Summary of IMPART
IMPART (Institute for Museums, Preservation & Archaeology Research and Training) is a consortium of six universities and five state offices, all concerned with saving and understanding Maryland’s past. This state-wide initiative developed out of a 1999 Governor’s Task Force on Historic Preservation. The task force identified a critical gap in higher education, namely a shortage in programs related to historic preservation, museum studies, and archaeology.
These fields are important not only for preserving and understanding Maryland’s past, but for supporting the state’s growing $8.5 billion a year tourism industry. A major goal of the program is to increase the number of professionals prepared to work in Maryland’s expanding heritage industry. Although the state has world-class museums and facilities - and world-class historic sites – there are not enough trained people to work in the state’s heritage industry. IMPART works to create a new generation of heritage professionals who will work in Maryland as archaeologists, preservationists, and history museum professionals.
A centerpiece of IMPART is an assistantship program for students in historic preservation, museum studies, archaeology, and related disciplines. With funding from the Maryland General Assembly, administered through the Maryland Higher Education Commission, students are placed with professionals in the field, whether in universities, museums, non-profits, or state agencies. They then learn by working on real projects that are important to Maryland’s history. Over the past few years, close to 200 Maryland undergraduate and graduate students have benefited from this program.
In each of the past two fiscal years, the General Assembly has dedicated $200,000 to this extremely cost-effective and productive program. All of these funds go to the internship program and students – none of the partners use the funds for overhead costs. In addition, IMPART funds have leveraged significant additional funding for historic preservation via matching funds raised from foundations and the Federal government.
IMPART is the best way to guarantee the future of the heritage industry in Maryland. It is a model of academic and government cooperation; it emphasizes cost efficiencies and mutual program building; and it provides on-the-job training to Maryland’s students, while saving Maryland’s irreplaceable past. IMPART is unique in that it emphasizes a broad and carefully coordinated partnership, one in which each member builds to its individual strengths in a non-competitive fashion. It stresses the sharing of resources and complementary programming, rather than redundancy and inefficiency. It is a reciprocal program of enormous efficiency and power - faculty and students work with preservation professionals in state government on issues that are important to the State of Maryland. The highly dedicated and experienced staff members of these state agencies provide valuable training and mentoring to the next generation of preservation professionals.
In the Beginning
IMPART began in 1998, when a group of educators and professionals in the historic preservation field met informally to discuss some of the challenges they were seeing in their disciplines. The discussions quickly revealed some common concerns and a general sense that a concerted and cooperative effort would be needed to solve these problems. The group was expanded to ensure a broad representation of disciplines and institutions, and representatives from each institution met on a regular basis to discuss the challenges they faced. Out of these meetings emerged a detailed and innovative strategy for developing higher education in the heritage arena. The program this group envisioned was labeled the Institute of Museums, Preservation & Archaeology Research and Training, or IMPART.
Background Information
A Rich Heritage
Maryland is blessed with a rich heritage. For more than 12,000 years, people have lived, worked, and played in the beautiful lands and waters of the region. Signs of our past are all around us, from archaeological sites of American Indians and early colonists, to domestic, commercial, and religious architecture that crosses four centuries. Museums, small and large, retain objects from every day life as well as priceless works of art, while state and local archives house an extraordinary array of documentary history. Maryland's citizens have long placed great value on this rich heritage, and their stewardship is one of the primary reasons that so much has been preserved. It provides our citizens with a sense of place and of shared values. In the 21st century, the past also provides a powerful economic engine for the present, with the explosive growth of heritage and eco-tourism.
A Heritage at Risk
Despite these benefits, our heritage resources are under increasing pressure. Archaeological sites are lost to development and shoreline erosion, while historic buildings disappear due to neglect or replacement by new construction. Despite the best efforts of local groups to preserve cultural knowledge through oral history, the increasingly fast pace of life makes it difficult to keep up with change. In times of recession or budgetary constraint, museums find it hard to maintain collections.
Yet another threat lays in a growing shortage of well-trained young professionals in the heritage disciplines, from architectural history and archaeology, to conservation, archival science and museum studies. The job market for graduates in these fields is large and expanding. Surprisingly, however, Maryland is one of the few states with no anthropology or archaeology program at the PhD level. Maryland offers few undergraduate or graduate opportunities for the study of architectural history or in the booming field of cultural resource management; opportunity for study of the growing field of maritime archaeology is limited to one or two courses; and no institution of higher education in the state employs specialists in American Indian archaeology. The state has one of the best conservation laboratories in the world, but limited educational opportunities for museum and conservation studies. And, although Maryland has perhaps the best state historic preservation office in the country (the Maryland Historical Trust), the able professionals in that office have little opportunity to work with and pass on their skills to students. As a result of these and other gaps, many of Maryland's brightest young students must travel out of state to pursue advanced study in their disciplines. Unfortunately, many do not return, resulting in a drain of talent and energy from the state. Professionals already at work in the state are similarly deprived of opportunities to study locally and expand their knowledge and skills.
Heritage Education for the 21st Century
If we are to ensure that future generations can continue to care for and benefit from our past, we must train young professionals in the heritage disciplines. We also must provide them with the tools and technologies they will need to carry out their mission. Identifying the gaps in heritage studies at our institutions of higher education—and identifying cost-effective and innovative ways to remedy the deficiencies—has been the goal of a consortium of institutions across the state. The partners in this consortium, called the Institute for Museum, Preservation & Archaeology Research and Training (IMPART), include institutions of higher education, state agencies, and state museums. Its members have been at work for the past five years studying both the problems and the potential for heritage studies in Maryland.
After many meetings with the varied constituents for heritage studies, the consortium developed a plan for the future of heritage studies in higher education. The plan provided a model for creating linkages between universities and state agencies, while building to existing strengths and avoiding redundancies in programs. The plan was subsequently reviewed and endorsed by several groups, including a state task force on heritage preservation and the Board of Trustees of the Maryland Historical Trust. In the final stage of development, a group of leaders in Maryland higher education was convened to further refine the plan and assist in its implementation. The Higher Education Heritage Action Committee (HEHAC) concluded a year-long study and refinement of the plan, issued in 2004. Since then, IMPART has continued to provide quality programs and assistantships for Maryland students in historic preservation, museum studies, archaeology, and related disciplines.
Read the final HEHAC report
