facts ...

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Building the Mental Resilience of Preservation Professionals

By Raina Regan posted 06-24-2020

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Psychology Today defines resilience as “the psychological quality that allows some people to be knocked down by the adversities of life and come back at least as strong as before. Rather than letting difficulties, traumatic events, or failure overcome them and drain their resolve, highly resilient people find a way to change course, emotionally heal, and continue moving toward their goals.” As I reached a decade in the historic preservation field, I recognized my professional development ...

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Preservation’s Existential Crisis

By Marisa Brown posted 06-18-2020

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January 23, 2020, was an unseasonably warm night for New England. I almost left the house in a short-sleeved sweater—but I was glad when I arrived at Grace Church in downtown Providence that I had worn an extra layer. When I get nervous, I get cold, and it was good to be over-dressed as people started to arrive for Providence Preservation Society’s annual meeting. As the keynote speaker, I wasn’t sure that they would like what I had to say, in short, that preservation is facing an existential crisis. ...

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On the Hill: Senate (and the House) Passes Historic Parks and Public Lands Bill (Updated 7/22/20)

By Special Contributor posted 06-17-2020

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Editor's Note: After Senate passage of the Great American Outdoors Act on June 17, 2020, the National Trust turned our attention to the House where we worked closely with key stakeholders in preparation for a House vote. In a few short weeks, the House companion bill (H.R. 7092) garnered 250 cosponsors and a vote on the Great American Outdoors Act was scheduled for the House floor. On July 22, 2020, the House overwhelmingly passed the bill by a strong bipartisan vote of 310-107 , sending ...

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Do No Harm: HOPE Crew and Preservation at Kalaupapa National Historical Park

By Special Contributor posted 06-12-2020

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By: Kerri A. Inglis and Molly Baker In March 2020, fourteen students from the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo gathered at Kalaupapa National Historical Park for a HOPE (Hands-on Preservation Experience) Crew preservation workshop and cultural immersion program, offered by the National Trust for Historic Preservation (NTHP) in partnership with the National Park Service (NPS). From 1866-1969, the Kalaupapa peninsula was used as a place of separation for those who had contracted Hansen’s disease ...

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Forum Webinar: Virtual Public Meetings (Part 1 & 2)

By Forum Online posted 06-04-2020

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On May 19, 2020 Preservation Leadership Forum, in partnership with the National Alliance of Preservation Commissions (NAPC) hosted the first of two webinars on Virtual Public Meetings. Part One focused on the legal issues surrounding this shift to virtual meetings, while part two took a look at some case studies from the field. Virtual Public Meetings: Part 1 - Legal Issues With traditional, in-person public meetings on hold for the foreseeable future, local preservation commissions and advocates ...

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Taliesin Preservation: 2019 Trustees Emeritus Award for Historic Site Stewardship

By Special Contributor posted 05-28-2020

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By Carrie Rodamaker History surrounds us, each and every day. But what does it teach us? How do we use the past to guide our future? That was a common theme at the 2019 PastForward Conference in Denver, Colorado, where Taliesin Preservation received the Trustees Emeritus Award for Historic Sites Stewardship. For over a century, Taliesin and the surrounding Driftless hills and valleys in southwest Wisconsin have served as a laboratory for living. This is where Frank Lloyd Wright spent over ...

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Forum Webinar: Transforming Digital Engagement at Historic Sites

By Forum Online posted 05-22-2020

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As we all know, preservationists and history professionals across the country have been forced to shift overnight the way they share, engage, and tell their stories from in-person programming to the digital realm. We recognize this has not been easy. On April 19, Preservation Leadership Forum hosted a webinar that focused on this transition. In this webinar five dynamic speakers talked through the process of transformation—how to develop a strategy, what lessons have been learned (so far), and gave ...

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Forum Webinar: Coronavirus Response: the Historic Tax Credit as An Economic Recovery Tool

By Forum Online posted 05-21-2020

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On April 24 th , Preservation Leadership Forum (in partnership with the National Trust Community Investment Corporation and the the Historic Tax Credit Coalition), hosted the webinar “ Coronavirus Response: the Historic Tax Credit as An Economic Recovery Tool ” for preservation leaders and the rehabilitation industry to hear about efforts to promote the federal Historic Tax Credit (HTC) as a crucial component of the government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic and our nation’s economic recovery. ...

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Building Tomorrow’s Heritage: Making Places For All, By All

By Special Contributor posted 05-20-2020

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By: Michael W. Mehaffy and Nikos A. Salingaros Editor’s note: This is the fourth and final essay in a series about recent lessons from the sciences for historic preservation and compatible new development. The authors—an urban researcher and philosopher, and a mathematician/physicist— explore emerging scientific findings about historic structures, and discuss lessons for generating more sustainable and resilient human environments. LEFT: The historic context of a new Nobel Museum ...

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