September 18-20, 2024 | Columbus, GA

We are excited to announce the 2024 Statewide Historic Preservation Conference, hosted by the Georgia Department of Community Affairs Historic Preservation Division and the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation, will be held in Columbus, Georgia on September 18-20, 2024. 

Stay up to date by signing up for HPD emails and following us on Instagram and facebook. And keep an eye on this space for more information as it is announced!

Keynote Speaker Announced

We are excited to welcome Brent Leggs as the 2024 Statewide Historic Preservation Conference Keynote Speaker. 

Brent Leggs is the executive director of the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund and senior vice president of the National Trust. Envisioned as a social movement for justice, equity, and reconciliation, the Action Fund is promoting the role of cultural preservation in telling the nation’s full history, while also empowering activists, entrepreneurs, artists, and civic leaders to advocate on behalf of African American historic places.

A Harvard University Loeb Fellow and author of Preserving African American Historic Places, which is considered the “seminal publication on preserving African American historic sites” by the Smithsonian Institution, Brent is a national leader in the U.S. preservation movement and the 2018 recipient of the Robert G. Stanton National Preservation Award. His passion for elevating the significance of black culture in American history is visible through his work, which elevates the remarkable stories and places that evoke centuries of black activism, achievement, and community.

Over the past decade, he has developed the Northeast African American Historic Places Outreach Program, and its theme, the Business of Preservation, to build a regional movement of preservation leaders saving important landmarks in African American history. As the project manager for several National Treasure campaigns across the country, he led efforts to create the Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument in Alabama, which President Barack Obama designated in January 2017. Other campaign successes include the perpetual protection of cultural monuments like Villa Lewaro, the estate of Madam C. J. Walker in Irvington, New York; Joe Frazier’s Gym in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Hinchliffe Stadium in Paterson, New Jersey; A. G. Gaston Motel in Birmingham; Nina Simone’s birthplace in Tryon, North Carolina; John and Alice Coltrane’s home in Huntington, New York; and more.

Brent has taught at Harvard University, Boston Architectural College and the University of Maryland. He is a Senior Advisor and Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for the Preservation of Civil Rights Sites (CPCRS) and is an Adjunct Professor at Columbia University’s graduate program in Historic Preservation.

New this year: Conference Sponsorships

We are opening sponsorship opportunities! Various levels of sponsorship are available to organizations, companies, and individuals looking to support the 2024 Statewide Historic Preservation Conference. 

To inquire about sponsorships, contact Brynn Chanudet, Senior Director of Development with the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation, bchanudet@georgiatrust.org

Sponsorship Flyer

Registration

Registration will open in May! Keep a look out on social media and sign up for our emails to be notified when it opens.

Session proposals NOW BEING ACCEPTED!

Proposals for speaker sessions and speaker nominations are being accepted through April 1, 2024. This year we're introducing an online application process. Submit your proposal on the new form.

The statewide preservation conference brings together preservationists, preservation professionals, preservation non-profit members, board members, planners, architects, architectural historians, archaeologists, city and county administrators, city and county council members, city and county attorneys, landscape architects, historic preservation commission members, genealogists, historians, and planning and preservation students from across Georgia. All sessions will be open to all attendees.

Sessions should highlight current Georgia preservation, history, architectural history, archeology, cultural landscapes, Georgia regional history, landscape architecture, preservation law, and other closely related topics. The conference session committee desires sessions that will be interactive, engage the audience, present fresh approaches, and be easily applicable to a variety of participants from all over Georgia.

Please submit your proposal via this form by Monday, April 1, 2024. Multiple proposals may be submitted, but please limit one session proposal per submission form. Applicants will be notified by email in early June.  Questions may be submitted to outreach@dca.ga.gov.

Sponsors and Partners

We are happy to announce that the Georgia African American Historic Preservation Network and Georgia Alliance of Planning Commissions are returning as sponsors for the conference. And we are delighted to welcome Historic Columbus Foundation as a Local Planning Partner.