Subject: Visser historic preservation award Date: Mon, 15 Dec 2008 10:08:55 -0600 Message-ID: <B46BC0C8F6373F43B0A84089442FE9210215DB3F@MEWMAD1P0129.enterprise.wistate.us> From: "Draeger, Jim R - WHS" <Jim.Draeger@wisconsinhistory.org>
December 8, 2008
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Visser historical preservation award seeks applicants
The Seth Peterson Cottage Conservancy Board of Directors
will grant the second biannual Kristin Visser Historical Preservation
Award in 2009.
The award is given every other year to an individual or
organization in recognition of past work in historical preservation of a
Frank Lloyd Wright or Prairie School building in Wisconsin or a
contiguous state. In general, buildings constructed between 1900 and
1925 are given preference, and the restoration work shall have been
substantially done within the two calendar years previous to the year of
application, in this case, for work done during 2007 and 2008.
The award is in the amount of $5,000.
The inaugural award was given in 2007 to Steve Sikora
and Lynette Erickson-Sikora, for their work in restoring the Willey
House, in Minneapolis.
Applicants are asked to support their applications with
a statement fully describing the restoration project, including its
state of completion, a supporting statement from the building contractor
and/or architect, a letter or letters of support from scholars and/or
working professionals familiar with the project, photographic evidence
of work completed, and any other appropriate materials. Applications
will be judged by a panel of members of the Seth Peterson Cottage
Conservancy, along with several outside experts/scholars.
March 15, 2009 is the deadline for applications for work
done in 2007-08. The award recipient will be announced on April 15, and
the award presented at the Seth Peterson Cottage in July 2009.
The award is named in honor of Kristin Visser, who was
instrumental in the restoration of the cottage and a tireless worker in
its behalf. She is the author of Frank Lloyd Wright and the Prairie
School in Wisconsin, and, with John Eifler, Frank Lloyd Wright's Seth
Peterson Cottage: Rescuing a Lost Masterwork. Visser, who was a planner
for the Wisconsin State Department of Natural Resources, died in 1998 at
the age of 48.
The Seth Peterson Cottage, located in Mirror Lake State
Park, near Wisconsin Dells, is Frank Lloyd Wright's final Wisconsin
commission (1958) and, at only 880 square feet, one of his smallest. It
was rescued from ruin by the concerted efforts of a local group of
lakeshore property owners, and restored through a public/private
partnership effort. Dedicated in 1992, it serves today as a unique
rental vacation cottage, managed by the Seth Peterson Cottage
Conservancy.
Applications should be sent to award committee chairman
Jerry Minnich,
821 Prospect Place, Madison, WI 53703. Questions may be submitted by
e-mail: jminnich7@att.net