Austin Unscripted is headed to town, and so is the National Preservation Conference. Learn more about the premier educational and networking event for historic preservation professionals, volunteer leaders, and advocates, which will take place October 27-30 at locations throughout Austin. Also, stay tuned in the coming weeks as we add features to our website that will let you experience the conference virtually.

Introducing Austin Unscripted!

By National Trust for Historic Preservation on October 5th, 2010

How do you keep a place weird?

That’s the million-dollar question for a city growing as quickly and dramatically as Austin. And it’s a question that Austinites can answer best.

So our team here at the National Trust for Historic Preservation brainstormed, called, edited, tweeted, and used up an inordinate number of black Sharpies to give you a way to tell us. The result (drum roll please) … Austin Unscripted.

Starting Friday, October 22 — right before the National Preservation Conference — we are rolling our video cameras at locations across town with one goal in mind: to capture your answers. What should Austin save? What places define it? What do you want the future to look like? What is historic preservation and how can it help?

If you love your city and want to shape its future, then we want you! Visit our website, choose a meet-up, and join us to speak your mind about the city you call home.

In the meantime, help us get the word out! Share the video with your friends and family, and encourage them to comment. You can also join us on Twitter and use the #atxunscripted hashtag to find other involved Austinites.

More videos, tweets, and info coming soon. And thanks for helping us keep Austin weird, preservation-style.

Support the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Donate now.

http://blog.preservationnation.org/2010/10/05/introducing-austin-unscripted/

Wheatsville Co-op
11:30 AM-1:30 PM, 3101 Guadalupe

Waterloo Records
2:30 PM - 4:30 PM, 600A. North Lamar

East End Fourth Fridays
6 PM-8 PM, 1106 E. 11th

SFC Farmers’ Market - Downtown
9 AM - 11 AM, Republic Square Park

Torchy’s Trailer Park
12 PM - 2 PM, 1311 S. 1st

Hey Cupcake! – SoCo
3 PM - 5 PM, 1600 Block of S. Congress

Cheer Up Charlie’s
What Is Austin? Happy Hour
6 PM - 8 PM, 1104 E. 6th

Our Lady of Guadalupe
8 AM - 10 AM, 1206 E. 9th

Ebenezer Baptist Church
9 AM - 10 AM, 1010 E. 10th

HOPE Farmers Market
11 AM - 1 PM, 414 Waller

PODER
2 PM - 4 PM, 2604 E. Cesar Chavez

Renaissance Market
11:30 AM - 1:30 PM, Guadalupe @ UT

Quack’s 43rd Street Bakery
4 PM - 6 PM, 411 E. 43rd

Five Public (and Free!) Events at the National Preservation Conference

By National Trust for Historic Preservation on September 21st, 2010

If “free” is your favorite price point — and you happen to live in the Austin metro area — then you should check out the five public events happening at the National Preservation Conference in October.

While we’d love to have you for the entire conference, we know how busy life can get. So feed your preservation needs with these cool events instead, and make a note to join us next year in Buffalo for the whole shebang!

Wednesday, October 27
Opening Plenary Session
5:00 – 7:00 p.m. at the Long Center for the Performing Arts

Begin the conference by hearing from Paul Goldberger, Architecture Critic for The New Yorker, where since 1997 he has written the magazine’s celebrated “Sky Line” column. He’s also the author of two new books, including Why Architecture Matters and Building Up and Tearing Down: Reflections on the Age of Architecture, a collection of his architecture essays. Mr. Goldberger began his career at The New York Times, where in 1984 his architecture criticism was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Distinguished Criticism, the highest award in journalism.

Thursday, October 28 – Friday, October 29
Exhibit Hall and Preservation Bookstore Open
9:30 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Thurs. 10/28, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Hilton Austin
Fri. 10/29, 12 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. at the Hilton Austin

Visit often to find a compelling selection of booths with information on local artisans, commercial restoration products, preservation-related educational programs, and financial institutions that support preservation projects and activities. Take the time to peruse a wide selection of preservation-themed books and souvenir gifts to take home. To enter the exhibit hall, please stop by registration on the 6th Floor at the Hilton Austin to complete a brief form.

Thursday, October 28
Next American City URBANEXUS Salon
Project Row Houses: Art & Preservation as Tools for Social Change
5:00 – 7:00 p.m. at the Hilton Austin

Next American City presents a special film screening and a salon-style discussion casting art and historic preservation as tools for social change. THIRD WARD TX, directed and produced by filmmaker and Austin resident Andrew Garrison, features the captivating story of Project Row Houses, a nonprofit organization in Houston and a model for inner-city urban renewal through community engagement. Moderated by John Cary, President and CEO of Next American City, Andrew Garrison and Project Row Houses founder Rick Lowe will take audience questions about this unique example of social activism.

Friday, October 29
National Preservation Awards
6:00 – 7:00 p.m. at the Paramount Theatre

Join us at the fabulous Paramount Theatre (the newly crowned winner of the This Place Matters Community Challenge!) for the 2010 National Preservation Awards—a gala tribute to the best in preservation as we announce and celebrate award recipients.

Saturday, October 30
Closing Plenary Session
10:30 a.m. – 12 p.m. at the Paramount Theatre
Sponsored by Bud Light/John and Bobbie Nau

Wrap up the conference surrounded by the lyrical landscapes of Texas and the American West. Speakers include Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar (invited) and Juan Hernandez, a native Texan and the only American to have served President Vincente Fox in the Mexican cabinet.

Decided you want to join us for the whole conference? Register here!

On Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/NationalTrustforHistoricPreservation

Your support will help pay the cost of editing and completing the one-hour documentary on the collaboration between dancer Allison Orr and employees of the Austin Department of Solid Waste Services—the trash collectors.

An unnoticed army moves a city’s trash daily. It’s a world of dirty work neatly categorized into five categories: Trash; Litter; Yard Waste; Bulky; and Dead Animal. Choreographer Allison Orr begins a project with employees of the City of Austin’s Dept. of Solid Waste Services to re-imagine their everyday work as dance and make a public performance. From safety training to riding out with crews, Orr watches, listens and tries to recruit collaborators. The film follows employees and Orr in the process, getting to know individuals. At ten months in, they begin ragtag rehearsals. After one year they mount a performance in the rain on an abandoned airstrip—16 trucks, 24 dancers, a piano, violin, and cello—and over 2,000 in attendance.

The “Austin American-Statesman” named it “best art event of 2010.” The 2010 Austin Critics’ Table awarded it “Best Dance Event.” The effect on the participants and the audience continues to resonate.

That invisible workforce collecting trash in Austin is 98% minority— African-American or Hispanic men and a handful of women. The work is dangerous and physically demanding. Yet many of the employees of the Dept. of Solid Waste Services have second jobs or go to school, in addition to raising families and other outside activities.

Anthony wants to make it big as a jam skater and open his own studio. Virginia works out at a boxing gym, prepares for her son’s baby shower and works in a daycare on Sundays. Orange plays harmonica in a blues band. Lee, a single father, says everything he does, he does for his seven-year-old daughter. Their lives are already full. They don’t ”need” a dance project for a meaningful experience. But some people do step forward to participate, changing how they see their jobs and how people see them.

The film will be a one-hour program completed in spring of 2011. Principal shooting is complete. The year leading up to the performance was shot intimately, as a one-person crew. The single performance was shot on 9 borrowed HD cameras with help of a mostly volunteer crew of professionals and students. The results are spectacular.

The premiere will be in Austin in spring 2011, including garbage trucks riding down Congress Avenue to deliver the stars to the red carpet. In addition to the full documentary, we will edit the performance into a stand-alone DVD as an extra, and create “Character Diaries” with additional material that can be unlocked and downloaded onto phones and laptops.

The Department of Solid Waste Services has asked about using the series of still portraits of employees, made for the film, as wrappers for the garbage trucks with the words “I dance,” printed on them.

Project location: Austin, TX

This was taken in Harlem, New York in 2006.