Preservation Maryland Executive Director, Nicholas Redding was selected by the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation to serve as vice chairman of the Council’s recently formed Traditional Trades Training Task Force. The Task Force is led by Aimee Jorjani, Chairman of the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation with the goal of building a preservation ethic in construction trades and to highlight the worth of the skilled craft worker.
Preservationists at Shafer Farm, 2017.
Redding joins the Traditional Trades Training Task Force as a co-vice chairman with Moss Rudley, Superintendent of the Historic Preservation Training Center, a National Park Service unit based in Frederick, Maryland that administers the Traditional Trades Apprentice Program. In 2019, Redding was awarded a J.M. Kaplan Fund Innovation Prize for launching the Campaign for Historic Trades, a partnership with the Historic Preservation Training Center which seeks to create more opportunities for a more diverse swath of Americans to enter the trades and offers a powerful new model for the heritage conservation field.
“Preservation is just good intentions without skilled tradespeople able to do the physical work required of restoring and rehabilitating old buildings,” Redding stated. “This new historic trades task force is precisely what’s needed at this moment–not just for preservation–but for our nation; these skills and the promise of well-paid jobs which they hold can play a critical role in the coming economic recovery. We can save our history and create meaningful career opportunities. Historic places not only speak to our past–but they can hold out a promise for our future–and I see this new task force as an effort aimed at ensuring that promise.”
As Vice Chair, Redding will guide the Task Force in considering key issues regarding preservation trades credentialing, apprenticeships, and curriculum development. By exploring current opportunities and future possibilities, the Task Force will seek to develop recommendations for federal action that could be embodied in a formal Advisory Council policy statement.
The Campaign for Historic Trades is a major program of Preservation Maryland. Since 1931, Preservation Maryland has worked to protect the places, stories, and communities in Maryland that matter. As a non-profit organization, it works with partners across the state to accomplish this important mission and protect the best of Maryland.