Welcome to Painting for Preservation!

Welcome to Painting for Preservation! This initiative, founded by artist Sara M. Zak, is aimed at drawing attention to distressed, at-risk, and under-utilized historic locations through on site art making.

Mission: To bring together artists of all media in support of historic distressed properties and communities. To create artwork on-site related to the location as a means of raising positive awareness of the space.

My hope is that we can continue this effort in Buffalo and expand the concept to other architecturally rich cities. Please e-mail Sara M. Zak if you are interested in starting a Painting for Preservation initiative in your city at info@paintingforpreservation.org

Our goals:
1. Raise awareness of at-risk, distressed and under-utilized locations and their neighborhoods

2. Create a record of historically rich locations through art

3. Create a community of artists invested in the urban landscape

4. Bring exposure and provide assistance to artists interested in documenting at-risk historic neighborhoods while also collaborating with members of those same neighborhoods.

5. Involve communities in sharing their stories of local historic architectural and their neighborhoods.



Wednesday, September 11, 2013

The Art of Place in South Dakota

I recently received an e-mail from Liz Almlie, an historic preservation specialist with South Dakota State Historical Society.  She and her organization were inspired by Painting for Preservation and their local plein air painters to host The Art of Place.  The event was structured with a workshop day to kickoff the event in May 2013 and then, a month later, an exhibit booth at their local “Oahe Days” summer festival (Oahe is the name of the Missouri River dam close by). 

The workshops included a photo walk in our historic downtown, a cemetery tour, a field sketching session, and a presentation on the Historic Preservation Commission’s new QR code project. 
The Art of Place was a partnership between the South Dakota State Historic Preservation Office and the statewide non-profit, Preserve South Dakota.  Local groups including the Pierre/Fort Pierre Historic Preservation Commission, the Canvasbacks Art Club, the Central SD Photography Club, and the Short Grass Arts Council participated with programs, volunteers, artists, and materials.    It was a pilot project, and they did not have any major advocacy needs locally, so they let artists choose any local historic place and any media that we could accommodate.  Paintings, drawings, photographs, and even a ceramic piece depicted historic houses, commercial buildings, churches, bridges, memorials, a walk-up ice cream place, and the SD State Capitol.

Here is the link to their call for participation (already complete): http://preservesd.org/?p=597


Photo tour (image by Kate Nelson)
Booth with the artwork of historic places (photos by Liz Almlie)

 
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