Excellence Award Spotlight: Bridge to Crafts Careers

“I’m very proud that the League has selected to honor Bridge to Crafts Careers with the Excellence in Historic Preservation Award,” said Ann Cuss, Regional Director of North America at World Monuments Fund (WMF), who oversees the program. “B2CC offers something incredibly unique and valuable: a paid opportunity for young people to get hands-on experience in craft skills. This award is a testament to the hard work of our partners and interns over the years.”

Initially launched as a partnership between World Monuments Fund, the Woodlawn Conservancy, and the International Masonry Institute (IMI), the Bridge to Crafts Careers program (B2CC) was established in 2015 to offer youth aged 18-27 in the New York City area hands-on technical training with the opportunity for placement in a stable career. The program began at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx in 2015 and expanded to Brooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery in 2018, then to Cave Hill Cemetery in Louisville, Kentucky, in 2022. To date, 479 B2CC interns (pictured on site along with instructors in the slideshow above) have completed over 140,000 training hours, enabling them to secure positions in trades unions, architectural arts studios, and construction-related fields. B2CC provides a valuable service by contributing to the quality of skilled historic trades workers and setting the standard for cultural heritage stewardship. This program ensures that the unique identities and range of typologies, materials, and histories of tens of thousands of cultural resources are cared for by a new generation of emerging tradespeople.

“The preservation of heritage skills—as well as physical sites—has long been a key part of our mission at World Monuments Fund,” said Bénédicte de Montlaur, WMF President and CEO. “Through the incredible work of Ann and our partners, we’ve been able to train a new generation of craft professionals to care for America’s historic places in the years to come.”

Back in 2021, B2CC program manager Ann Cuss joined us for a webinar focused on workforce development in preservation where she talked about the Bridge to Crafts Careers program. It’s worth a watch if you haven’t already seen it!