WASHINGTON, D.C. — The efforts to bring the 2014 World Acadian Congress to northern Maine and neighboring regions of New Brunswick and Quebec are featured in a new online resource intended to help communities across the nation promote their unique historic and cultural attractions. Produced by the National Trust for Historic Preservation and supported in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, the online toolkit includes profiles of more than 80 communities achieving success despite the challenges posed by today’s economy.
“We’ve found that real-life stories, like the effort to host the World Acadian Congress in northern Maine, are meaningful role models,” says Amy Webb, director of the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Heritage Tourism Program. “Cultural heritage tourism attractions want to hear from others in the trenches, facing similar challenges. These survival stories showcase how many communities are succeeding in the face of an economic downturn.”
This user-friendly website allows visitors to search for stories by region of the country, type of attraction or organization, and/or the survival strategy or strategies illustrated in each story. The toolkit also includes links to other online resources to help cultural and heritage tourism attractions and organizations stay afloat during tough times. The toolkit, www.preservationnation.org/survival-toolkit, was developed after hundreds of hours of outreach to national and state leaders in cultural and heritage tourism over the past year.
Maine officials working on the 2014 World Acadian Congress were contacted last spring about the project’s selection as one of 80 across the country to be featured by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. All five members of the Maine delegation to the 2014 World Acadian Congress International Organizing Committee were interviewed for the feature, which is referenced on the website under three strategy headings : “Collaborate in New Ways,” “Enhance Your Product,” and “Leverage Anniversaries.”
“We are so pleased to have the World Acadian Congress featured along with seven dozen of the top cultural projects in the nation as a best practice. The website will be viewed by thousands of individuals across the country who work in historic preservation and cultural initiatives,” said Jason Parent, Maine president of the international organizing committee. “This will undoubtedly create national awareness about both our efforts and the coming events in 2014.”
“We see the stories in the toolkit as simply a starting point,” Webb added. “Our hope is that the profiles will inspire others to share their stories so the toolkit is a dynamic and continually growing resource.”
According to Rocco Landesman, chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, “the economic downturn has had a harsh impact on all sectors of the cultural and heritage tourism industry. The NEA is proud to support this online toolkit that will provide solutions and timely resources to address today’s economic challenges.”
The direct link address for the feature on the World Acadian Congress can be found at: http://www.preservationnation.org/issues/heritage-tourism/survival-toolkit/hosting-the-2014-world-acadiam-maine.html. A copy of the text and photo featured on the site is pasted below.
The World Acadian Congress, which is held every five years in different regions populated by Acadians, will be staged in northern Maine, northwestern New Brunswick, and the Témiscouata region of Quebec in August 2014 in a region now called Acadia of the Lands and Forests. Organizers anticipate that the event will draw at least 50,000 people to the area over a two and a half week period.
The World Acadian Congress or Congres Mondial Acadien was first held in the Moncton, New Brunswick area in 1994. Since then, the event has been held in Louisiana in 1999, Nova Scotia in 2004 and most recently in the Acadian Peninsula region of New Brunswick in 2009. The two to three week celebration traditionally held in August to coincide with August 15 — the Acadian Feast Day — and draws Acadians worldwide.
Festivities typically feature more than 300 events, which include family reunions, popular regional celebrations, ceremonies, sporting events, cultural events, shows, forums and conferences. The economic impact on hosting communities and surrounding areas for recent World Acadian Congresses has ranged from $30 million to $50 million.
Additional information regarding the Cultural Heritage Tourism Survival Toolkit can be obtained by contacting the National Trust for Historic Preservation at cht@nthp.org.
