The Need
The concept for a High School for the Preservation
Arts is the result of The World Monuments Fund's (WMF) 1993
symposium, Employment Strategies for the Restoration Arts:
Craft Training in the Service of Historic Preservation. The
symposium highlighted: the absence of nationwide standards
for the craft skills used in historic preservation; the limited
number of existing U.S. programs to train people in these
highly specialized skills needed to maintain our rich architectural
legacy; the fact that historic preservation revitalizes communities;
the increasing success of the preservation movement leading
to greater numbers of designated historic districts; and the
resulting need for skilled preservation artisans.
According to a recent survey by the New York
City Landmarks Preservation Commission, there are more than
1107 individual landmarks, 83 historic districts and 23,056
landmarked structures in New York City. Many of these will
need restoring in the future with few skilled crafts people
to fill the anticipated need.
With this in mind, New York City former Council
Member Ken Fisher envisioned the establishment of a high school
curriculum dedicated to preservation training that would significantly
benefit many New York inner city youth and at the same time
provide an important resource for preserving our cultural
heritage. Graduates of the Preservation Arts and Technology
High School program will provide an educated work force in
great demand locally, nationally, and internationally, and
they can expect to earn a good starting salary with excellent
earning potential.
Partnerships
The 1993 symposium findings suggested that:
preservationists should join forces with existing training
programs; there is a need to strengthen the socioeconomic
rationale in support of historic preservation; there is a
need to raise awareness about the value of historic preservation.
WMF enlisted Kate Burns Ottavino, Director of Preservation
Technology for NJIT's Center for Architecture and Building
Science Research (NJIT/CABSR), to design an infrastructure
that could support restoration arts training in a sustainable
manner. In addition, Ms. Ottavino is a conservator and partner
in the A. Ottavino Corporation, a 91-year-old stoneworks located
in Ozone Park, Queens, New York.
The symposium also found that while there have
been numerous programs to train preservation artisans, most
failed because the sponsoring organization was unable to incorporate
the requisite academic education for a complete understanding,
appreciation and acquisition of artisan skills. To give this
program that essential foundation, the New York City Department
of Education committed its resources to the development of
a preservation-based curriculum. With NJIT/CABSR as the project
leader, teacher preparation took place at the pilot school,
the High School for Arts and Business in Corona, Queens, NY.
In the spring of 1999, the Department of Education designated
the Brooklyn High School of the Arts (BHSA), formerly Sarah
J. Hale High School, as the school for the four-year development
of the curriculum. NJIT/CABSR has worked with the Brooklyn
High School of the Arts/Region 8 since then to create and
test this curriculum. Through a grant from the WMF, NJIT/CABSR
developed 9th and 10th grades Historic Preservation courses.
These include the Brooklyn Hunterfly Road Historic Houses
District of Weeksville as the benchmark for the 9th grade
and Green-Wood Cemetery as the 10th grade benchmark. The NJIT/CABSR
also developed a multi-disciplinary preservation-based 9th
through 12th grade academic curriculum and the Preservation
and Arts and Technology curriculum for the 11th and 12th grades.
This Career Technical Education (CTE) is enhanced by the internship
program designed by NJIT/CABSR. BHSA graduated its first class
in June 2004 and the first Ezra Ehrenkrantz (founding Chair
of the NJIT/CABSR) Preservation Arts Award for Excellence
in Preservation Arts was given to an outstanding graduate
in the Preservation Arts program.
A Brief History
The High School for the Preservation Arts project
was launched in the summer of 1997 with a Preservation Internship
Program followed in the spring of 1998 by a Preservation Week
program, and internships programs in the summers of 1998 through
2004.
1997 - Preservation Internship Program
The 1997 internship program was designed by
NJIT/CABSR and arranged by Youth Employment Services of New
York City through WMF, and was sponsored by the Times Square
Business Improvement Fund. Under the direction of Kate Burns
Ottavino, with the host artisan sponsor A. Ottavino Corporation,
three students from the New York City High School of Graphic
Arts participated in the restoration of statuary in the Times
Square area. The project focused students' efforts on the
hands-on restoration work of the statuary while including
the relevant academic components.
1998 - Preservation Week and Preservation
Internship Program
After this first successful effort, the Board
of Education then designated the High School for Arts and
Business in Corona, Queens, NY, as the pilot school for the
next phase of the project. In the spring of 1998, NJIT and
the National Center for Preservation Technology and Training,
conducted Preservation Week - three days of activities for
30 specially selected high school students. The program included
presentations by guest lecturers from leading preservation
organizations and preservation-enriched interdisciplinary
lessons prepared by four teachers in art, English, history,
and science. Prior to Preservation Week, the teachers had
participated in intensive teacher development sessions to
gain an understanding of the curriculum goals and to provide
them with the necessary architecture and preservation information
and related resources.
Preservation Week was followed by an internship
program. Through the summer, two student interns worked with
the A. Ottavino Corporation, this time at the Peristyle in
Prospect Park, Brooklyn, NY, designed by Stanford White in
1904. The program included a teacher development component
where the four teachers regularly went on-site to experience
an actual restoration project as part of their developing
integrated vocational and academic preservation-enriched lesson
plans in their discipline.
Another dimension of the 1998 internship program
was a French-American Teacher Exchange Program sponsored by
WMF that provided opportunities for NJIT representatives to
visit craft training centers in France. In turn, a representative
from the Fondation de Coubertin in France observed the student
interns at the Brooklyn site. The French-American Teacher
Exchange Program was funded by a multi-year grant from The
Florence Gould Foundation.
The lesson plans developed by the four teachers
as part of the 1998 internship program were taught at the
pilot school in the fall of 1999 through the support of the
National Center for Preservation Technology and Training.
The classes were videotaped and evaluated by the Board of
Education, NJIT, and curriculum assessment specialists to
serve as models for further curriculum development.
1999 through 2004 Internship Program
The 1999 internship program consisted of a student
working at the A. Ottavino Corporation stone works in Ozone
Park, Queens, NY and at Chatham Square in Lower Manhattan,
NY where A. Ottavino Corporation restored several statues
in the Asian-American community; and with WMF at the St. Ann's
Center for the Arts in Brooklyn. The program also included
a teacher-training component enabling teachers to experience
an artisan's atelier and an actual restoration project in
order for them to incorporate aspects of these experiences
into their lesson plans. As part of the vocational curriculum
design, the French-American Teacher Exchange Program sponsored
by WMF, allowed representatives to observe and assist in the
creation of a student internship curriculum for the high school.
The 2001 Internship program grew to 11 students
with nine site sponsors including government, not-for-profit
and private business concerns all focusing on historic preservation.
Through the efforts of Councilmember Ken Fisher, the Mayors
Office for Youth Employment partnered with the high school
to sponsor 11 interns. NJIT/CABSR designed an internship template
through the auspices of the New York Community Trust in 2002
that included the components to sustain the student internship
curriculum for the high school. The 2002 Summer Internship
program had 21 interns and 18 site-sponsors, and the Summer
of 2003 there were 24 interns and 20 site sponsors as the
program expanded from three to four New York City boroughs.
In summer 2004 there were 19 sites with 27 students in all
five boroughs. The Teacher Development component included
six teachers from the BHSA who visited several internship
sites with NJIT/CABSR so as to be able to use this first hand
knowledge to develop interdisciplinary preservation-based
lessons in their discipline for teaching in Fall 2004.
Academic Launch
In 2000, the NYC Department of Education drafted
a memorandum creating the Brooklyn High School for the Arts
featuring Preservation Arts and preservation as the overarching
academic theme, the first model program of its kind in the
nation. As developed, the core academic and Preservation Arts
and Technology (CTE) curriculum are being field-tested in
the classroom and evaluated for approval and certification
of the Preservation Arts and Technology program by the New
York City Department of Education and the New York State Regents.
The foundation for the curriculum is the New
York City Board of Education's New Performance Standards and
the New York State Learning Standards. Students are being
prepared to meet the high standards of the New York State
Regents examinations, and in addition preservation arts and
technology majors will earn an industry endorsed Career Technical
Education (CTE) diploma. The graduates of this program may
either pursue a post-secondary education or enter the work
force with demonstrable skills in the preservation arts.
Students who complete all four years of Preservation
Arts course work at BHSA are eligible for a new college degree
program specifically designed for them by the Fashion Institute
of Technology (FIT). This two-year Associates Degree can lead
to a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Objects Conservation and FIT
is raising scholarship funds to target the BHSA students who
enter the program.
Preservation Arts Curriculum Model
The curriculum has been constructed to allow
students to view traditional subjects through the lens of
historic preservation by focusing on a specific historic structure
or artifact through which to study the elements of its creation,
preservation, and interpretation. These structures or artifacts
serve as the benchmark for the study of all aspects of a particular
period and place. Using this model, teachers can work together
using a common architectural theme as an expression of the
period under study through which they can integrate their
respective disciplines.
In developing this model, educators are generating
a methodology for organizing a consistent body of knowledge
using a comprehensive approach to learning that will help
students become aware of how different academic disciplines
are integral to one another and how they are incorporated
into workplace activities.
Next Steps
The NJIT/CABSR is seeking funds through government,
foundations and private sources to bring the Preservation
Arts High School program to other cities in New York and throughout
the nation.
Summation
Students who graduate from the preservation
arts program may contribute to the support of the preservation
community in a variety of ways. Some may pursue post-secondary
education and become architects, contractors, preservationists,
civil engineers, or have other preservation-related careers.
Others may pursue professional careers in completely different
areas while maintaining an appreciation and interest in preservation
for themselves and their community. Some may become preservation
crafts people who find there is a great demand for skilled
preservation artisans in the building and construction industry.
The preservation arts program benefits society
in several ways: many students who might otherwise be marginalized
in a high-tech world are educated academically and through
artisan skills training and internships into the growing field
of the preservation arts; training artisans creates a work
force that allows the building industry to renew and preserve
the infrastructure of our communities and regions; students
who meet the academic requirements may choose to pursue post-secondary
education; and the quality of life within our community will
improve by the increased citizen awareness of the social and
economic value of preserving the world we share.
