This September the Piedmont Area Preservation Alliance will hold a press conference to announce the date for its first annual ‘Preservation Week.’ The goal for Preservation Week is to more-effectively publicize, celebrate, and educate about our collective preservation and conservation missions and accomplishments while also examining our missed opportunities. In a region internationally-recognized for its blend of history, natural landscape, and architecture- from United Nations World Heritage Sites to threatened urban and rural structures- we have a duty to study, protect, and disseminate information about the wide range of cultural assets located right here in our own backyard.
Preservation Piedmont, a PAPA member, has formed a special Preservation Week Committee (PWC) that has agreed to serve as the organizing body for the week’s series of events. Working in concert with the Board of Preservation Piedmont and the PAPA Steering Committee, the PWC will:
- Develop the overall schedule and framework for Preservation Week (see the tentative schedule included below)
- Create an exhibition with the Charlottesville Community Design Center (CCDC) exploring the intersection of preservation with green building/sustainability by highlighting local preservation successes and failures
- Solicit and refine session proposals from other organizations for additional Preservation Week events
- Facilitate coordination of site logistics for house and walking tours, speakers, and workshops submitted by participating organizations
For Preservation Week, we invite organizations or individuals to contribute a program, a tour, a lecture, or other preservation-related event to be held between Friday, April 3 and Saturday, April 11, 2009. Each organization will be responsible for planning and implementing its own event with logistical help from the PWC. We encourage you to organize events that are specific to the goals and mission statements of your particular group. Feel free to post or discuss session ideas here or contact the PWC with questions.
Session proposals are due to the PWC by August 29; groups will then be asked to give a brief presentation (3-5 minutes) about their projects at the PAPA fall event on September 18. We look forward to your participation in what we envision as an educational, eye-opening, and dynamic preservation tradition in Central Virginia.
-The Preservation Week Committee (On behalf of Preservation Piedmont and the Piedmont Area Preservation Alliance)
