Richard McCoy
2026 Fitch Mid-Career Fellow
Preservation in Public: Art, Design, and the Making of Civic Belonging
Although art, design, and preservation are often treated as discrete disciplines, they are most powerful when combined. Temporary art and design interventions at historic sites have elevated awareness of heritage, attracted new audiences, and catalyzed civic conversation. Yet these outcomes remain poorly theorized. There is no widely shared framework explaining how or why such cross-disciplinary projects succeed, nor how they differ from placemaking models oriented primarily toward economic development. This project addresses that gap by articulating principles and models for integrating art, design, and preservation, and by identifying practitioners and organizations advancing this work in practice.
Building on past experience producing Exhibit Columbus, an initiative which uses the context and design legacy of Columbus, Indiana as the basis for site-responsive artistic installations, this fellowship project aims to develop a research framework clarifying how contemporary art, experimental design, and historic preservation can work together to build belonging, expand public participation, and strengthen civic life. It argues that integrating art and design into preservation practice is not a secondary engagement strategy, but a distinct preservation approach that reshapes who participates in heritage, how cultural value is produced, and what stewardship can mean today.
A central concern of this research is the audience: who participates in preservation, and under what conditions. Preservation practice has often relied on regulatory, stylistic, or expert-driven frameworks that can unintentionally narrow its public constituency. Many communities experience preservation as restrictive, elite, or disconnected from contemporary civic life. By contrast, art- and design-based interventions at historic sites have demonstrated an ability to reach new audiences, foster shared authorship, and reframe heritage as a living civic resource rather than a constraint. Building on the concept of Progressive Preservation, this project examines how new forms, formats, and partnerships can sustain preservation as a civic practice rooted in belonging, stewardship, and equity.