MHP Student Victoria Vanhuss Chosen for National Leadership Program Scholarship
ARCUS Leadership Fellows at PastForward 2019. Vanhuss is 8th from left.
Victoria Vanhuss, a second year graduate student in the Master of Historic Preservation program, has been named a 2019 ARCUS Leadership Program Fellow—one of 27 learners who will receive fully funded access to this program over a 15-month period to develop and strengthen their leadership skills and knowledge. The ARCUS Leadership Program serves those in the public history fields, including historic preservation, and is funded by a 3-year, $225,000 American Express grant to the SRI Foundation.
Twenty-seven new ARCUS Fellows gathered on October 10th in Denver to kick off their experience during PastForward, the annual conference of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. They represent 17 states and bring a diversity of perspectives and experiences needed in the modern preservation movement. ARCUS Fellows receive faculty-guided access to 25 online courses in leadership theory and practice, as well as in-person networking and training opportunities.
“The 2019 cohort of ARCUS Fellows are an engaged, committed, thoughtful, and diverse group of professionals. They are executive directors, graduate students, librarians, architects, and more, and their energy and passion makes me excited to see what they will do next for their communities,” said Jackie Barton, Program Manager of the ARCUS Leadership Program.
Vanhuss worked as a marketing specialist before returning to academia and plans to utilize her enhanced leadership skills and knowledge to champion the use of new media within the field.
“I think the preservation field has an image issue. Either people think negatively about us or not at all. If [preservationists] were better about leveraging digital resources, particularly social media, more people would better understand our aim and support our efforts.”
Vanhuss is currently writing her thesis on the use of social media in non-profit preservation organizations. She recently completed an internship through the National Council of Preservation Education (NCPE) at the National Park Service (NPS) and hopes to continue her career in an education or advocacy role.
To implement ARCUS, the SRI Foundation is partnering with Cultural Heritage Partners, a global law and policy firm specializing in historic preservation, and the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Greg Werkheiser, Founding Partner and Attorney-at-Law at Cultural Heritage Partners commented, “Culture and history is constantly lost to development, conflict, theft, and neglect. To answer these threats systemically requires entrepreneurial and creative thinking from a variety of viewpoints. The role of ARCUS is to help build that new leadership ecosystem.”
The ARCUS Leadership Program consists of courses that include video presentations, live web programming, curated publications, as well as written and practice assignments that focus on real challenges in the field. Titles include: Advocate, Budgeter, Convener, Entrepreneur, Futurist, Evaluator, Fundraiser, Grassroots Organizer, Grasstops Organizer, Historian, HR Manager, Includer, Legal Navigator, Native Partner, Negotiator, Office Manager, Orator, Planner, Risk Mitigator, Social Media Maven, Successor, Team Builder, Trusted Source, Visionary, Volunteer Coordinator, and Writer.
For more information, see www.arcusleaders.com.
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SRI Foundation
Founded in 2001, SRIF aims to advance education, training, public outreach, and research in all fields of historic preservation. Their work prepares historic preservation professionals for the future and builds their expertise to be more effective at conveying the value of their discipline. In 2018, SRIF became the home of ARCUS. See: http://www.srifoundation.org
Cultural Heritage Partners, PLLC
CHP is a global law, policy, and business strategy firm serving cultural heritage clients from the public, private, and nonprofit sectors who have challenges involving the protection of and access to art and antiquities, archaeology, historic buildings and landscapes, and living cultural practices. See: www.culturalheritagepartners.com
National Trust for Historic Preservation
The Trust’s mission is a privately funded nonprofit organization that works to save America’s historic places. For more information, visit: https://savingplaces.org/