Revamping the Preservation Colleagues Program: A Priority for Our 50th Year
Since 1997, the League’s Preservation Colleagues program has strengthened the work of preservationists across the state. Our Colleagues are the front-line advocates and the behind-the-scenes heroes working on behalf of endangered landmarks, historic neighborhoods, rural landscapes, and commercial centers in their respective service areas. This year, we prioritized the Colleagues program by focusing on three core areas that have made this program so valuable in the past: Networking, Training, and Advocacy.
Thanks to one-on-one conversations and surveys, we knew our Colleagues valued in-person convenings and missed those opportunities to gather when in-person programs were put on indefinite hold during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. It was a high priority this year to bring back face-to-face gatherings, providing high quality educational and professional development content and — most importantly — providing the opportunity for Colleagues members to connect with one another.
Colleagues during our Rhinebeck walking tour.
In June, about 30 preservationists gathered in the village of Rhinebeck for our first in-person Preservation Colleagues gathering in several years. We kicked things off with a walking tour that explored the development history of the village and how local officials are managing design review and incorporating preservation and sensitive infill into comprehensive planning efforts. The main event centered on the idea of “Expanding the Narrative.” The program featured a day of inspiring speakers, conversations, and self-reflection, facilitated by Susan West Montgomery. Participants explored alternative frameworks — What frameworks and methods do professionals in allied fields (public historians, oral historians, curators) use to help them tell a fuller, more inclusive story? — with Dr. Jennifer Lemak, Chief Curator of History, NYS Museum, Lacey Wilson, Public Historian, Underground Railroad Education Center, and YehehnakwáhsthaɁ Kim Hill, Interpreter of Native American History, NYS Office of Parks, Recreation & Historic Preservation. Then, the group delved into Emerging Preservation Practices — How are preservation professionals engaging with our traditional tools and programs in new ways? — with Cara Bertron, City of Austin Planning Dept., Translating Community History Project and Equity-Based Preservation Plan; Marissa Marvelli, Historic Preservation Specialist, Consultant for El Barrio Cultural Resource Survey, and k. kennedy Whiters, AIA, CPI, Founder, Owner, and Principal of wrkSHap kiloWatt, LLC/Founder, Owner, and Principal Architect of studio kW Architecture, PLLC/Founder, Black in Historic Preservation, (un)Redact the Facts, and Beyond Integrity in (X). This retreat laid the groundwork for deeper conversations moving forward.
Building off this in-person gathering, In September, about ten Colleague organizations gathered for a virtual Manifesto Talk & Workshop with BlackSpace. Workshop facilitators Chopp Stewart, Dariella Freed, and Julia Jannon-Shields introduced us to the 14 principles in the BlackSpace Manifesto and provided examples of those principles in action. One example they shared was the Heritage Conservation Playbook that came out of their work with the community of Brownsville in Brooklyn. This playbook aims to provide guidance to practitioners both local and non-local, striving to collaborate with community members to document, conserve, and amplify Black neighborhood cultures. While we hope these conversations and the principles articulated in the Manifesto sparked some new ideas and got us all thinking critically about how we engage with communities, we acknowledge that there is more work to be done — and the League is committed to supporting that work and our Colleagues over the months and years to come.
Many thanks to all of the organizations who joined us this year as official Colleague Members
Adirondack Architectural Heritage
Friends of Historic Kingston
Historic Albany Foundation
Historic Districts Council
Historic Ithaca
Historic Saranac Lake
Landmark Society of Western NY
MAS NYC
The New York Landmarks Conservancy
NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project
Niagara Falls National Heritage Area
Otsego 2000
Preservation Association of Central New York
Preservation Buffalo Niagara
Preservation Long Island
Saratoga Springs Preservation Foundation
Save Harlem Now!
Schenectady Heritage Foundation
TAP, Inc.
Thousand Island Park Landmark Society
Village Preservation