[MassHistPres] UMass -- Hancock Shaker Village graduates first master of historic preservation students

[Max Page]

Hi Everyone,

 

I thought I would take a moment to celebrate our program's first graduates.
Please contact me directly if you have any interest in the program and its
courses.  Courses start up again in September.

 

All the best,

 

Max

 

Max Page

Professor of Architecture and History

Director of Historic Preservation Initiatives

University of Massachusetts

151 Presidents Drive

Amherst, MA  01003

 <mailto:mpage at art.umass.edu> mpage at art.umass.edu

413-545-6940

www,umass.edu/preservation

 

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

May 15, 2012

 

Media Contact:


Gina Hyams, PR Consultant


413.464.2851

 <mailto:ginahyams at gmail.com> ginahyams at gmail.com

 

 

 

First Class Graduates from UMass Amherst-Hancock Shaker Village 
Historic Preservation Graduate Degree Program

 

 

Pittsfield, Mass.- UMass Amherst and Hancock Shaker Village announced today
that the inaugural class of six students has graduated from the University
of Massachusetts Master of Science in Design in Historic Preservation that
is jointly run with Hancock Shaker Village.

 

"We are thrilled that our first group of students have graduated and are
ready to advance the work of historic preservation in New England and
beyond," said Max Page, Professor of Architecture and History and Director
of Historic Preservation Initiatives at UMass Amherst.

 

The graduates are pursuing diverse careers in historic preservation, as
hoped by the program's founders.  Ward Hamilton, founder of Olde Mohawk
Masonry & Historic Restoration, Inc., returned to get his Master of Science
in Historic Preservation from the program in order to advance his company's
work on historic roofs in New England. "The use of traditional materials is
at the core of sustainable design in historic preservation. Similarly, an
education based at a site steeped in history, such as Hancock Shaker
Village, offers a unique learning opportunity," said Ward. "Unlike
traditional programs where learning takes place in a classroom, the program
at the Village provided us with unique opportunities to learn in a living
laboratory of 18th and 19th century structures."

 

Graduate David Gaby will use his degree to advance his activist preservation
work in Springfield, where he has challenged the city's willingness to
neglect historic properties and then demolish them. During the course of his
studies, he wrote and filed a bill with the Massachusetts legislature to
help low-income communities preserve their historic resources.  Other
students will be working museums, for historic societies, and working
hands-on to restore and protect historic buildings and sites. 

 

The program was launched in 2009 as a nationally unique collaboration of a
major research university - UMass Amherst - and a national historic landmark
- Hancock Shaker Village.  Designed for working people, the program's
historical and theoretical courses meet Friday afternoons at UMass Amherst
while hands-on preservation courses meet all day Saturday at the Village.
Courses include the History and Theory of Historic Preservation, Building
Conservation, Architectural Materials Testing, Cultural Resource Management,
and Green Building and Historic Preservation.

 

The program begins again on September 7, 2012.  Applications for the program
are still open for this fall.  Please visit
<http://www.umass.edu/preservation> www.umass.edu/preservation and contact
Max Page for more information:  <mailto:mpage at art.umass.edu>
mpage at art.umass.edu, or 413.219.7633.  Those interested in individual
classes may register beginning on July 18 at  <http://www.umassulearn.net>
www.umassulearn.net.

 

 

ABOUT HANCOCK SHAKER VILLAGE

Situated on a picturesque expanse of farm, field, and woodland in
Pittsfield, Mass., Hancock Shaker Village is an outdoor living history
museum and center for the study of principled living in the 21st century.
The fully restored Village includes 18 historic buildings, heirloom
medicinal and vegetable gardens, 22,000 examples of Shaker furniture,
crafts, tools, and clothes that depict daily life at the Shakers' City of
Peace through its 220 years, as well as heritage breed farm animals and
spectacular hiking trails. Visited by nearly 70,000 people annually, the
Village brings the Shaker story to life, and preserves it for future
generations. For more information, call 800.817.1137 or see
<http://www.hancockshakervillage.org> www.hancockshakervillage.org.

 

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