Society of Architectural Historians Receives Graham Foundation Grant

The Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts has awarded SAH a grant for the SAH Chicago Seminar, part of the Society’s 2015 Annual Conference

The Society of Architectural Historians (SAH) has been awarded a $5,000 grant from the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts for the SAH Chicago Seminar, “Tomorrow’s Metropolis: Bridging the Past and Future in Chicago’s Built Environment.” The Graham Foundation today announced $480,000 in new grants to organizations around the world to support projects that engage original ideas in architecture. SAH is among 11 Chicago-based organizations to receive a grant.

The Chicago Seminar is part of the public programming for the Society’s 68^th Annual Conference that takes place in Chicago from April 15–19, 2015. The seminar engages international scholars and local audiences in critical discussions about local architectural histories and the future of the city, and focuses on the increasingly important relationships that link new plans for local communities to historic, economic, and environmental concerns. An interdisciplinary panel of architects, historians and other experts will discuss the dynamics of history and innovation in the city's and region's evolution, including the multifarious roles of industry in the city, options for the region's water resources and the impact of gentrification and development in historic neighborhoods. Keynote speakers, including Charles Waldheim, John E. Irving Professor of Landscape Architecture and Chair of the Department of Landscape Architecture at Harvard University, will address this intersection of scales, histories, and disciplines. Through this focus, the seminar meets the needs of its two target audiences: local public and professionals, and visiting scholars wishing to understand the debates shaping Chicago's built environment today.

Co-chairing the 2015 Annual Conference are Ken Tadashi Oshima, associate professor in the Department of Architecture at the University of Washington, and Alison Fisher, Harold and Margot Schiff Assistant Curator of Architecture at the Art Institute of Chicago. Fisher will serve as moderator of the Chicago Seminar, which takes place on Saturday, April 18, 2015.

For a complete list of the 2014 Grants to Organizations and the grantee project pages, visit grahamfoundation.org/grantees.

Founded in 1956, the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts makes project-based grants to individuals and organizations and produces public programs to foster the development and exchange of diverse and challenging ideas about architecture and its role in the arts, culture, and society.

The Society of Architectural Historians promotes the study, interpretation, and conservation of architecture, design, landscapes, and urbanism worldwide. Founded at Harvard in 1940, SAH serves a network of local, national and international institutions, and individuals who, by vocation or avocation, focus on the built environment and its role in shaping contemporary life. SAH promotes meaningful engagement with the history of the built environment thorough advocacy efforts, print and online publications, and local, national, and international programs. Since 1994, SAH has been headquartered in Chicago.

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