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Heritage Updates
December 2, 2008
 December 2, 2008 — Improvements to an historic barn in Auburn and construction of a train shed in Snoqualmie are among 14 projects awarded funds in the 2008 round of 4Culture's Heritage Cultural Facilities Program. The 4Culture board of directors approved the awards in October. The White River Valley Museum in Auburn was awarded $38,000 to rehabilitate the barn at the Mary Olson Farm as a working facility and gathering spot.
Patricia Cosgrove, the museum's executive director, says the 1897 barn will host community meetings once the renovation is complete. She also says the barn will be home to more traditional occupants when the milking stanchions and stalls are restored. "We have plans to own two dairy cows and two workhorses," she says.
4Culture also approved a $50,000 award to the Northwest Railway Museum in Snoqualmie to assist with construction of a 25,000-square-foot train shed. The facility will protect the museum's unique collection of rolling stock while improving public access. In all, 4Culture will disburse a total of $333,314 in program funds to heritage-related projects. The program is designed to enhance the cultural life of King County citizens by funding the purchase, design, construction, and remodeling of heritage facilities, and the purchase of equipment intended to be used for at least 10 years.
See a slideshow of the Mary Olson Farm
Unforeseen Opportunities (Emergency Facilities Requests) Funding
In addition to decisions on the Heritage Cultural Facilities awards, the 4Culture board of directors also approved funding to heritage groups from the Unforeseen Opportunities program.
- Historical Society of Federal Way: Improvements to a new facility at Steel Lake Park ($15,000)
- Northwest Seaport: Repairs to the Fireboat Duwamish, a National Historic Landmark ($3,500)
Heritage Cultural Facilities Awards for 2008
| Recipient |
Project Title |
Award |
| Greater Kent Historical Society |
Shelving for collection storage |
$1,120 |
| Historical Society of Federal Way |
Permanent signage |
$2,660 |
| Highline Historical Society |
Making professional signs in-house |
$4,745 |
| Duwamish Tribal Services |
Duwamish Longhouse furnishings |
$4,970 |
| Nordic Heritage Museum |
"Nordic Spirit" exterior display unit |
$9,850 |
| Wing Luke Asian Museum |
Story Theatre and Community Hall improvements |
$14,000 |
| Museum of History & Industry |
Arts & Crafts Movement of the
Pacific Northwest Exhibit |
$17,000 |
| Enumclaw Plateau Historical Society |
EPHS museum building rehabilitation |
$25,000 |
| Renton Historical Society |
Renovation of building for off-site collection storage |
$26,504 |
| White River Valley Museum |
Interior barn rehabilitation and site utility improvements at Mary Olson Farm |
$38,000 |
| Cascade Land Conservancy |
Duwamish Riverbend Hill - construction of
benches and kiosks |
$39,375 |
| Northwest Railway Museum |
Railway History Center - train shed |
$50,000 |
| Center for Wooden Boats |
Maritime heritage education facilities |
$50,000 |
| Historic Seattle |
Good Shepherd Center veranda restoration project |
$50,000 |
For more information on Heritage 4Culture's Cultural Facilities and Unforeseen Opportunities programs, contact Eric Taylor, 206-296-8688.
related links
Heritage Cultural Facilities Program
Mary Olson Farm
Northwest Railway Museum
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September 23, 2008
 September 23, 2008 — A plan to preserve the only known videotapes of an historic 1981 Congressional hearing is among 18 projects receiving funding through 4Culture's new Heritage Collections Care program. The late Cherry Kinoshita, a Seattle leader of the national movement to gain justice for Japanese-Americans interned during World War II, donated the tapes to Densho: The Japanese-American Legacy Project. The tapes recorded a Seattle hearing by the panel which recommended reparations to the internees.
Densho was awarded $4,000 for the project, which will pay for preservation of the videotapes—some of which are in an obsolete format—before the information is lost. The video will be converted to digital format and stored on a hard drive. Eventually, the video may be made available on the Densho website. Patricia Kiyono, Densho's communications director, says the tapes record an important moment in the national Japanese-American experience. "It's a major piece of history, and this is the local chapter of it," she says.
A total of 18 projects received funding this year from the Heritage Collections Care program, which is financed by a portion of the King County document filing fee revenue. The program helps King County organizations address ongoing needs to preserve their collections for future generations. The program gives priority to basic collections issues and provides institutions with support to evaluate collections needs and to implement resulting recommendations. A total of $52,500 was awarded in 2008, the first year of the program.
Heritage Collections Care for 2008:
| Applicant |
Project Title |
Award |
| Center for Wooden Boats |
Updating CWB Collection Policies |
$3,000 |
| Densho: The Japanese-American Legacy Project |
Saving History: Rescuing Rare Tapes of Japanese-American Redress Hearings |
$4,000 |
| Fall City Historical Society |
Falls City Needs Assessment for Facilities and Collection Management |
$2,500 |
| Highline Historical Society |
Photograph Digitization Project |
$1,800 |
| Hip Hop Congress |
"Our Story" King County Hip Hop Heritage Project Assessment |
$1,950 |
| Issaquah Historical Society |
Operation Auto Freight: Collections Inventory and Triage |
$4,000 |
| Kirkland Heritage Society |
Archival Storage Materials and Collections Display at Heritage Hall |
$1,000 |
| Museum of History & Industry |
Collections Initiative – Artifact Inventory |
$4,000 |
| Northwest Railway Museum |
Chapel Car 5 Condition Assessment/Collection Care Report |
$4,000 |
| Northwest Seaport |
Digitization of NWS Archival Collections |
$2,000 |
| Redmond Historical Society |
Redmond Historical Society Collections Planning and Implementation |
$1,900 |
| Renton Historical Society & Museum |
Preservation of Glass Plate Negative Images of Renton, ca 1910 |
$2,500 |
| Richard Hugo House |
Zine Archive and Publishing Project |
$2,000 |
| Snoqualmie Valley Historical Society |
Let's Do It Right! |
$3,500 |
| Southwest Seattle Historical Society |
Collection Archival Rehousing and Cataloging |
$4,000 |
| Wash. State Jewish Historical Society |
Professional Management of the Jewish Historical Society Collection of Artifacts |
$4,000 |
| White River Valley Museum |
Making a Community Museum's Archive Collections Accessible |
$4,000 |
| Wing Luke Asian Museum |
Preserving Historical Images from the Takano Photography Studio |
$2,350 |
For more information on the Heritage Collections Care program, contact Eric Taylor, 206-296-8688.
related links
Heritage Collections Care program
Densho: The Japanese-American Legacy Project
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July 11, 2008
 July 11, 2008 — The 2009 commemoration of the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition Centennial received special attention this year in 4Culture's Heritage Special Projects and Cultural Education programs with applicants encouraged to submit A-Y-P proposals. As a result, seventeen of the 35 awards approved by 4Culture's Board of Directors focus on the upcoming event. The board approved a total of $152,400 for Heritage Special Projects awards in June, as well as $22,600 in awards through the Heritage Cultural Education program.
The projects related to the A-Y-P include a series of five-to-seven minute radio spots created by Seattle free-lance writer and producer Harriet Baskas. The audio pieces, expected to air on public radio stations next year, will cover topics such as music written for the exposition, new technology introduced at the fair, and participation by ethnic groups. Ms. Baskas is also looking for stories about A-Y-P artifacts held by King County families. "We know some things are going to come out of people's attics that we haven't seen since the exposition," she says.
Other A-Y-P related projects include a 3D virtual walking tour of the A-Y-P grounds, Kent's connection to the exposition, and an examination of the Scandinavian community's contribution to the fair. 2008 Heritage Special Projects and Cultural Education award recipients are listed below. More information about these projects and other A-Y-P activities is available at the A-Y-P Exposition Community website at www.aype.org.
Heritage Cultural Education
These are the 2008 recipients of Heritage Cultural Education Awards:
- Museum of History and Industry, partnered with the Bellevue School District: Classroom-Based Assessment Kits ($3,250)
- Rainier Valley Historical Society, partnered with the Seattle School District: Bringing World Religions Home ($9,350)
- Renton Historical Museum, partnered with the Renton School District: Life of the Coast Salish of Central Puget Sound/Duwamish ($10,000)
Heritage Special Projects for 2008:
| Applicant |
Project |
Award |
| Harriet Baskas |
A-Y-P Centennial Radio Project |
$3,900 |
| Burke Museum |
Burke Museum A-Y-P Project |
$4,000 |
| Center for Wooden Boats |
Documenting 2 King Co. Watercraft |
$5,000 |
| Fall City Historical Society |
Fall City Memory Book Project |
$5,500 |
| Dockton Historical Committee |
Dockton Historical Interpretive Trail on Vashon/Maury Island |
$6,000 |
| History Ink |
3D Walking Tour of A-Y-P Grounds 1909-2009 |
$5,000 |
| Chuimei Ho |
Asian-Pacific Perspectives at A-Y-P: Fear and Friendship (symposium) |
$4,000 |
| Issaquah Historical Society |
Transcribing Oral Histories 1960-90s |
$5,000 |
| Kent Historical Society |
A-Y-P: The Kent Connnection (exhibit) |
$2,500 |
| Richard Kirby |
Lost Voice, Part 2 |
$2,000 |
| Jerry Mader |
Carnation Verbatim (publication) |
$3,400 |
| Museum of History & Industry |
A-Y-P Centennial Exhibits and Programs |
$7,500 |
| Patricia Nicola |
The Chinese Community & the A-Y-P |
$2,000 |
| Nikkei Heritage Association of Washington |
Omoide V (publication) |
$6,000 |
| Nordic Heritage Museum |
A-Y-P Centennial Exhibition |
$6,750 |
| Northwest Folklife |
Nordic Heritage: A-Y-P Centennial Celebration at Folklife |
$4,000 |
| Northwest Railway Museum |
Railway Artifact Interpretive Signs |
$7,500 |
| Northwest Seaport |
2008 Diesel Engine Theory Restoration Workshop |
$7,000 |
| Sandra Osawa |
Princess Angeline (documentary) |
$4,000 |
| Shoreline Historical Museum |
A-Y-P: World's Fair - Local Effects (exhibit) |
$4,000 |
| Snoqualmie Valley Historical Museum |
1909: North Bend, A-Y-P, New York to Seattle |
$3,400 |
| Southwest Seattle Historical Society |
West Side History Book and ADA Accessibility to Digitized Collections |
$1,600 |
| Tukwila Centennial Committee |
Tukwila Centennial Musical Heritage CD Project and NW BoyChoir |
$4,000 |
| United Daughters of the Confederacy |
Update Website and Develop Outreach Materials |
$3,500 |
| University District Arts and Heritage Committee |
A-Y-P Centennial Commemorative Trading Cards |
$6,000 |
| University of Washington |
Re-imagining A-Y-P on UW Campus |
$5,000 |
| Voices in Wartime Education Project |
Global Perspectives and Compassionate Action Summer Workshop |
$5,000 |
| James Washington Foundation |
Permanent History Exhibit in James Washington House |
$6,000 |
| White River Valley Museum |
Design and Content Development of Interpretive Panels for Mary Olson Farm |
$8,000 |
| Jacqueline Williams |
Shared Walls: Apartments in Seattle 1900-1939 (publication) |
$5,000 |
| Woodinville Historical Society |
Stories: Living in Woodinville - The 1920s and Beyond |
$3,000 |
| Mario Zavaleta |
Baildores de Bronce: A Cultural Treasure |
$7,000 |
For more information on Heritage 4Culture's Special Projects and Cultural Education programs, contact Eric Taylor, 206-296-8688.
related links
Heritage Special Projects
Heritage Cultural Education
A-Y-P Exposition Community Website
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May 2, 2008
 May 2, 2008 — 4Culture has initiated a new funding program that helps community-based museums, historical societies, and ethnic heritage groups in King County preserve their heritage collections. Many organizations have amassed thousands of irreplaceable documents, photographs, archives, and artifacts that tell the history of their communities. However, few funding resources are available for projects that describe, catalog, store, and secure these collections for use by future generations.
Financed in part by revenue generated by King County document filing fees, the Heritage Collections Care program has three goals:
- Promoting professional standards and practices in collections care countywide
- Fostering strategic planning as a foundation for effective collections stewardship
- Making collections care a priority and an integral part of institutional missions
The annual competitive program funds King County-based, nonprofit historical organizations such as museums, archives, and public agencies that collect, preserve, and hold in public trust historic artifacts, photographs, documents, ephemera, and other materials. The program supports cataloging and access projects, training for staff and volunteers, needs assessment surveys, collections management software, upgrades to security and storage conditions, and hiring of professional assistance for development of plans and policies.
Free Program Workshops
Free workshops on Heritage Collections Care are scheduled for these dates and times:
- May 21, 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., Tukwila Community Center, 12424 42nd Ave. S. - Join Heritage 4Culture Program Lead Eric Taylor and Dana Senge, Objects Conservator at DKS Conservation Services, for a free three-hour workshop to help applicants understand conservation and preservation language as well as how to organize and prioritize collections care plans.
- May 6, 13, 20, 27, June 3, 10, 17, 24, 1 p.m. to 2 p.m., 4Culture, 101 Prefontaine Pl. S. - Program staff will be on hand for weekly drop-in sessions to answer questions regarding the Heritage Collections Care program. 4Culture offices are in the Tashiro Building, south of the King County Courthouse at the corner of Third Avenue and Yesler Street.
Downloadable application materials and more information on the Heritage Collections Care program are available at the Heritage 4Culture web page.
related links
Collections Care
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April 23, 2008
 April 23, 2008 — Are you ready for a disaster? Have you thought about how you'd protect your valuable document and artifact collections if the worst happens? Museums, historical societies, and heritage professionals are taking time this month to respond to "MayDay," an annual event created in 2005 by the Society of American Archivists to promote emergency planning. On MayDay, which takes place May 1, individuals and groups all over the country and in King County will do at least one thing to prepare for a natural or man-made disaster.
A disaster can happen anywhere at any time. In 2005, Hurricane Katrina showed how a historic city-New Orleans-could be nearly wiped out by mother nature. Flooding caused the most damage, and in King County, flooding is one of the biggest threats because of the region's wet climate and extensive river systems. Over the past 40 years, most of Washington State's 20 presidential disaster declarations were due to flooding, according to the King County Office of Emergency Management. Earthquakes and severe storms also threaten the region. The Heritage Health Index, released soon after Katrina, reported that few institutions are prepared for a cataclysm
On MayDay, institutions are asked to set aside time to plan for an emergency. The Heritage Emergency National Task Force, a project of Washington, D.C.-based Heritage Preservation and the Federal Emergency Management Agency suggests several activities:
- Update your disaster plan, if you have one.
- If you don't have a plan, get started writing one!
- Identify the three biggest risks to your collection or building, such as leaking water pipes, heavy snowfall, or a power failure.
- Conduct a building evacuation drill.
- Update your staff contact information and create a wallet-size version of your emergency contact roster.
- Identify objects that are most important to your mission, irreplaceable, or most fragile, making evacuation simpler when disaster hits.
More activity suggestions are at the MayDay website. In addition, Heritage 4Culture's new Heritage Collections Care program welcomes applications for funding to create and implement emergency preparedness plans.
Should disaster strike, and your insurance doesn't cover damage to your collections, you may qualify for government assistance. If your institution is in a region covered by a presidential disaster declaration, you may qualify for aid via FEMA and the Small Business Administration. In rare cases, 4Culture may be able to help with small grants for emergency repairs to a facility.
For more information on protecting your collections from the unexpected, contact Eric Taylor, Heritage 4Culture, 206-296-8688.
related links
Federal Emergency Management Agency
Heritage Emergency National Task Force
Heritage Health Index
Heritage Preservation
King County Office of Emergency Management
MayDay
Society of American Archivists
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February 27, 2008
 February 27, 2008 — In 2009, Seattle and King County will celebrate the centennial of one of the most important events in local history: the opening of the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition. In 2008, Heritage 4Culture will focus funding opportunities on this anniversary and offer new resources to help heritage organizations throughout the county commemorate the AYPE centennial and educate their communities about its impact.
4Culture is encouraging individuals and organizations to observe the AYPE centennial by uncovering "hidden histories" within their collections and neighborhoods. Heritage 4Culture has adjusted its application deadlines for its Cultural Education and Special Projects funding programs to allow time for implementing projects during the centennial year. The Cultural Education application deadline is April 7, 2008. The Special Projects application deadline is April 28, 2008.
4Culture has also partnered with HistoryLink to promote collaboration and coordination among individuals and organizations on AYPE projects. A new website at http://www.aype.org will list all organizations with AYPE-related projects, including books, events, exhibits, essays, and curricula. The website is scheduled to launch by June. To date, 20 King County organizations, including the Museum of History & Industry, the Burke Museum, and the Nordic Heritage Museum, have 30 projects in the planning stages, and more organizations and projects are expected to announce activities.
Now is the time for heritage organizations in King County to begin researching and planning AYPE commemorations. The observance will last several months, and it's a great opportunity to promote your work and educate your audience. For more information on funding and collaboration opportunities, contact Eric Taylor, Heritage 4Culture, 206-296-8688.
related links
Heritage Cultural Education
HistoryLink
Heritage Special Projects
www.aype.org
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