2009 Annual Meeting
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The Honorable Jim Leach, |
Heritage Preservation’s 2009 Annual Meeting was held on Tuesday, November 17, in Washington, D.C. at the National Archives. The Honorable Jim Leach, Chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, was the featured speaker. Discussing the agency’s initiative, "Bridging Cultures," Leach said "Preserving documents is critical to advancing the study of history, and preserving artifacts is central not only to understanding cultural values but reflecting respect for the individuals and societies whose heritage is involved. It is not surprising that one of the greatest gestures of respect between peoples is the exchange of a book or textile or craft or work of art. And there are few greater reflections of respect than assisting others to preserve their heritage."
Mr. Leach then delighted the crowd of Heritage Preservation members and friends with the announcement that NEH will be awarding a grant of $248,527 in support of the Alliance for Response project. Click here to read Leach’s remarks.
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Rachel Goslins, Executive Director of the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities |
Another highlight of the meeting was the presentation of Heritage Preservation’s highest honor, the Heritage Defender Award to Angelica Rudenstine, Program Officer for Museums and Art Conservation at the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The award is also to be presented this year to Anne-Imelda Radice, Director of the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
Rachel Goslins, recently appointed by President Obama as Executive Director of the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities, announced that the Save America’s Treasures grant program will have an increase of $5,000,000 in funds for competitive grants in 2010. She pointed out that the strongest applications to the program explicitly describe threats to the collections, rather than assuming that threats are understood. She also encouraged applicants to tell the compelling stories behind their collections in order to make the case to for their preservation to funders and the public.
A panel on new directions in federal funding for preservation featured presentations by Marsha Semmel, Deputy Director for Museum Programs at the Institute of Museum and Library Services, Robert Frankel, Director, Museums and Visual Arts at the National Endowment for the Arts, and Nadina Gardner, Director of the Division of Preservation and Access at the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Gardner discussed NEH’s new program, Sustaining Cultural Heritage Collections, which has an application deadline of December 8, 2009. She said that with an emphasis on preventive conservation, this program represents an interest in moving beyond a “one size fits all” approach. The NEH encourages institutions to identify energy-efficient and cost-effective solutions that will work best for their individual collections.
Frankel emphasized that support for preserving artistic heritage can be found all across the NEA’s program categories. The NEA has funded preservation of film and archives that document the arts as well as digitization projects and residencies for art conservators.
Semmel reviewed the accomplishments of the Connecting to Collections initiative and discussed trends that IMLS has identified. Since the initiative was launched, the agency has witnessed a 35% increase in applications to the Conservation Project Support program and increased interest in preservation funding agency-wide. Trends that the IMLS has identified for future directions include: redefining stewardship, green conservation, new Technologies, exploring models outside the United States, and digital preservation. Digitization, and collaboration to make it more effective, was the subject of many questions to the panel. The meeting was followed by a reception, also held at the Archives, where Heritage Preservation members were able to meet and mingle with representatives of federal funding agencies, national leaders and federal policy makers. Click here for our photo gallery of the meeting.