The Cultural Landscape Foundation’s What’s Out There Database Receives Critical Funding from the National Endowment for the Arts
Media Contact: Nord Wennerstrom | T: 202.255.7076 | E: nord@tclf.org
The Cultural Landscape Foundation’s What’s Out There Database Receives Critical Funding from the National Endowment for the Arts
Grant will be focused on Virginia designed landscape legacy – A collaboration with faculty and students from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and the University of Virginia
Washington, DC (April 23, 2013) – The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF) today announced the receipt of a $30,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to be used for increasing the number of sites in Virginia in the foundation’s What’s Out There (WOT) database of America’s historic designed landscapes. WOT, launched in 2009, is a free, online, searchable, profusely illustrated database that currently features more than 1,300 sites, 650 designers, and more than 9,000 images and is popular with landscape aficionados, heritage travelers, gardeners, academics, students and many others. The work will be done in collaboration with faculty and students from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) and the University of Virginia (UVa), and is expected to add at least 100 new sites. An earlier initiative focused on Maine’s designed landscape legacy, also funded in part by an NEA grant, added more than 150 sites in that state to the database.
“The NEA’s support is critical to further developments in What’s Out There, allowing for a richer and deeper understanding of Virginia’s designed landscape legacy,” said Charles A. Birnbaum, TCLF founder and president.
“The What's Out There Virginia project will create more than an inventory of the Commonwealth's historically significant designed landscapes--from Colonial gardens to modern parkways. It will become an important tool for preserving, planning, designing and managing Virginia's rich cultural landscape heritage. In recognition of the significance of this research, UVA School of Architecture's Sara Shallenberger Brown Cultural Landscape Initiative will be providing matching funds to hire landscape architecture, history, and planning students as research assistants for WOTV. We look forward to this new and exciting collaboration with The Cultural Landscape Foundation, “ said Elizabeth K. Meyer, Associate Professor, Dept. of Landscape Architecture Faculty, and Chair, Regenerate. The Design, Preservation and Sustainability Collaborative, UVA School of Architecture.
About The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF)
The Cultural Landscape Foundation provides people with the ability to see, understand and value landscape architecture and its practitioners, in the way many people have learned to do with buildings and their designers. Through its Web site, lectures, outreach and publishing, TCLF broadens the support and understanding for cultural landscapes nationwide to help safeguard our priceless heritage for future generations.