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| City Lore and the Municipal Art Society founded the Place
Matters project in 1998. City Lore is a cultural organization
dedicated to advancing the living cultural heritage of New
York and other cities through publications, media, and school
and community programs. (www.citylore.org) The Municipal Art
Society is a private, non-profit membership organization that
is committed to enriching the culture, neighborhoods, and
physical design of New York City. (www.mas.org) |
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Place Matters developed from the work of a committee on historical
and cultural landmarks, spearheaded by Ned Kaufman, former
Associate Director of Issues at the Municipal Art Society. City
Lore and many other NYC organizations contributed to the committee
and the report it issued in 1996. The report led to a successful
conference called History Happened Here, organized in 1997 at the
Museum of the City of New York by City Lore and the Municipal Art
Society. We learned from the conference that many people shared our
concerns about the places of value disappearing around us. Since
few strategies existed for promoting or protecting such places, our
two organizations decided it was time to mount an initiative
dedicated to such aims.
The Place Matters mission is to foster the conservation of New
York City's historically and culturally significant places.
These are places that hold memories and anchor traditions for
individuals and communities, and that help tell the history of the
city as a whole. We are convinced that such places promote the well
being of New York's many communities in ways that too often go
unrecognized.
Our process begins with surveying New Yorkers to learn about the
places they care about. We follow up with educational programs and
advocacy to promote and protect these places and others like
them.
* Place Matters conducts a citywide survey called the Census of
Places that Matter to discover places that evoke associations with
history, memory, and tradition. Hundreds of New Yorkers have
nominated places to the Census. Amounting to a new knowledge bank,
the Census identifies places of public significance and helps us
understand how and why "place" is meaningful to people.
Explore
the Census.
* Place Matters publishes the Census of Places that Matter to
promote the many places that have been discovered through the
survey. We also conduct further research on many of the nominated
places to enrich the information provided. We aim to provide
New Yorkers with a unique repository of information on places that
tell our history and anchor our traditions. When a place is
threatened; when an artist, activist, architect or scholar needs
information; when a student wants to research the roller rink where
her parents and most of Brooklyn went to skate; when a developer
wants to make an informed decision-the Census will be there for
them. Explore
the Census.
* Place Matters advocates for places of history and tradition by
working in the policy arena on landmarking and other protective
strategies. To the extent that our small staff allows, we also
provide technical assistance to groups working to protect cultural
and historical places. Our goal for 2004 is to create a Place
Matters Toolkit for use by citizens seeking to take action on
behalf of important places. Take
Action.
* Place Matters promotes significant places through publications
and public programs, such as Community Focus projects, cultural
tours, maps, discussion series, and more. Our
Programs.
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