Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Effort To Save Scultures

Save Outdoor Sculpture! (SOS!), a national initiative that works with local groups and volunteers to preserve outdoor sculpture, is offering two new programs that can assist sculpture conservation efforts, Arkansas Historic Preservation Program (AHPP) Director Cathy Slater announed October 2.

AHPP is an agency of the Department of Arkansas Heritage.

The first program, SOS! Assessment Awards, are granted for professional condition assessments of public outdoor sculpture and for scholarly research. As many as 51 awards valued at up to $1,500 each will be offered. All funds must be completed within one year of the award.

Eligible applicants include state or local agencies and nonprofit organizations, and winners must provide up to two nights of first-class accommodations for the consultant. Applications will be accepted through November 1.

The other program, SOS! Workshop Awards, are available to co-sponsor preservation planning workshops in local communities. The workshops are designed to foster awareness about the need to preserve and maintain outdoor sculpture. Participants will learn about their community's outdoor sculpture and how to preserve it from presentations and tours given by professional conservators and historians.

SOS! will help 15 workshop award winners fund preservation-planning workshops by providing honoraria and covering travel expenses for two presenters. The workshops, titled `Preservation Planning for Outdoor Sculpture and Monuments,' can be tailored to a community's specific needs and designed for broad audiences or specialized groups.

Eligible applicants include state or local agencies, nonprofit organizations or civic and volunteer groups. Winners must work collaboratively with at least one other group and all workshops must take place by March 31, 1998.

For more information on SOS! Assessment Awards or SOS! Workshop Awards, call at 888-767-7285 or visit the SOS! Web site at www.nic.org/sos/sos.html

SOS! is jointly sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American Art and the National Institute for Conservation of Cultural Property.

The Arkansas Historic Preservation Program is the agency of the Department of Arkansas Heritage responsible for the identification, evaluation, registration and preservation of the state's cultural resources.

Other agencies in the department are the Arkansas Arts Council, the Delta Cultural Center in Helena, the Arkansas Commemorative Commission, the Arkansas Heritage Commission and the Arkansas Territorial Restoration.