Past Workshops & Forums

A record number of heritage development professionals (60) joined HDI faculty in Nashville, Tennessee, for a workshop about heritage areas.  The workshop was offered as part of the ANHA's International Heritage Development Conference, which took place June 4-8, 2005.  Several National Heritage Area directors, National Park Service officials, and other experts were on hand to offer suggestions and advice about how to develop heritage areas.  Faculty for the workshop included John Cosgrove, Executive Director of the ANHA; Augie Carlino, President & CEO of Rivers of Steel NHA; Dan Rice, President & CEO of the Ohio & Erie Canal Corridor Coalition; Carroll Van West, Director of the Tennessee Civil War NHA; Brenda Barrett, National Park Service Coordinator for Heritage Areas; and Suzanne Copping, NPS National Heritage Areas Program Assistant.  Please view the June 2005 HDI newsletter for additional information.   

The conference theme was Creating Economic Futures One Story at a Time, and the sessions emphasized heritage development, making the past work for the future, telling the stories, and smart growth issues.  Keynote speakers included Nashville Mayor Bill Purcell, National Trust for Historic Preservation Executive Vice President David Brown, Civil Rights activist and lecturer Diane Nash, and award-winning author and ecologist Janisse Ray.  For summaries of the conference, visit www.ihdc2005.org. 

The Heritage Development Institute conducted a one-day course entitled Heritage Areas: The Basics of Getting Started at the National Trust for Historic Preservation annual conference.  The workshop took place at the historic Seelbach Hotel in downtown Louisville.  The HDI faculty, which included John Cosgrove, Brenda Barrett, Augie Carlino, Carroll Van West, and Carole Summers, spoke on the benefits of heritage areas, heritage tourism, telling the story, the NPS role in heritage areas, resource conservation, and partnerships.  Thirty heritage development professionals from Washington, DC, Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, Georgia, Arkansas, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Indiana, and California participated in the workshop.

Interested in promoting culture, heritage, tourism, and economic development in Montana, several federal, state, and local officials, non-profit representatives, business owners, and property owners attended the recent HDI workshops in Virginia City and Butte.  The Montana Preservation Alliance and Headwaters RC &D co-sponsored the workshops, which were held in two National Historic Landmark Districts.

Over eighty people attended these workshops, which gained regional publicity through the Montana Standard newspaper and an interview with Van West of the HDI on Butte's ABC television affiliate.  Speakers included Van West, Dan Rice, Dixie Swenson, Leslie Sharp, and Paul Labovitz.  The Virginia City meeting, which took place at the historic WPA-constructed community gymnasium on September 23, 2004, focused on the need for regional coordination, the economic potential of heritage areas, and the issue of property rights within a national heritage area.  The September 24th Butte meeting addressed these same issues while looking closely at the "next steps" and how the group could begin the process of community discussion and involvement for heritage area development.  This workshop took place at the recently restored Silver Bow Center, a 1906 structure that originally served as an exclusive club for Butte's men of wealth.

Your Town: The Citizens' Institute on Rural Design

Over forty people attended this three-day workshop held on the campus of Ottawa University August 5-7, 2004.  The conference featured programs about conservation, planning, economic development, and historic preservation concerning small towns and rural landscapes.  Dr. Carroll Van West, Director of the Tennessee Civil War National Heritage Area, led the Heritage Area Development Study Group in discussion about partnerships, resource conservation, building capacity, and telling the story.  The study group included representatives from Franklin County Historical Society, Baker University's Old Castle Museum, Franklin County CVB, Ninth Street Missionary Baptist Church of Lawrence, and Lawrence CVB. 

After an introductory discussion about the status of heritage development in Franklin and Douglas Counties, the group devised four heritage projects to pursue in the coming months: the enhancement of the Baptist Mission Site outside Ottawa, a heritage and crafts festival in 2006 commemorating the 150th anniversary of the Pottawatomie Massacre, getting railroad tourists to downtown Ottawa, and improving communication between heritage groups and developers.  For more on these discussions, view this document.

This event was sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the Faculty of Landscape Architecture at the State University of New York in Syracuse, and Ottawa Main Street Association. The Ottawa Herald featured the heritage development workshop in a recent article.

Partnerships and collaboration were the topics of conversation at the HDI's recent workshop at the US Geological Survey headquarters in Reston, Virginia, on July 23, 2004.  For an in-depth follow-up report, click here.  National Heritage Area directors Carroll Van West of the Tennessee Civil War NHA, Dan Rice of the Ohio and Erie Canal Corridor Coalition, and Augie Carlino of the Rivers of Steel NHA, spoke throughout the morning about resource conservation, partnerships, and the benefits and burdens of heritage areas. 

After a working lunch during which Brenda Barrett, National Coordinator of Heritage Areas, discussed the role of the NPS in National Heritage Areas, Jacquelyn Tuxill of the NPS Conservation Study Institute moderated a discussion about the theory and practice of Federal partnerships.  During a discussion about improving coordination between Federal agencies and programs, Steve Elkinton of the NPS National Trails System presented a map showing overlapping designations.  Constance Ramirez of the NPS Federal Preservation Institute also talked of improving the flow of communication and information using the new Historic Preservation Portal.

On June 9-11, 2004, several ANHA members participated in a two-way brainstorming session of the Mississippi Hills Heritage Area Alliance.  The workshop took place on the campus of the University of Mississippi in Oxford and at Blue Mountain College in Blue Mountain, Mississippi.  Fifty people attended the workshop, which featured presentations from Augie Carlino of the Rivers of Steel NHA, Van West of the Tennessee Civil War NHA, Dan Rice of the Ohio and Erie Canal Corridor Coalition, Becky Anderson of Handmade in America, and Curt Cottle, formerly of the South Carolina National Heritage Corridor.  The participants are preparing an action plan to better coordinate efforts and to identify partners for their regional heritage projects.  Support for the workshop came from the Mississippi Division of Tourism, the U.S. Forest Service, the North Central Mississippi Resource Conservation & Development Council, Corinth Realty, and the University of Mississippi.  Phil Walker of the Walker Collaborative in Nashville served as the workshop facilitator while Kent Bain of the Mississippi Hills Heritage Alliance organized the meeting. 

In its June 11 edition, the Northwest Mississippi Daily Journal quoted Dan Rice as emphasizing "heritage areas' simultaneous preservation and conservation of history and that they stimulate economic development. 'A heritage area creates a strategy for regional collaboration,' he said."  Attending the meeting was Mayor Andre DeBarry of Holly Springs who told the newspaper: "'I believe our past is indicative of our future, so it is important to preserve that history.  History doesn't leave you."

On May 26, 2004, Executive Director Bernie L. Wright of the Penn Center campus on St. Helena Island, South Carolina, welcomed over forty people to a special HDI forum on heritage areas and heritage development.  Penn Center, which sits at the heart of the coastal Gullah culture, was founded in 1862 as one of the nation's first schools for freed slaves and is a National Historic Landmark.  Penn Center hosted the meeting, which was organized by Cynthia Porcher of the Historic Charleston Foundation.  Porcher also coordinated a three-year study of the Gullah-Geechee culture for the National Park Service.

The HDI forum coincided with a morning press announcement by the National Trust for Historic Preservation that named the Gullah-Geechee Coast as one of America's 11 Most Endangered Historic Places.  Rapid development threatens this unique coastal culture.  The Gullahs, or Geechees as they are known outside South Carolina, are descendants of African slaves who worked on the coastal cotton and rice plantations before the Civil War.  After Emancipation, they remained in isolated communities and kept their distinctive dialect, cuisine and handicrafts, such as sweet grass baskets.

Following the Trust's formal announcement of the area's endangered status, HDI participants met to discuss the benefits of partnerships, building local capacity for heritage development, and the importance of telling nationally significant stories.  With a Park Service study unit complete, Gullah-Geechee residents and professionals are seriously weighing heritage area options.  Focusing on the benefits of heritage areas, the forum faculty emphasized the need for a strong partnership ethic and extensive grassroots organization.  Brenda Barrett, National Coordinator for Heritage Areas, and Program Assistant Suzanne Copping presented to the group the process of becoming a heritage area and agreed to provide participants with examples of other heritage area management plans.  Carroll Van West, Director of the Tennessee Civil War NHA jointed MTSU Center for Historic Preservation Assistant Professor Leslie N. Sharp to discuss resource conservation and the importance of telling the whole story through the landscape's resources. Participants explored ideas of gateways into heritage areas as a way of introducing the region's historic resources.  Volunteers agreed to arrange a second meeting to further explore heritage area development and to start the planning process for a heritage area.

www.penncenter.com

The Augusta Canal National Heritage Area hosted the year's first HDI workshop on February 19, 2004.  Nearly fifty heritage professionals from throughout the Southeast and as far away as Louisiana, Pennsylvania, and Ohio gathered to learn about the basics of heritage development--from education and interpretation to conservation stewardship.  Augusta Canal NHA Executive Director Dayton Sherrouse welcomed the group and provided superb sixty-degree weather.

The six-session workshop began with Carroll Van West, Director of the Tennessee Civil War NHA, discussing the significance of heritage areas and the role of the Alliance of National Heritage Areas.  Dan Rice, President & CEO of the Ohio and Erie Canal Corridor Coalition, talked about the importance of building capacity and strengthening ties to communities and regions.  The executive director of the Lackawanna Heritage Valley NHA, John Cosgrove, shared information about education and interpretation within heritage areas.  He highlighted his organization's Traveling Trunks program that provides children hands-on learning experiences.  After a working lunch during which workshop registrants discussed heritage development-related issues, Brenda Barrett and Suzanne Copping of the National Park Service addressed the federal role in heritage areas. They provided statistics concerning the 24 nationally designated heritage areas and discussed relevant legislation.  Sherrouse concluded the workshop by inviting the group to tour the Augusta Canal Interpretive Center and to take a boat ride along the canal while he discussed conservation stewardship.

The Joint Ventures: Stewards through Partnerships conference, sponsored by the National Park Service, the Bureau of Land Management, and the U.S. Forest Service, was held at the Los Angeles Convention Center from November 18-20, 2003.  Keynote speakers included Ray Suarez, senior correspondent for "The News Hour" on public television, David Rockefeller, Jr., Director and former Chair of Rockefeller & Co., and Interior Secretary Gail Norton.  The programs and courses featured a broad range of participants from federal, state, and local governments, non-governmental agencies, educational and scientific institutions, and the business community. The HDI workshop, Heritage Areas:Partnership Basics, was well-attended.  Presenters included Brenda Barrett, National Coordinator of Heritage Areas, NPS; Carroll Van West, Director of the Tennessee Civil War National Heritage Area; and Augie Carlino, President of the Rivers of Steel National Heritage Area.  

Over forty heritage development professionals attended our October 1, 2003, workshop entitled "Getting Started: The Basics of Heritage Areas" in Denver.   This five-hour workshop took place during the first full day of the National Trust for Historic Preservation annual conference.  The topics discussed include:

Why Heritage Areas and Heritage Development? presented by Augie Carlino, chair of the ANHA and President and CEO of the Rivers of Steel NHA in Pittsburgh

Building Capacity for Heritage Development presented by Dan Rice, former chair of the ANHA and the President and CEO of the Ohio and Erie Canal Corridor Coalition in Ohio

Interpretation and Education in Heritage Areas presented by John Cosgrove, Executive Director of the Lackawanna Heritage Valley NHA in Pennsylvania

Conservation Stewardship in Heritage Areas presented by Charlene Cutler, director of Quinebaug and Shetucket Rivers Valley National Heritage Corridor

The Federal Role in Heritage Areas presented by Brenda Barrett, NPS

How the Alliance of National Heritage Areas Supports Heritage Development presented by Van West, director of the Tennessee Civil War NHA