Casa del Herrero Save America’s Treasures Preservation Project

ID: WMA2026_576

Track:

A case study in preservation best practices focusing on Casa del Herrero, a historic house museum and garden and a national historic landmark in Montecito, California. The living museum received a prestigious Save America’s Treasures preservation grant in 2025 to restore ten historic fountains, and three horticultural spaces from the 1930s. The conservation of historic tiles from Spain and the Jacob Chemla family ceramic workshop in Tunis, Tunisa are integral to the project.

Session Information

Format: Regular session/panel (roundtable, single speaker, etc.)

Uniqueness: Casa del Herrero, partnering with California Mission’s Foundation, was the only organization in California in 2025 to receive a Save America’s Treasures (SAT) preservation matching grant and for the full amount possible of $750,000.

Objectives:

The objectives for my session are:

The importance of preventive conservation. Deferred maintenance is expensive and restoration projects are quite involved and difficult projects. Preventive conservation includes regularly scheduled maintenance and preservation practices to preserve cultural heritage.

Collaboration is key to successful projects. As the Executive Director & Head of Curation leading a major restoration and conservation project, I interface regularly with key stakeholders including David Bolton, Executive Director of California Missions Foundation, which is administering the grant and reporting progress to National Park Service, my own Casa Board of Trustees and SAT committee, and the projects general contractor Juan Lopez, Owner of Santa Barbara Quality Masonry Inc, and Susie Anders, Owner and Conservator of Anders Conservation, LLC in addition to the Casa’s staff and volunteers.

Community building and public programming are integral to the preservation project. We are restoring and conserving so that we can launch engaging educational public programming such as discussions with the Conservator, horticultural workshops, and special events.

Engagement: The audience will be looking, listening, critically thinking, and responding to the case study. I would need access to a screen to project a power point presentation from my Mac laptop, and I would need to know what type of adapter is needed in advance, and I could send my powerpoint in advance so that it is set up on a conference system.

Relationship to Theme:

Audience

Audiences: Curators/Scientists/Historians Development and Membership Officers Events Planning Facilities Management Personnel Marketing & Communications (Including Social Media) Other Registrars, Collections Managers Technology 

Professional Level: All levels 

Scalability: As the Executive Director and Head of Curation of a Museum and Garden with big ambitions, and a small staff which includes three Gardeners, a Tour and Programming Manager, and an accountant the session aims to apply to multiple sectors across types and sizes.

Participants