The city’s Heritage Preservation Grant program will look a little different this year, with plans to undergo a “creative reset” under the leadership of Austin’s brand new Office of Arts, Music, Culture, and Entertainment.
Last year, the program awarded $3,590,765 in Hotel Occupancy Tax revenue to 22 select projects at historic sites that ranged in scope from physical rehabilitation to developing new educational materials for visitors. Maintenance and restoration work at venues like the Paramount Theater and Broken Spoke, site planning for a new museum at the Charles Umlauf Sculpture Garden and funding for Mexican heritage events at Republic Square Park are all among those that made the list.
Per state law, projects eligible for the upcoming round of grants must still demonstrate an intent to encourage tourism at sites open to the public. But this year, applicants will see expanded options for capital repairs, more streamlined criteria, and greater flexibility for cultural programming.
“Through the creative reset community engagement process, over 1200 residents provided feedback requesting simpler applications, better access to funding opportunities and more support for diverse voices and access to cultural spaces,” said Heritage Tourism Division Manager Melissa Alvarado in a briefing to the Historic Landmark Commission earlier this month.
Under the program’s redesign, applicants can seek grants under two categories, with up to $250,000 on the table for capital rehabilitation projects and up to $150,000 for “heritage event” projects that “highlight local history and storytelling” through the development of cultural events, exhibits, and tours. Those applying for the Heritage Event Grant will be subject to a tiered funding structure tied to the site’s landmark zoning, with up to $150,000 on the table for historically designated sites, and up to $50,000 for sites eligible and actively pursuing designation.
The grant will also make room for cultural programming that cannot be tied to a physical landmark, offering up to $25,000 to applicants who propose an “alternative historic location” so long as the project “helps tell the story of an important historic event, person, community, group, or the city” and will serve to “promote tourism and the hotel industry.” Staff hope the new criteria will help even the playing field for the city’s Mexican and Black communities, whose role in shaping Austin’s history has in many areas been obscured by redevelopment and gentrification.
In a briefing to the city’s Historic Landmark Commission, Alvarado was happy to report that last year’s grant recipients are already making strides. Visitors to East Austin’s Rosewood Park can look forward to admiring the Henry Green Madison Cabin, which is poised to complete major restoration work that will see it take on new life as a landmark of its namesake, who built the structure in 1863 and went on to be Austin’s first African-American City Council member.
The Bethany Cemetery Association has also leveraged grant funding for new educational programming, which they unveiled while celebrating Juneteenth just last month. In addition to guided tours led by Black Austin Tours, the site now boasts new interpretive signage complete with maps, timelines and QR codes offering visitors the chance to dig deeper into the history of notable figures buried at the city’s first African-American cemetery.
While the sum of funds available for this year’s round of grants is yet to be announced, Landmark Commissioners hope the program’s new leadership under ACME will allow opportunities to collaborate with new city departments.
“We do bring this very storied program and grant opportunity to the table, but unlike in the past, it won’t be administered within the silo of just preservation,” said Historic Landmark Commission Chair Ben Heimsath. “If we’re lucky, we can try to connect all of these other things, and we have the opportunity with this new initiative to really think through how to leverage all of the cultural resources here.”
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