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Community Corner

Banfill-Locke Competing on Facebook for Funds

The historic house that is home to Fridley's arts center is in the running for $125,000 from Partners in Preservation.

Fridley's is one of 25 historic Twin Cities locations in the running for preservation funds through Partners in Preservation.

Votes anyone can cast on the Partners in Preservation Facebook page will help the Banfill-Locke center increase its chances of getting some of the $1 million pool provided by Partners in Preservation. Voting is from Sept. 20-Oct. 12 on Facebook only; a person can vote once a day, every day.

Social-media Mountain to Climb
It's a challenge for a small organization like the Fridley arts center to mount an online campaign for Facebook votes. "We do not have the resources for all that social-media stuff," said Director Lia Rivamonte, Banfill-Locke's sole employee.

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Rivamonte said summer interns made a start on getting the center more involved online including Facebook and Twitter. But they're gone now, and many of the center's volunteers, board members and visitors are older people less well-versed in social media.

But projects in smaller communities have done well in Partners in Preservation efforts elsewhere because they "are able to gather around a single beloved location and cast unified votes," according to Tim McClimon, president of the American Express Foundation, one of the program's backers.

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People who vote on Facebook are also encouraged to add personal stories and share photos about the historic site via the fan page.

Open House in October
An open house at Banfill-Locke on Oct. 8-9 will be an important event for showcasing community support for the arts center's Partners in Preservation bid, according to Rivamonte and Fridley City Council Member Ann Bolkcom, who is president of the center's board of directors.

Rivamonte said the building has been a community center of sorts since its territorial-era origins as an inn and tavern.

She added that no outrageous publicity stunts are planned but the center is open to creative ideas for raising public interest in the competition.

Already, Bolkcom said, the center has t-shirts in the works with the slogan "Former Tavern with an Art Problem."

Partners in Preservation
Partners in Preservation is a five-year-old philanthropic organization between American Express and the National Trust for Historic Preservation and is in the Twin Cities this year looking to invest $1 million into preserving some of the area’s notable locations.

Among the 25 sites up for Partners in Preservation-subsidized restoration, the Banfill-Locke center is the only one in Anoka County. It rose to the top 25 from an initial pool of 300 potential brick-and-mortar projects. There is one other arts center in the group: the Soap Factory in Minneapolis.

"It was important to us to have a diverse scope of projects. In the actual work being done and the actual buildings, culturally, ethnically, geographically and socially," said American Express' McClimon.

Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak, who co-chairs Twin Cities Partners in Preservation, said the mission of the program isn’t only about getting grant money to local sites—it's also about civic preservation.

He said a whole "shiny, new" city could be erected to replace old, less efficient and dilapidated buildings, but there would be a consequence.

"Maybe wonderful things could happen in this new city, but then who are we? The stories of these places tell us who we are and the buildings are part of who we are," he said. "History does have a future."

Having sites up for the grant money was important to the committee.

"We’re in jeopardy of losing the historic mainstreets of Minnesota," Rybak said.

Rybak's co-chair, St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman, echoed that sentiment.

"When we preserve the past we propel the future," he said.

Partners in Preservation awards money to historic places throughout the country with the goal of increasing awareness of the importance of preservation, preserving America’s historic and cultural places and inspiring long-term support from local citizens for the historic sites at the heart of their communities.

Sites were chosen, McClimon said, based on historical significance, open to the public, community support and representative of local history in a diverse way.

The winner of the public vote in the Twin Cities is guaranteed $125,000 in grant funds, while the remainder of the $1 million will go to a number of the other sites after review by American Express, the National Trust for Historic Preservation and an advisory committee.

Other sites competing for the grant money are: 

Minneapolis: American Swedish Institute, Basilica of St. Mary, Emerge Career and Technology Center (Old North Branch Library), The Soap Factory, Harriet Tubman Center East (Former St. Paul's Monastery), Hennepin Center for the Arts, Mill Ruins Park,  Minnehaha Park, Pioneers and Soldiers Cemetery.

St. Paul: Christ Lutheran Church on Capitol Hill, CSPS Sokol Hall, Fitzgerald Theater, James J. Hill House, Landmark Center, Minnesota State Fair Grandstand, Minnesota Transportation Museum (Jackson Street Roundhouse) and Pilgrim Baptist Church. 

Elsewhere: Chaska Athletic Park; Wayata Depot; Episcopal Church of the Transfiguration in Belle Plaine; Historic Pilot Knob in Mendota Heights; and Waterford Iron Bridge in Waterford Township, Fort Snelling Upper Post, Building 67.

The seven-county Twin Cities area has been selected as the location of the 2011 Partners in Preservation program and is the sixth location to participate in the program and receive funding from American Express.

Previously grants for preservation projects were given in San Francisco, greater Chicago, New Orleans, greater Boston and Seattle-Puget Sound.

Each year, American Express and the National Trust for Historic Preservation review hundreds of project proposals before selecting the participating diverse 25 Partners in Preservation projects. The prospective grantees, each of which is a nonprofit organization or a government agency, complete formal grant applications which are then reviewed towards specific criteria that includes their historic significance and accessibility to the public, demonstration of community support and organizational excellence, and evidence of a coherent and sustainable preservation plan.

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