You Are Invited to help us lay the groundwork for including humanities, heritage and preservation in the DC Cultural Plan! Come and share your thoughts, ideas, suggestions and actions on how to make the DC Cultural Plan culturally inclusive.
The DC Cultural Plan Act of 2015 calls for the development of a cultural plan for the city that we feel is ambitious, important, and needed. However, based on our reading of the legislation, the law seems to suggest that the only cultural activity in the District is “the arts.â€
While the Act contains references to “the creative economy,†our view is that in order for the intent of the legislation to be realized, a process will have to be established that broadens (i) the focus of the plan to include humanities, heritage and preservation, (ii) the vocabulary associated with the Plan, (iii) any classification framework so that it includes more than just “the arts†and (iv) any allocation of resources that results from the development and the implementation of the Plan include funding for humanities, heritage and preservation groups.
We also feel that our humanities, heritage, and preservation communities in DC should be major partners and players (i) in the development of the request for proposal for the Plan, (ii) in the selection of contractor to develop the Plan, (iii) in the development of the plan, and (iv)in the implementation of the Plan.
The Plan is to be completed next year by December 31, 2016. (See Subsection H of the DC Budget Act http://lims.dccouncil.us/
DCLHN & The DC Cultural Plan Act
In the summer of 2014, HumanitiesDC, in conjunction with the Historical Preservation Office (HPO), began to form an informal network of groups and individuals who could advocate on behalf of preservation, history and the humanities and to support HPO in its efforts to create a “preservation plan.†We named this informal network the DC Living Heritage Network (DCLHN).
We felt that it was important to create the DCLHN because: (i) while the economy of the District is strong -- in great part due to its history and culture -- resources devoted to supporting the organizations and individuals responsible for assembling and promoting that heritage have been dwindling; (ii) our individual and collective efforts have helped residents and visitors alike enjoy the remarkable heritage experience in DC, yet our efforts needed more visibility in order to garner additional financial and other resources and (iii) our shared goals could be meet more efficiently and effectively if we collaborated more.
We see our mission as one of collectively and continuously transmitting DC’s ’s vibrant heritage to our current and future citizens, residents and visitors through the work of disparate groups devoted to the appreciation and protection of our local heritage.
This summer, HumanitiesDC convened the DC Living Heritage Network (DCLHN) (i) to assess the DC Cultural Plan Act of 2015 and (ii) to explore and suggest ways on how to include the humanities, heritage and preservation in that Plan.
Join us at our second annual DC Living Heritage Network Workshop. Due to limited seating please r.s.v.p. to Louis Hicks (lhicks@wdchumanitieis) by 5 p.m. on Thursday, September 24, 2015.
