Fostering Stewardship: Save America's Treasures Partners

In preservation, government does not play a predominant role, but its leadership and investment are indispensable. Through tax policies, laws, regulatory practices and appropriations government can stimulate or depress the private sector's support that sustains our heritage and culture. It is also a steward of a vast array of historic, natural and cultural resources that belong to all the American people. The Save America's Treasures public and private partnership reflects this federal responsibility, leadership and investment role in preserving our nationally significant cultural and heritage resources. The success of this partnership rests on SAT's ability to draw on the crossdisciplinary expertise of its federal partners, as well as the private sector leadership of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, in developing a holistic approach to addressing the whole diversity of our national experience.

FEDERAL PARTNERS

The National Park Service: The National Park Service (NPS) oversees the management of SAT grants. Built on a century of cultural resource management expertise that began with the Antiquities Act of 1906, which required the protection of historic and prehistoric remains on Federal lands, it is the agency most identified in the public mind as the steward of natural and historic resources. The NPS runs numerous programs that deeply affect preservation. Among them are: American Indian Liaison Office; Archeology and Ethnology Program; Heritage Preservation Services; Historic American Building Survey and the Historic American Engineering Record; Museum Management Program; National Center for Preservation Technology Training; National Center for Recreation and Conservation; National Heritage Areas Program; National Register of Historic Places; and the National Historic Landmarks Program.

The President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities (PCAH): Upon the close of the Millennium Council, The President's Committee was asked by Mrs. Laura Bush, its Honorary Chairman, to oversee the coordination of the Save America's Treasures program in partnership with the National Park Service. This oversight aligns PCAH's long-standing commitment to preservation and its role as a bridge between the public and the private sector in supporting arts and humanities efforts in partnership with the NEA, NEH and IMLS.

National Endowment for the Arts (NEA): The NEA has been a leader and catalyst in supporting the preservation of our nation's artistic expressions and living traditions since its founding in 1965. The NEA invests several million dollars a year through its grants for presentation, apprenticeships and instruction, and for documentation, recording and conservation of significant art works, traditions, as well as the preservation of some of the byproducts of the creative process—costumes, theater design, and architectural drawings.

National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH): The NEH plays a major role in supporting humanities efforts across the country. Its investment in complex research projects and teams of scholars has resulted in the preservation and publication of the papers of the Founding Fathers, among other significant historical documents. It also exerts national leadership in conserving documents, books, sound recordings, still and moving images, and other at-risk collections. The result of these efforts benefit not only future scholars and writers who will relate our history, but also average citizens who through the numerous NEH-supported media and digitization projects can experience the past first-hand in documentaries and Web-based collections and exhibitions.

Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS): Sustaining cultural heritage is one of the primary objectives of IMLS. The recent IMLS-funded report, A Public Trust at Risk, The Heritage Health Index Report on the State of America's Collections, highlights the dire need for conservation and collections care in America. Through its Conservation Project Support grants, the Conservation Assessment Program, and its primary partnership in Save America's Treasures, IMLS provides institutions throughout the U.S. with tools to preserve the cultural, scientific, historic and artistic heritage they hold in trust for the American people.

PRIVATE PARTNER

Save America's Treasures at the National Trust for Historic Preservation Congress chartered the National Trust for Historic Preservation in 1949 as the national nonprofit membership organization to preserve and promote the built environment. A recipient of the NEH's National Humanities Medal, the National Trust provides leadership, education, advocacy and resources to protect the irreplaceable places that tell America's story. The National Trust manages 28 historic sites and it operates six regional offices. Save America's Treasures is one example of its preservation partnership with federal agencies in helping them carry out their stewardship responsibilities in preservation.