Public history, placemaking, cultural landscapes, civic tourism, cultural heritage, economic development, democracy, civic engagement...

I went to the Civic Tourism conference in Prescott, Arizona and it was interesting. To some extent, I am already at the forefront of understanding the links between "silos" and the more holistic approach. On the other hand, there were some absolutely great presentations, presenters, and conference attendees, but not quite enough time to make connections and really talk with people, although I made some great contacts. Even the blog will end up with 20-30 more links, easy, when I get around to working through all my notes.

It's going to take me some time before I write something up, as I am off for another day or two to NYC, including a presentation by Enrique Penalosa, which I am really looking forward to attending.

And I didn't get nearly enough time at the Grand Canyon, and I also learned that it snows in Arizona, proving the point by Tim Beatley (UVA) that too many people are disconnected from geography, hydrology, and other of the most basic systems of our planet.

Above the Indian Gardens, South Rim, Grand Canyon.

Looking out from Mather Point.



Bought a lot of books too...

On that note, Public History Review has announced that it is making the journal free of charge, available online, to all those interested. From an H-net email:

Public History Review (PHR) has been published annually since 1992. In that year, we hoped in the editorial that: 'Public History Review functions, metaphorically speaking, at the point where all rivers meet; that is, it provides firstly a forum for historians working in heritage, government departments, radio, television, schools, museums, freelance and any other area of the culture, who wish to pursue some issues relating to their work in greater depth, reflect on some issue of practice, comment on other historical representations or extend our knowledge of public history as a field of study... And finally we aim to engage academic historians more fully with the concerns of the public, and public history work; to inform and challenge, to articulate the creative tensions between theory and practice.

'We have chosen to join the digital revolution in this format to facilitate the global exchange of ideas and we look forward to furthering the journal's original aims and objectives. We also look forward to your involvement with the journal. To subscribe go to website and choose REGISTER.
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Be advised some of the files are pretty massive, but this looks to be an incredible resource with articles such as "Museums and Memories: Remembering the Past in Local and Community Museums" which is exactly the kind of thing we talked about at the Civic Tourism conference just a few days ago.

I will be adding a link to this on the right sidebar under Historic Preservation & History.

Index Keywords: urban-design-placemaking; tourism; historic-preservation