Amy Buchan
Amy Buchan has over 20 years of experience working in nonprofit arts and cultural organizations and higher education in southwestern Pennsylvania and abroad. Before joining Rivers of Steel, Amy held positions as the Director of Development at the American University of Rome (Italy); Director of University Advancement at Central European University (Budapest, Hungary); and Senior Director of Corporate, Foundation and Government Relations at Chatham University (Pittsburgh). Amy first worked with Rivers of Steel on the Born of Fire partnership during her 12 year tenure as Associate Director / Director of Development and Finance at the Westmoreland Museum of American Art (Greensburg). That project featured a large-scale exhibition of the Museum’s industrial landscape paintings that traveled through Germany and Poland and led to major transatlantic educational partnership. She is the author of “From the Ruhr Valley to the Steel City and Back” a chapter in Museums in the Global Context, published by the American Alliance of Museums in 2013. Amy presented on the Born of Fire Project at TICCIH in Freiberg, Germany in 2009.
Amy holds a Bachelor of Music degree in Applied Piano from Westminster College (PA) and a Master of Music degree in Piano Performance and Pedagogy from Duquesne University.
In her role at Rivers of Steel, Amy oversees daily operations, including finances, budgets, grants, projects, programs, policies, and general business practices, among other duties. Amy’s passion for preserving the region’s industrial history is a tribute to her own heritage—her paternal grandfather was a Blacksmith at Latrobe Steel and her maternal great-grandfather was a coal miner. Amy is particularly interested in the intersection of our industrial heritage with the arts as well as the cultural traditions of the many immigrants who worked in the mines and mills.
Amy spends her free time reading and cooking, exploring the region’s parks, and biking and running on the Great Allegheny Passage. She lives in Homestead with her two world-traveling cats.
Sessions in which Amy Buchan attends
Sunday 28 August, 2022
Join the conference organisers and TICCIH board members for a welcome cocktail and some festive words of introduction, in the former forge of the École technique de Montréal, founded in 1909, now part of the Université du Québec à Montréal campus.
Monday 29 August, 2022
This session is about the “hard facts” of conservation. It aims to draw together technical knowledge from related fields. Industrial conservation specialists rely on specialised knowledge and may sometimes not be aware that there is expertise and proven good or best practice in related fields. The transferring of knowledge from related engineering, construction preservation and architectural conservation specialists can serve the purpose of promoting and securing future preservation of ...
Industrialization processes have been global from their very beginning. However, their interpretation still tends to be limited to specific locations or regions, and to specific time periods. Regularly, for example, it is stated that the industrial revolution started in Europe, from where it spread to the world, supposedly bringing technological and social progress to „less developed“ countries. Earlier periods of technology and knowledge transfer processes, that were already in place in t...
This session is about the “hard facts” of conservation. It aims to draw together technical knowledge from related fields. Industrial conservation specialists rely on specialised knowledge and may sometimes not be aware that there is expertise and proven good or best practice in related fields. The transferring of knowledge from related engineering, construction preservation and architectural conservation specialists can serve the purpose of promoting and securing future preservation of ...
Industrialization processes have been global from their very beginning. However, their interpretation still tends to be limited to specific locations or regions, and to specific time periods. Regularly, for example, it is stated that the industrial revolution started in Europe, from where it spread to the world, supposedly bringing technological and social progress to „less developed“ countries. Earlier periods of technology and knowledge transfer processes, that were already in place in t...
This session is about the “hard facts” of conservation. It aims to draw together technical knowledge from related fields. Industrial conservation specialists rely on specialised knowledge and may sometimes not be aware that there is expertise and proven good or best practice in related fields. The transferring of knowledge from related engineering, construction preservation and architectural conservation specialists can serve the purpose of promoting and securing future preservation of ...
Si la vallée du canal de Lachine a été le berceau de l’industrialisation canadienne, la géographie industrielle métropolitaine ne s’y est pas confinée, peu s’en faut, Outre les grandes concentrations d’entreprises des quartiers centraux, elle est constituée des réseaux infrastructuraux, d’une douzaine de centrales hydroélectriques et des ensembles manufacturiers disséminés dans une quinzaine de petites villes aujourd’hui intégrées dans l’aire métropolitaine. La conférence proposera un surv...
Tuesday 30 August, 2022
Community lies at the heart of the processes of industrialization and de-industrialization. From labor to landscapes and from social fabric to ecological communities, scholars regularly examined the industrial community as core to industrial heritage. However, while social scientists have long studied industrial communities, only recently has there been a general consensus of respecting and working with communities themselves. Even so, working “with” a community on industrial heritage has ...
This session will allow us to explore, through nine international case studies, the different strategies for the development of industrial heritage as well as their impacts on communities and their territory. The analysis of museums, cultural spaces, itineraries and urban developments will be an opportunity to highlight the questions of identity, meaning, relevance and impact that animate all the actors of this heritage in transformation.
Efforts to preserve industrial heritage occurs in a socio-economic and political context. But what is being preserved and for whom? And, relatedly, what is the relationship between industrial heritage sites and the deindustrialized working-class communities that often adjoin them? The keynote will consider the ways that the preservation of Montreal’s Lachine Canal, Canada’s premier industrial heritage site, has enabled gentrification processes that have forc...
Join us for an informal continuation of the discussion started with the public lecture.A drink will be offered to the first fifteen people.
Wednesday 31 August, 2022
The role of industrial heritage in urban development has been extensively acknowledged in guiding and legitimizing the policies and discourses implemented by governments mostly to ensure the continuity between the past, present and future. Mega-events such as sports (e.g. Olympics, World Cup, etc.), cultural (Universal Expositions and national Exhibitions), economic (trade and technology fairs) events are often opportunities used in a top-down process to reinforce the mobilization of the i...
In this roundtable we will resume and discuss main ideas and findings from the regular session on "Reinterpreting industrial heritage from a global perspective", which will be held in 7 slots from Monday through to Wednesday morning. During these days, we will deepen the discussion between the session’s participants and other colleagues, while spending time together on the congress’ floors and doorsteps. In addition, we can build on previous reflections some of us shared dur...
This session addresses a perpetuating disjunction between conceptualisation of heritage and heritage making in heritage studies vis-a-vis heritage management and conservation of industrial heritage sites. There is an inevitable impact of this disjunction on advancing policy in people- and place-centred approaches to heritage futures. This session aims to explore ways in which tangible and intangible traces of the past can be utilised creatively in shaping desirable places to dwell and work...
This tour offers an excursion on a privatized deck of Montreal's bateau-mouche; a playful guided tour that takes in some of the city's industrial landmarks from the St. Lawrence River.The tour is priced to cover additional costs; the fee includes access to the bateau-mouche, the tour and a drink.Departure will be on foot from the conference venue; boarding is at 3:45 p.m. at the l...
Thursday 1 September, 2022
The proposed session will examine the unfolding relationship between industrial heritage and those left behind in adjoining deindustrialized working-class areas. The four papers seek to understand the socio-economic and political impact of recognizing the industrial past in the present. Two guiding questions will be asked. Can industrial heritage support those ‘left behind’ in deindustrialized areas where nothing, or very little, has filled the economic or cultural vacuum? Has industrial h...
This lecture will argue that the landscapes of industrial heritage that can be found in different parts of the world are directly related to the place-specific trajectories of deindustrialization. In other words: the different ways in which deindustrialization impacts on local communities has a direct bearing on the emergence of forms of industrial heritage. I will differentialte between deindustrialization paths and related industrial heritage regimes in a) Anglo-...
Friday 2 September, 2022
In this meeting, TICCIH representatives from around the world will present work in the field of industrial heritage in their respective countries. The presentations are based on the national reports that TICCIH has gathered for the 2022 World Congress, but may emphasize particular matters. These can range across several fields where industrial heritage plays a role – from academic research and other forms of knowledge production, to heritage management a...
In this meeting, TICCIH representatives from around the world will present work in the field of industrial heritage in their respective countries. The presentations are based on the national reports that TICCIH has gathered for the 2022 World Congress, but may emphasize particular matters. These can range across several fields where industrial heritage plays a role – from academic research and other forms of knowledge production, to heritage management a...
At every World Congress, the international TICCIH community celebrates a General Assembly of its members. The event is open for any registered member of TICCIH, as well as the wider public. According to the current TICCIH Statutes (https://ticcih.org/about/statutes/), however, only Na...
In the refusal of people in communities abandoned by industrial capital to abandon their own places, we can read an implicit critique of the mobility and unaccountability of capital, raised by those who were once inside (however tenuously or uncomfortably) and now find themselves marginalized, “left behind.” The desire to catch up again, whether through attracting new investment or transvaluing abandoned sites as tourist attractions, makes this an essentially conservative critique that is ...
Come and share the good times of the congress and celebrate your scientific and professional discoveries in a former fruit jam factory, Usine C, built in 1913 and transformed at the end of the 1970s into a place for creation and dissemination.Discover Montreal's gastronomy thanks to an exceptional caterer. Learn about Montreal's musical heritage and the history of the industrial district that brought it to life. Then hear and experience Quebec's musical tradition as you are carried ...