RI PowerPlayer: Karen Jessup
Monday, May 20, 2013
Every Monday, GoLocal sits down with a Rhode Island individual who is currently making a major impact on the state. This week, GoLocal talks with Karen Jessup, Providence Preservation Society's Interim Director.
Thanks for talking with us, Karen. You have an impressive resume of local and national experiences in academia, preservation, non-profits -- tell us, what have been some of your proudest achievements to date?
I’m an advocate for serious organizational and conservation planning and work with World Heritage Sites in Britain and cultural organizations in the US and overseas. As a trustee and chair of the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Board of Advisors, I traveled all over the country, including to Hawaii, to see preservation challenges and solutions first hand with those who were making a critical difference in their communities. These experiences gave me a foundation to feel confident testifying before Congressional committees, writing public policy white papers, and speaking with representatives of several Administrations. I’d like to think I’ve made new champions for preservation along the way, and this makes me feel quite proud.
I’m also greatly energized by mentoring young professionals - something I see as my responsibility - and am proud of the amazing careers many have and the accomplished people they have become. While I no longer teach full-time, I do work occasionally with Ph.D. students and I lecture in Britain at a couple of universities.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTAnd while these are in the professional realm – Parenthetically, I’m married to a man I’ve known since kindergarten; I’m a Mom to three wonderful young women, each of whom married wonderful men; and I’m a grandmother to eight terrific youngsters. It brings me great joy to have figured out a way to balance academic accomplishment both as a student and as a professor with “in the trenches” preservation that is international, national, and local in scope, while also raising such an incredible family.
Prior to serving as interim director of the PPS, you served on the board for a number of years. What were some of the highlights during that initial experience?
I’ve been involved with the Providence Preservation Society in one way or another since the mid-1970s. It’s an organization whose mission of education and advocacy is one which I support. In the years before I joined PPS, the organization had been instrumental in funding and creating what is called the College Hill Plan. This put Providence on the national preservation map. As a follow up to that Plan, more intriguing studies about the Providence of the future emerged. I had the good fortune to work then with people who changed the way preservation was thought about and practiced, including Antoinette Downing and Fred Williamson, both of whom lived in Providence and had national reputations as leaders in the field.
As a volunteer, I started out arranging PPS’s educational programs, which ran about 10 months a year and included 9 months of almost weekly lectures to train guides for our local tours. PPS became known nationally for the seriousness and purpose of its educational programming. Most peer institutions didn’t create anything as well-researched and with such scholarly lecturers. I also chaired several committees critical to advancing the thinking about the role of non-profit preservation in Providence. In particular, its Planning and Architectural Review (PAR) Committee developed into a respected voice for good design and effective urban planning. It was populated by individuals with serious credentials representing the design, planning, academic, preservation, banking, and citizen advocate communities. I don’t think Providence would have created a position within the Planning Office for a preservation planner had it not been for the work of PAR years ago. The Committee remains today as one of PPS‘s most important.
Take us through a typical work day.
Directors of non-profits will tell you there is no typical day. I’m usually up early to read a couple of newspapers, after which I head to the pool or gym. I get to the office around 10 after answering emails from home. I have lots of meetings, manage the budget, take lots of phone calls from members and others, coordinate and support staff in the work they do, anticipate problems and try to convert them to routine challenges before they become a crisis, and provide advice to the Board and its committees. Like all non-profit directors, I’m always trying to figure out how to position the organization for effective fund raising and to expand our membership numbers. PPS can never have too many members. That’s what gives us scope to weigh in on public policy issues, because we know we have a significant base supporting us. And, of course, I’m a cheerleader for and I help conceptualize the signature events PPS undertakes annually: the early summer Festival of Historic Houses, the Winter Bash, and the fall Providence Symposium. Because I’m less than full time as the interim at PPS, I also have two small consulting projects I’m working on concurrently. The atypicality of my day gives me energy and means there’s always a new challenge to anticipate.
What exciting things does the PPS have on tap in the near future? And for the long term?
Coming fast upon us on the weekend of June 7-9, PPS will host its annual Festival of Historic Houses. This is a defining event for the organization and a significant fundraising opportunity. The Festival has been going on for 34 years, with this year’s focus on two exciting neighborhoods demonstrating different styles of urban living in historic properties, all preserved with individuality and creativity. The tour Saturday centers on a portion of Prospect Street at the top of College Hill and on Sunday at the exciting loft units in Monohasset Mill. You can find out more at www.ppsri.org/festival.
PPS is currently involved in two city planning initiatives. As part of the Thayer Street Planning Study, PPS is working with neighborhood property owners, Brown University, Wheeler School and RISD, other community stakeholders, and the City’s Planning Department to create a roadmap for future development in and around Thayer Street. The second project involves a potential change in local historic district boundaries that arose out of neighborhood interest in exploring how best to protect primarily historic residential properties. PPS has raised grant funds to hire an architectural historian in support of this project on College Hill, and will work closely with property owners and elected officials to assess various possibilities for preservation. We also are in the planning stages to continue the popular Walks and Talks series. And we are gearing up for the Providence Symposium, held every fall. This year, the Symposium will focus on our historic downtown: where it’s been, where it’s heading, how we manage change for the benefit of the many, what’s worked out for the better, what we wish might never have happened. We CAN learn from the past to make a more dynamic future.
In a constantly-changing community with so many historic and architectural resources and such wonderful open spaces, there is always work for PPS. Many think of the organization as the “eyes and ears” they rely on to inform them about what’s going on in the neighborhoods and downtown. We do this with our e-newsletters, twice-yearly print newsletters, one of which is soon to be published, with occasional calls to action via advocacy alerts, and with extensive public programming.
And of course, to solidify PPS’s own future the organization is embarking on a search for a new executive director to replace our charismatic James Hall who left earlier this Winter. We are excited at what the next era of leadership will bring.
What is your favorite city, from an architectural standpoint? Besides Providence, that is?
Oh, boy, that’s a tough one. Because of family and professional associations, I can almost narrow the list to three for different reasons: London, because I’ve spent so much time there, have family there, studied and worked there, and because it is an ancient city of architecturally superior buildings that’s not afraid of contemporary design to add to the architectural continuum. London doesn’t always get new design ‘right,’ but neither are all its old buildings worthy of esteem. And the greater London area isn’t afraid to take a chance on creating buildings whose design will be worthy of preservation 100 or more years from now. I also, predictably, love San Francisco. Not for the reasons you might suspect, but rather for the way architecture and landscape – the physical solids and the planted voids – interact with each other, with an interesting topography, and with the water that together create a pretty wonderful climate for people and plants. I’m trained as a landscape historian as well as a preservation planner, so I appreciate a broader context within which architecture is one element of landscape. And, I love both Portland, Oregon, and Austin, Texas. Portland is a planner’s dream with conscious attention to infrastructure, environmental sustainability, cultural life, and preservation. Austin is dynamic, culturally rich, and a city that invests in itself with public/private partnerships, many of which are preservation in character, broadly-defined.
Favorite restaurant in Providence?
Now, really! Do I have a favorite grandchild, a favorite son-in-law, a favorite book? I couldn’t name a favorite restaurant in Providence. As the Brits would say, “We are spoilt for choice” when it comes to great cuisine in Rhode Island in general. I enjoy restaurants that offer things I wouldn’t normally prepare at home. I’m a sucker for fresh-shucked oysters, so when I can get those, that’s heaven. My husband and I have spent many happy occasions with family and friends at Bruce Tillinghast’s New Rivers, which he recently sold. We knew and admired his late wife, Pat, and they are both preservationists as well as fine chefs, so I’d give them the nod if pressed to name an all-time local favorite. That said, we continue to have remarkable meals at many Providence restaurants from high-end to the more modest in aspiration, and often comment when traveling that we are lucky to live in a city where we know we can always get a fabulous meal.
What would you do if you won $500 million dollars?
It’s fun to dream. I’ve worked with a few really admirable cultural institutions, each of which would get a large chunk of my good fortune. They include a library, preservation groups, and an historic landscape or two. I’d specify that the funds be used for endowment so that interest income would help offset annual operating costs. I find raising funds for non-profit operations the biggest challenge; program money seems more easily secured. My inclination would be to give larger amounts to fewer well- managed groups than to see the funds scattered about in small gifts. And being a product of a family that has always believed in social justice, I’d pick a couple of organizations that operate in that arena. Finally, I’d invest most of the remainder in my eight grandchildren’s education so they can pursue their dreams without the worry of educational debt. If there’s anything left in the kitty, I might buy myself a couple of horses and ride again. I’d grab my husband and travel more than we do now. Oh, and I’d have a garden to die for . . . with someone to do the hard labor, leaving the fun bits to me. And, despite the money, I’d still keep working, selecting specifically for those opportunities that inspire and intrigue me.