Historic Landscapes Symposium: Telling the Garden's Story
How do we give voice to our gardens’ histories? Join historic landscape and garden professionals as we explore, learn, and share strategies for interpreting our gardens. This symposium hosted by the American Public Gardens Association will provide a forum for networking, information sharing, and inspirational garden visits for those working with and studying historic landscapes.
Charles Birnbaum, TCLF President and Founder will be delivering the Keynote Lecture
9:00 am – 10:15 am, Thursday, 16 October 2014
Making Visible and Leveraging the Design Narrative at Public Gardens
What is the foundational knowledge that informs stewardship and interpretation at a public garden? How do we assign value? How can we communicate holistically across disciplines? How do we make a garden’s palimpsest known and serve as an armature for managing change? How can we tell these stories to the broadest possible audience?
In an effort to prioritize these questions, this lecture will address these issues while also identifying tools and strategies for holistic solutions. This will include the benefits of a commitment to historic research methodologies for deeper, site-specific analysis; the value of National Register and National Historic Landmark designations, the interrelated issues surrounding treatment, management, and interpretation; and the physical and financial limitations of such research endeavors.
Drawing heavily on both the work of The Cultural Landscape Foundation and the work of others, this lecture will look at a range of Country Place Era estates (Biltmore, Cheekwood, Casa del Herrero, Vizcaya), in addition to more traditional Botanical Gardens (New York and Santa Barbara) for strategies and solutions.