Living Heritage Symposium ('Climate Heritage')

Managing heritage in the face of a changing climate is essential if we are to maintain and preserve what communities value, including tangible and intangible heritage. Local practices and traditional wisdom offer strategies to both adapt to a changing earth and contribute to the mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions. This discussion will consider community engagement, indigenous life ways, and preservation techniques that can create resilience and provide models for sustainable conservation of cultural heritage and climate action.

Register ($25): https://www.eventbrite.com/e/living-heritage-symposium-tickets-192395880257?

Speakers:

Dr. Hannah Fluck (Historic England)

Dr. William Megarry (ICOMOS Heritage and Climate Change Focal Point, Belfast, Ireland)

Katie Carter (Historic Environment Scotland)

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About Living Heritage Symposium

The City of San Antonio Office of Historic Preservation (OHP) is going virtual for our 4th Living Heritage Symposium! Instead of hosting a day and half worth of sessions, we’re spreading the symposium out over a keynote and three two-hour sessions from 10:00 a.m to 12:00 p.m. CST. The sessions will be recorded.

Join international and local heritage professionals, policy-makers, grassroots preservationists and academics together for an exchange of ideas leading to the development of best practices for safeguarding cultural heritage.

Experts will present relevant work and attendees will work together in break out sessions to draft recommendations that San Antonio and other U.S. cities can utilize.

The goal is to produce viable solutions and deliver concrete action steps for the perpetuation of culturally significant properties, heritage businesses, and intangible heritage. This may include new forms of designations, economic incentives, or other methods with a proven track record.

WHY OHP HOSTS THE SYMPOSIUM

As with many cities around the world, San Antonio is experiencing the pressures of supporting new economic development and growth while protecting community character and cultural heritage. Here, the past and the future co-exist between multiple layers of history, cultures, and social identities. San Antonio reveres this unique heritage.

The Living Heritage Symposium works to help develop tools and strategies for the treatment of culturally significant properties and the protection of intangible heritage. Traditional design guidelines aren’t necessarily sufficient to guide in decision-making, and these cases can be difficult for staff, the Historic Design and Review Commission, and for the community.

San Antonio is not alone in dealing with these issues, so we invite policymakers, heritage professionals, academics, community organizations, neighborhood advocates, and activists to work together to develop tools and strategies that may help better manage cultural heritage and sustainable development while promoting living heritage to benefit the community.

COST

The symposium costs $25.

Your $25 will give you access to the January 6 launch, and all three sessions. If you aren’t able to join us live, you won’t be able to join in breakout sessions or Q & A, but you will have access to the recordings post symposium.

A limited number of scholarships are available for students and community members. Please contact the San Antonio Office of Historic Preservation at ohp@sanantonio.gov for more information on scholarships.

THEME and SESSIONS

The theme for the Living Heritage Symposium is Transformation through Cultural Sustainability. The symposium focuses on the UN’s 5 Ps of Sustainable Development: People, Planet, Prosperity, Peace, and Partnership.

SESSIONS

January 6: Event Launch with Sara Bronin

January 7: Climate Heritage with Dr. Hannah Fluck (Historic England); Dr. William Megarry (ICOMOS Heritage and Climate Change Focal Point, Belfast, Ireland), and Katie Carter (Historic Environment Scotland).

January 21: Sensitive Treatment of Culturally Significant Properties with Ken Bernstein (HPO, Los Angeles) and Denise Gilmore (Senior Director, Division of Social Justice and Equity, Birmingham), final speaker to be named.

February 11: Leveraging Living Heritage for Economic Prosperity, Felix Heisel (Circular Construction Lab) and other speakers to be announced

Details at: https://livingheritage.sanantonio.gov/

WHO SHOULD ATTEND

Historic Preservationists, Heritage Management Professionals, Urban Planners, Architects, Cultural Properties Specialists, Cultural Resources Managers, Tribal Leaders, Grassroots Preservationists, Diversity Officers, Academics working in relevant fields, Culture Makers, and municipal employees engaged in economic departments, urban planning, development services and sustainability.

Questions? Contact the San Antonio Office of Historic Preservation at (210) 207-0035 or e-mail: OHP@sanantonio.gov.