Preservation Expert to Speak on American Barns
May 5, 2004
(Torrington, WY) Mary Humstone, a national authority on rural architecture and a founder of the Barn Again! national preservation project, will discuss "Preserving the American Barn" on May 20, 2004, at 7:00 p.m. in the Fine Arts Auditorium, Lecture Hall 1. Her program, which is free and open to the public, is sponsored locally by Eastern Wyoming College and funded by the Wyoming Council for the Humanities as part of its support of the Smithsonian exhibition Barn Again! in six sites in Wyoming this year.
Humstone's program will discuss what barns mean to farmers, ranchers, and rural communities and how they can be preserved for the future. She will show different types of farm buildings from early English-style barns to the modern pole barn as she discusses how design has been influenced by technology and economics. Her case studies will give creative ways rancher and farmers have rehabilitated and reused historic barns.
Currently a research scientist with the UW American Studies Program, Humstone has also studied rural architecture in Japan where she was a Fulbright fellow. Her program is part of the Wyoming Council for the Humanities 2004 Speakers Bureau chosen to accompany the Barn Again! exhibit in Wyoming communities. The Bureau provides humanities programs to nonprofit organizations across the state. It is funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities and private contributions. For more information about the Bureau, call (307) 721.9243 or e-mail wych@uwyo.edu.
