Who decides which buildings and landscapes should be preserved as an element of cultural heritage? How might preservation practices be more socially inclusive, equitable, or democratic? As our cities and their existing buildings store significant proportions of embodied energy and carbon, how might we reconsider preservation practices in response to anthropogenic climate change?

Join us for stimulating conversations on the most pressing issues in the contemporary urban landscape. This conversation focuses on questions of historic preservation in the United States and beyond, sharing the contemporary roles and responsibilities of conservation, preservation, and experimental practices in the arts and design of the public realm. This conversation brings together Marisa Angell Brown, PhD, Executive Director of Providence Preservation Society (PPS); Jorge Otero-Pailos, architect, artist, and theorist specializing in experimental forms of preservation; and Hakeem Adewumi, artist and Co-Director of Marketing at the Theater Offensive. The Larger Landscape Conversation is hosted by Gardner Museum Ruettgers Curator of Landscape and Harvard Graduate School of Design Professor Charles Waldheim.

The Larger Landscape Conversation is a recurring series that brings together visionaries across disciplines to discuss the intersection of creativity, lived experience, and social justice.