Safeguarding Cultural Heritage, One Story at a Time.
Leader
Rosie Polter
Location
430 Reading Rd Cincinnati, OH 45202
What makes your neighborhood a vibrant place? Is it the legacy businesses that are staples in your community? The local art that paves the streets you travel? The annual festivals or every day practices that bring people together? These cultural assets, both tangible and intangible, collectively build the shared cultural heritage that brings our neighborhoods to life.
Cincinnati's neighborhoods are experiencing rapid change due to the redevelopment of our urban core. This change can threaten cultural assets that help define a sense of place and belonging. However, new cultural assets help shape the future life history of our neighborhoods. Cincinnati Heritage Project formed as a response to safeguard cultural assets, both old and new, that weave the social fabric of our communities. We believe that the preservation of cultural heritage can unify and strengthen changing communities. We plan to achieve this through a social heritage inventory, collected one story at a time.
Cincinnati Heritage Project is a cross sectional partnership among our organization, City of Cincinnati and organizations of neighborhoods experiencing rapid redevelopment. We use a placekeeping approach that consists of pop-up events that engage residents to share their stories about their neighborhood from the past, present and hopes for the future. We assess these stories to identify and document cultural assets in a Social Heritage Inventory. The inventory will be used to inform planning efforts, establish cultural heritage districts and be a foundation for future placekeeping/making projects. The inventory will be accesible on the City of Cincinnati's website.
PHASE 1: Create a Social Heritage Inventory
January 2020:
Conduct Volunteer PlaceKeeper Trainings
February - March 2020:
Hold Pop Up Events and Collect Resident Stories
April 2020:
Create Social Heritage Inventory Forms of Cultural Assets Identified in Stories
May 2020:
Finalize Social Heritage Inventory and Launch on City of Cincinnati's Website
Cincinnati Heritage Project works specifically with communities that are experiencing rapid change. These changes may include neighborhood redevelopment and pressures of gentrification, an increase in population from the displacement of residents from neighboring areas or an increase in demographic diversity from the growth of refugee and immigrant populations. Our placekeeping approach focuses on the past, present and future and is encompassing of all residents who contribute to a neighborhood’s shared heritage. By encouraging all residents to share their stories, we can raise awareness of significant cultural assets, their contribution to our neighborhood’s social landscape and their need to remain in the community.
Beyond raising awareness about cultural diversity, the inventory program is the first step to promoting new policy for the protection of cultural heritage. Historic preservation has had a focus on preserving tangible, historically significant buildings and programs have been developed for their designation and protection. The social heritage inventory will provide a place to identify and document intangible, historically significant cultural assets related to people rather than places. Through an inventory of these assets, cultural heritage districts can form and guidelines for their designation and protection can be implemented.