Conserving Michigan's Cultural Heritage in the 21st Century

The Michigan Alliance for the Conservation of Cultural Heritage organized a conference Conserving Michigan's Cultural Heritage in the 21st Century. The conference was held at Henry Ford Museum & Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan on 17 ¿ 19 November 1991. The goal was to conduct a statewide public forum in order to analyze the issues involved in preservation planning, to determine the state's collective preservation needs and to begin to define unified objectives to preserve Michigan's material culture. The conference sought to establish cross-professional cooperation by concentrating on interdisciplinary and multicultural approaches to preservation and conservation of Michigan's cultural properties.

The objectives were to make a strong case for preservation and the need for statewide planning, to present the tabulated results of the Alliance's survey-questionnaire, and to publish the case for preservation planning. The preservation needs of both large and small institutions and the interests of the various museum and collection disciplines throughout Michigan were addressed collectively and individually. The results of a statewide survey undertaken by the Michigan Alliance was presented for discussion and functioned as a discovery tool about the plight of Michigan's cultural heritage. This information established important background information about structuring public policies for preserving our region's cultural heritage and helped cement a unified commitment to statewide planning and action for preservation.

Supported by a grant from the Michigan Humanities Council, the conference defined the challenges that institutions face in preserving our state's cultural heritage and formulated what steps can now be taken to meet those challenges. The conference proceedings are available for purchase. Click here to order the conference proceedings Conserving Cultural Heritage in the 21st Century.