Wednesday, February 23, 2011

HDOT ACCEPTING SCENIC BYWAYS NOMINATIONS

The Hawai‘i Department of Transportation has issued a call for nominations for potential Scenic Byways statewide. An informational teleconference about applications and the process is scheduled for February 28 at 1 p.m. To register for the teleconference, contact David Zevenbergen at 808-587-6341. Completed nomination applications are due March 31.

Scenic Byways is a state and national program to recognize highways with special intrinsic qualities in one of more areas of natural, scenic, archaeological, historic, cultural or recreational assets. Once accepted into the program, a designated scenic byway is eligible for federal grants to help with planning and transportation improvements that enhance or protect the intrinsic qualities and the traveler experience.

For more information, see http://hawaii.gov/dot/highways/scenicbyways

LAHAINA: ENDANGERED HISTORIC SITE?

By Theo Morrison, Executive Director, Lahaina Restoration Foundation
Reprinted from The Lahaina News

LAHAINA — This January, Lahaina was named to the 2011 list of most endangered historic sites in Hawaii by the statewide Historic Hawaii Foundation.

“We recognize that even when we think that a place is protected, it can still be at risk,” said Kiersten Faulkner, Historic Hawaii Foundation executive director.

“Hawaii is a place that cherishes its history and has adopted laws to help protect it, yet sometimes the system fails.”

On Maui, there are excellent systems to preserve and protect the historic qualities of Lahaina; and yes, these systems have failed.

Lahaina was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1962. It’s the highest rating a destination can obtain from the National Park Service. Locations with this rating are so designated because they provide exceptional value to the nation as a whole, in addition to their value to the local community.

Also, in 1962, in an extraordinary, pioneering effort, the County of Maui created the first Historic District in Lahaina and in 1969 added a second historic district to the town. Today, these districts run from 505 Front Street on the south to just past Hard Rock Cafe to the north, from the ocean to Luakini Street. The Historic Districts have a unique set of rules (Title 19, Article III) in the County Code that were created to protect the authenticity and historic value of Lahaina.

Lahaina has outstanding examples of historic preservation in the Baldwin Home, Masters Reading Room, Wo Hing Museum, Old Prison, Seaman’s Hospital, Hale Aloha and the Old Lahaina Courthouse. Most recently, the Pioneer Mill Company smokestack was restored.

One of the most important Hawaiian sites, Moku‘ula, is located here in Lahaina. Significantly, Lahaina was the first capitol of the Kingdom of Hawaii.

Today, Lahaina has more museums than any other town in the State of Hawaii except Honolulu.

So what is wrong?

“The threat (to Lahaina) is a long-term pattern of incompatible renovations and loss of historic fabric,” the Historic Hawaii Foundation noted.

“It is the cumulative effect of countless individual decisions that start to change the authentic sense of history and identity that characterize Lahaina.”

Multiple plastic banners are strung on walls, bright Caribbean paint colors adorn storefronts, and fiberglass “wood” signs hang above doorways. Historic small window panes disappear in favor of large plate glass.

The County of Maui, in defiance of its own laws, installs metal street signs with “puka poles” instead of the wooden posts and carved wood signs mandated for the Lahaina Historic Districts.

The community supported update of the Lahaina Design Guidelines has languished in draft form since 2003. A 40-page “Documentation of the Deterioration of County Signs in the Lahaina Historic Districts” was presented to the county in October 2005.

Unfortunately, six years later, many of these broken public street signs still line historic Front Street.

Individually, these are all “little things.” Yet cumulatively, over time, these “little things” are a real threat to Lahaina’s historic integrity, authenticity and cultural fabric.

For years, Lahaina Restoration Foundation has been publicly testifying about the lack of enforcement and the resulting deterioration of the Lahaina Historic Districts.

LRF welcomes Lahaina’s new “endangered historic places” designation, which will hopefully help Lahaina get the attention it needs to fix the problems that have been undermining the town for so long.

Lahaina Restoration Foundation welcomes input, suggestions and volunteers from the community, as the organization works to put Lahaina back on the very top of the list of most historic places in Hawaii.

E-mail Theo Morrison, executive director of Lahaina Restoration Foundation, at theo@lahainarestoration.org with your input and suggestions.

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Bishop Museum Offers Hawaiian Hall Training

Training course for prospective cultural docents begins on April 12

Bishop Museum's Certified Hawaiian Hall Docent program begins its rigorously fascinating training for Hawaiian Hall Docents on April 12 at its Kapalama campus. The six-week training required for all Hawaiian Hall docents, meets twice weekly on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 3:00- 6:00 p.m.

For more than a century, Hawaiian Hall has housed the Museum's most sacred and beloved artifacts, those closest to the ali'i roots of the Museum. To enrich the experience of the thousands of visitors who visit this special place each year, Bishop Museum's Hawaiian Hall Docents take the visitors on a journey where they emerge with a deeper understanding of Hawai'i, the Hawaiians and the events that make our community what it is today. To ensure that the Hawaiian Hall docents are well prepared to share their knowledge and experiences with adults as well as school children, Bishop Museum offers the Certified Docent Program annually to any interested volunteers.

Bishop Museum 's Culture Education Staff designed the program to provide a deeper understanding of native Hawaiian life, culture, history and traditions through the Hawaiian worldview lens of the Hawaiian Hall exhibits. Afternoon classes take place twice a week and are led by Rona Rodenhurst and the cultural educators from the Museum. The 36 classroom hours will be followed by shadowing and participation in daily and school programs with final certification by the Cultural Education staff.

Upon completion of the program, certified docents begin the rich and rewarding experience of volunteering at the Museum as Hawaiian Hall docents. Volunteer docents are asked to volunteer a minimum of two hours per week or eight hours per month.

Anyone interested in the Hawaiian Hall Docent Certification Program should contact Athena Sparks at 847-8239 or by email at athena@bishopmuseum.org by April 1.

The Bishop Museum was founded in 1889 by Charles Reed Bishop in memory of his wife Bernice Pauahi Bishop, the last direct descendant of King Kamehameha I. Today, the Museum is recognized as the principal museum of the Pacific, housing the world's largest collection of Hawaiian and Pacific artifacts and natural history specimens. More than 340,000 people visit the Museum each year, including over 50,000 schoolchildren. For more information, please call (808) 847-3511 or visit www.bishopmuseum.org.

Monday, February 7, 2011

Italy Summer 2011 Field School - Historic Preservation & Restoration

We would like to inform you about our summer 2011 field school, the San Gemini Preservation Studies Program, now in its 12th year, which is dedicated to the preservation of cultural heritage and offers students the opportunity to study and travel in Italy. This year, we continue with our courses on architecture, ceramics and art restoration, and have added a course on paper restoration.


Courses offered:
Introduction to Art and Building Restoration in Italy
Surveying and Analyzing Historic Buildings
Introduction to Conservation of Archeological Ceramics
Introduction to Paper Restoration
Traditional Painting Methods and Restoration Techniques
Restoration Issues and Theory in Italy
Field Projects:
Restoration of the Porta Burgis
Surveying the 12th Century San Giovanni Battista Church complex
Surveying the Church of Santo Gemine
Archaeological survey of the public baths in Carsulae
To find out more about our program and review the syllabi, please visit our website: HTTP://SANGEMINISTUDIES.ORG
Our courses are open to students from various disciplines, both undergraduate and graduate. All lessons are taught in English.

If you know any students, scholars, or others interested in this type of study, please inform them about our program. We would appreciate it if you could list our program on your organization's website as an available educational resource.

We have a 2011 flyer that you may wish to post on your department notice board or forward to interested parties. You can print this from our website, on our About Us page (http://sangeministudies.info/contac-us/about-us). Please let us know if you have any problem printing and we can email you the PDF.

Thank you very much.

Cordially, Max Cardillo

Director, San Gemini Preservation Studies Program
International Institute for Restoration & Preservation Studies
US Tel: (718) 768-3508
www.sangeministudies.org