For More Information, Contact:
Ruth Tonachel, 570-268-4093

For Immediate Release
March 27, 2008

Calling All Barns!

Have you heard about the “2008: The Year of the Barn” survey and celebration? Do you have an historic, unique or beloved barn? We are celebrating barns and looking for barns to include in a survey and other projects.

The Northern Tier Cultural Alliance (NTCA) has several projects in progress in our region for “2008: The Year of the Barn.” The first is an ongoing inventory of regional barns. We have developed a comprehensive survey form and are seeking public participation. Many wonderful responses have been submitted but there are still barns that are not yet documented in our files. If you have a barn and would be willing to complete a form and send us some photos, please download a form from our website: www.ntculturalalliance.org or contact us at info@ntculturalalliance.org. You can also call Ruth Tonachel, Program Specialist (570-268-4093) or Kathy Joyce at the PA North Country Artisan Center and Store (570-268-5055) to obtain a copy.

If you are interested in volunteering to conduct surveys, please call or email Ruth at info@ntculturalalliance.org. While we don’t expect to document every single barn in the Northern Tier, we would like to include as many as possible, particularly the most historic and/or unique ones.

Information collected will be archived with NTCA in Bradford County and also added to other statewide inventories of historic barns if not already included. A variety of types of barns are being selected for inclusion in a self-guided driving tour brochure and a DVD. Participation in the survey does not commit one to being on the tour or DVD - no-one will be included without their permission – but it does insure that documentation of your barn will be preserved for future scholars.

It is our hope that residents and visitors alike will take time to appreciate the unique and varied architecture that surrounds us on local farms. Farm buildings provide a window into the lives of families who built, lived and worked in those buildings in the past. They also help us understand the workings of farms today. Both the driving tour and the DVD are designed to help foster a greater understanding of the role of farming in Northern Tier life and culture.

This project is being funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts and also in part by the Pennsylvania Humanities Council. For further information, contact the Northern Tier Cultural Alliance at 570-265-7455 or info@ntculturalalliance.org.

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