Garavaglia Architecture, Inc. is proud to partner with the City of Lakeport to find a new use for their wonderful Carnegie Library. On June 18, 2014, Principal Mike Garavaglia and Architectural Conservator Jacqui Hogans were in Lakeport to facilitate a workshop to solicit community input. It was a great turnout and many great ideas were discussed. It even made the local paper! Read all about it in the Lake County News.
Are you a museum managing historic collections? A museum in a historic building?
Garavaglia Architecture, Inc., wanted to let you know that there are opportunities available to non-profit organizations that you may not be aware of:
Conservation Assessment Program (CAP)
The Conservation Assessment Program (CAP) is a program administered by Heritage Preservation, the National Institute for Conservation and provides a general conservation assessment of your museum’s collection, environmental conditions, and site. Conservation priorities are identified by professionals and the report can help your museum develop strategies for improved collections care and provide a tool for long-range planning and fund-raising.
The 2013 application is now available!
CAP offers a maximum of two assessors per institution. Most museums are provided a conservator to assess the museum’s collections. If you have a historic structure (generally a building more than 50 years old), you may also qualify for a historic structure assessment. If your institution has living collections (zoos, aquariums, nature centers, botanical gardens, and arboreta), you can be provided a zoologist, botanist, or horticulturalist to assess your living collections.
The Conservation Assessment Program is supported through a cooperative agreement with the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
Garavaglia Architecture, Inc. has CAP assessors on staff and would be happy to tell you more about this program.
Museum Assessment Program (MAP), American Association of Museums
Since 1981, the Museum Assessment Program (MAP) has helped museums maintain and improve operations through a confidential, consultative process. They provide guidance in meeting priorities and goals and understanding how your museum compares to standards and best practices.
Participating in MAP can help:
In less than a year, your museum can complete a self-study, have a site visit by a peer reviewer and begin implementing recommendations. For those applying for the December 1st deadline, you will receive additional benefits, including an online community, MAP bookshelf and access to the AAM Information Center and Museum Essentials webinar series.
Visit the American Association of Museums website to learn more about their program.
We encourage you to share this information with organization you think may benefit from these grants!
Regardless of what is happening externally, such as a bad economy, communities need to keep evolving and planning for the future. With the economy still stagnant and local governments struggling to fill funding gaps including those left when Redevelopment Agencies were dissolved, you may find yourself asking where do we go from here? How do we fill that gap? How, as a 
community, do we continue to plan for and protect the unique aspects that define our community?
Non-governmental groups, such as community based commissions, historic preservation groups, and business improvement districts, working with local agencies can help fill these gaps. These partnerships can help keep community planning moving forward in inclusive and meaningful ways.
There are a variety of tools that Garavaglia Architecture, Inc., can offer community members and local governments to aide in your efforts including:
Case Study:
Your Town Workshop – A rural county located in the heart of California’s Mother Lode region
is facing tougher than usual times due to loss of three large employers coupled with the ongoing economic downturn. Struggling to keep the remaining jobs while planning for the future, a group of concerned citizens decided to take a proactive approach: they formed a non-profit and applied for and were recipients of a Your Town Design Workshop sponsored by the National Endowment of the Arts.
The workshop assembled a team of experts to assist citizens and members of local government with strategies for planning for and the future of the county in all manners of planning and design with the best possible sustainable and beneficial results while maintaining and capitalizing on the areas historic towns and features.
Garavaglia Architecture, Inc., was honored to have participated in the Your Town Workshop and we look forward to our continued involvement helping this community implement change.
Contact us to find out more about what we can do for your community.
