Historic preservation & heritage in 98th Arizona Town Hall report

[Source: Jim McPherson, President of the Board of Directors, Arizona Preservation Foundation] – The recently-concluded 98th Arizona Town Hall, “Capitalizing on Arizona’s Arts and Culture,” includes broad statements and specific recommendations related to Arizona’s history, heritage, historic preservation, adaptive reuse, and neighborhood and community revitalization ~ all intertwined and compatible with the arts and culture community.

The final report and priority actions were just released this afternoon and are available for review and download here: http://www.aztownhall.org/pdf/98th_Final_Recommendations.pdf

The background report, skillfully edited by ASU Art History Professor Betsy Fahlman, includes numerous references to the importance of Arizona’s heritage and built environment and several chapters themselves focus on preservation-related topics: Architecture and Sense of Place (Will Bruder); Artists and the Revitalization of Downtown Phoenix (Greg Esser); Historic Preservation (Debbie Abele); Museums (Alberto Rios); Placemaking and Social Capital (Kimber Lanning and Philip Allsopp); Preserve, Adapt, Restore, or Build Cultural Facilities (Shelley Cohn); and Tourism and Cultural Heritage (Dallen Timothy).  You can review and download it here: http://aztownhall.org/pdf/98th_Background_Report.pdf

Several of my fellow Town Hall participants will be attending the 9th Annual Arizona Historic Preservation Conference in Tucson next month.  We’ll be happy to share further detail about what transpired this past week at the 98th Arizona Town Hall.