This year, the Calumet Heritage Partnership has teamed with Decay Devils to present our 25th annual Calumet Heritage Conference. As a local preservation organization, Decay Devils collaborates with CHP year-round on events and efforts to showcase the Calumet Region’s historic, architectural, and natural assets, in addition to their own mission to reactivate abandoned places and unify communities. We’re thrilled to collaborate with them this year to present A Region’s Welcome: Cultural Heritage Tourism in the Calumet.
Our theme explores two different types of welcome: that of a stranger coming to the Region for the first time, and of residents who deserve to feel welcome in their homes and communities. Both affect the region’s economy and community well-being, as visitors near and far absorb the Calumet’s unique sense of place.
Join residents of the Region and representatives from local organizations and government agencies to discuss how tourism development informed by cultural and natural heritage can create responsible visitation that is both sustainable for local economies and inclusive of local communities. We hope the conference sessions spark ideas, relationships, and long-lasting projects to improve how we as a region respectfully embrace our cultural heritage and by extension how we responsibly guide our guests around the places we call home.
This year’s schedule:
8:30 – 9:00 a.m. – Coffee hour
9:00 – 9:30 – Introduction by Gary Johnson, President, Calumet Heritage Partnership
9:30 – 10:15 – Keynote Address by Tiffany Tolbert, National Trust for Historic Preservation
10:15-10:30 – Break
10:30 – 11:15 – Panel Session: Welcoming Preservation Action Block by Block
Elizabeth Blasius, Preservation Futures
Mary Lou Seidel, HW Consulting
Sam Love, Indiana Humanities
11:15 – 12:00 – Panel Session: Traveling Within: Heritage Tourism in the Calumet Region
Phil Taillon, SSCVA
Christine Livingston, Indiana Dunes Tourism
Ty Warner, NIRPC
Matthew Bauman (moderator), Professor of Tourism and Hospitality at PNW
12:15 – 1:00 pm – Lunch
1:00 – Depart venue for a walking tour of Downtown Gary – transportation not provided
1:30 – 3:00 – Downtown Gary Walking Tour
