Painting for Preservation: this place matters

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.

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Gather at St. Mary's on the Hill this Saturday Morning

The scheduled Art-In at St. Mary's on the Hill is still happening this Saturday morning (9:30am-1pm) - and now - with greater conviction of the need to keep painting and preserving.

Demolition began Monday afternoon at St. Mary's on the Hill, as of Tuesday afternoon the south wall was leveled. Although many of us called it "ruins," we knew the structure's possibilities. An apartment scheme was laid out within the past couple of years and the creative/gardening community surely would have made something happen.

Please join Painting for Preservation to create art from another vantage point - that of the lost structure, of the absence. There is also a structure next door, the old school, that is threatened. Come out of the desire to make art or record history; Come out of principle, protest, celebration and illustration of what was lost today and the system of City-aided demolition-by-neglect. Artists will be on-site and all community members are welcome to gather at this lost historic place.

For more information, email Sara and Meg at P4Partist@gmail.com.

* A sincere thank you to whomever taped the This Place Matters sign to the fence.

Friday, August 12, 2011

THIS PLACE MATTERS: Photo Submission for National Trust via Buffalo's Young Preservationists

Show BYP What Places Matter To You
Buffalo Rising

by Mike Puma

August 12, 2011

What place in Buffalo matters to you? Buffalo's Young Preservationists (BYP) wants you to show them. In conjunction with the "This Place Matters" campaign and the National Trust for Historic Preservation, BYP is looking for photo submissions of the places that matter to you.

The concept is simple, take pictures of yourself or your friends in front of the places that matter to you while also holding the "This Place Matters" sign. Participating is simple. Print a "This Place Matters" sign from the National Trust website, take your photos, and submit them directly to the BYP Facebook page or Flickr account.

Join the BYP at the Essex Street Pub (Rhode Island and Essex) on August 17^th from 6-9 pm to see the photos submitted and discuss why these places matter to you. BYP members will be on hand to also discuss their participation in the upcoming National Trust Preservation Conference in October.

Buffalo's Young Preservationists is a group of concerned citizens whose goal is to raise awareness about the important role preservation plays in creating unique places that matter.

Painting for Preservation at Lyth Cottage (L to R): Sara M. Zak, Donna Hall, Meg Baco, Casey Milbrand [with sign], Amanda Maciuba, Dana Saylor. Photo by David Torke.