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seminars + Symposia

Over the past year, TCLF conceived, designed, hosted or co-sponsored a variety of conferences and special events. This year, venues were held in Mason Neck, Virginia; Birmingham , Alabama ; Chicago , Illinois ; Providence , Rhode Island ; San Francisco and Santa Barbara , California. Although many of these events are described in detail in the report that follows, it is worth noting that the Foundation's conferences attracted sold-out audiences and resulted in a variety of offerings that are now hosted on our website.

Saving and Revitalizing Historic Landscapes
May 19-21, 2003 / Birmingham, Alabama

Up until very recently little attention had been given to the parks of Birmingham , Alabama and the 1925 Olmsted Plan for the Birmingham Parks System. Although contributing much to the city's character, there has often been a disconnect between managers and scholars when it comes to planning for their future use. The symposium and mobile workshops held May 19-21 were organized by TCLF under the leadership of Marjorie White and included lectures and community walks with the shared goal of revealing the history of these parks and empowering community residents and decision makers today. Historic landscapes that were highlighted included: Avondale Park (37-acres), Rushton Park (Olmsted plan, 1924), Rhodes Park, and Caldwell Park along Highland Avenue laid out as a streetcar route in the late 1880s, Lane Park (zoo & botanical gardens, 200-acres), Vulcan Park, Vulcan trail, Green Springs (c.40 acres)-George Ward Park; listed from east to west along the northern and southern flanks of Red Mountain. Co-sponsors for these events and lectures included the Birmingham Chapter, American Institute of Architects (AIA); Birmingham Historical Society; The Alabama Chapter of the American Institute of Landscape Architects; The Virginia Samford Theater and the Cultural Landscape Foundation. The events spread over several days are now laying the groundwork for informed preservation planning work to guide these cultural landscapes into the future.

Mission Impossible
July 11-12, 2003 / Mason Neck, Virginia

This past summer TCLF cosponsored the conference, Mission Impossible: Can Historic Properties Embrace a Landscape Continuum? Held July 11-12 2003 at Gunston Hall, in Mason Neck, Virginia , the two-day, sold-out conference, attracted participants from all over the United States. The conference explored the myriad challenges in addressing the stewardship dilemma to "never create a property that never existed in time," yet viewed this ideal in a climate where all too often sites charged with their own institutional missions to interpret "A Man," "An Event," or "An Era" make management decisions that put cultural landscapes at risk. The symposium was co-sponsored with Gunston Hall, and the National Park Service Historic Landscape Initiative with financial support from the Garden Club of Virginia. A mobile workshop was held on the second day with on-site discourse at Ferry Farm and Chatham where the conferences themes outlined the first day were tested. The keynote paper, by Charles Birnbaum and Leni Preston, "House and Garden: Why Can't We Be Friends?" now resides at TCLF website.

Cultural Landscapes and Education
November 8, 2003 / University of California at Santa Barbara

The University of California at Santa Barbara 's Center for Teaching for Social Justice the Austin Val Verde Foundation and the Cultural Landscape Foundation cosponsored the half-day symposium. The free program drew over 100 participants. Speakers included many board members from the Cultural Landscape Foundation including Grant Jones, Patricia O'Donnell, Spencer Tunnell, Noel Vernon and founder Charles Birnbaum. The thrust of the papers explored why cultural landscapes (valuable local resources such as parks, gardens and farms) are so important and what we can do to preserve them. This public forum, in concert with the other CLF events held over the weekend has laid the groundwork for future collaboration between the academic and cultural resource communities in the region.

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