4Culture is very excited to announce its 5th “Golden Rain Globe” winner for Excellence in Heritage Tourism (ladies & gentlemen, rev your engines) – the Hydroplane & Raceboat Museum! Congratulations to David Williams, Executive Director, and crew for your outstanding work!

Each year, 4Culture’s Award for Excellence in Heritage Tourism is given to a heritage attraction that meets the highest standards of visitor-readiness, sustainability, and authenticity. This year, the Hydroplane & Raceboat Museum was selected for its high quality programming, and authentic promotion and stewardship of unique heritage resources. Visitors are personally shown around the museum by a knowledgeable and energetic docent, and may even be invited to step into the 1967 Miss Budweiser for an imagined speed tour around Lake Washington! (Speed noises are not required but highly encouraged.)

The Hydroplane & Raceboat Museum is the nation’s only public museum dedicated solely to powerboat racing. Formed in 1983, the museum features an incredible collection of vintage hydroplanes, including boats that have won 17 Gold Cups, and a fully equipped boat restoration shop. The museum is also the nation’s primary resource for historical and educational information on hydroplane racing, with an extensive collection of books, magazines, race programs, photos, and over 200 hours of rare films covering hydroplane racing from the 1940s to the present. If you haven’t yet been down to tour their wonderful collection, make a point of doing so soon!

4Culture presented its 5th annual Golden Rain Globe award in conjunction with the 28th annual Association of King County Heritage Organizations (AKCHO) awards program at the Museum of History and Industry (MOHAI) on April 26th. 4Culture would like to thank AKCHO & MOHAI board members and staff for their assistance and support. We would also like to extend a big “CONGRATULATIONS” to all the 2011 AKCHO award recipients! Nice work guys.

Images: Dale Smith (4Culture Board), David Williams, staff and volunteers (Hydroplane & Raceboat Museum) © 2011, courtesy of AKCHO, photo by Kimberly Jacobsen. Miss Wahoo on exhibit at the Hydroplane & Raceboat Museum © 2011, photo by 4Culture staff. Boat races at 2009 Seafair © 2009, courtesy of the Hydroplane & Raceboat Museum.

This post was edited on 5/10/11.

Image: 2011 4Culture staff

When in Pioneer Square, you’re likely to see clusters of people walking along sidewalks and crossing streets, gazing up and looking down, periodically emerging from alleyways and descending flights of steps. For the uninitiated, their behavior may seem odd, but those familiar with the historic district know these groups are experiencing Bill Speidel’s Underground Tour. Led below street level by knowledgeable and gregarious guides, these urban spelunkers explore the abandoned original ground floors of brick and stone structures built just after Seattle’s 1889 fire.

For over 45 years, the Underground Tour’s humorous spin on local history has drawn thousands to this must-see attraction, primarily by word-of-mouth. The quirky tourist destination ranks with the Space Needle and Pike Place Market as a not-to-be-missed spot for residents to take out-of-town guests.

In recognition of its success in consistently attracting visitors from outside the area; presenting entertaining authentic history; serving as a catalyst for preservation; and collaborating with the Pioneer Square community, 4Culture has presented the Underground Tour with the 2010 Golden Rain Globe, the one and only annual award given in King County for heritage tourism.

At the 27th annual AKCHO awards program, Executive Director Jim Kelly presented the 4th Annual 4Culture Award for Heritage Tourism to Sunny Speidel, the tour founder’s daughter and owner of the Underground Tour. For the first time this year, the Golden Rain Globe was custom made for its recipient by artist Alicia Basinger, who captured the iconic symbolism of Pioneer Square and the Underground Tour in a clay-sculpted antique street lamp under a glass dome. When in Pioneer Square, experience the Underground Tour.

Image: Alicia Basinger & Sunny Speidel, 2010 © 4Culture

4C’s only annual award, the “Golden Rain Globe” is presented to stewards of a local historic site or heritage attraction that meets high standards in the growing field of Heritage Tourism. The awards will be held at MOHAI on April 27th in conjunction with the annual AKCHO Awards ceremony. We’ve enlisted the help of experts to design this year’s globe, but you’ll have to attend to see the new globe, and find out the 2010 GRG recipient!

4Culture seeks to commission an artist, designer or creative team to create a three dimensional, sculptural object for their annual Golden Rain Globe Award for Heritage Tourism.

Deadline February 10, 2010

Each year, 4Culture honors the stewards of a local historic site or heritage attraction that meets high standards in the field of Heritage Tourism at the annual AKCHO awards. King County’s distinctive historic places are an important draw to the area, enticing tourists to explore Seattle neighborhoods and distant corners of the county. The Golden Rain Globe award recognizes the contribution made by the most authentic, engaging, and visited of these sites.

In past years, 4Culture has presented awardees with a universal symbolism of tourism – a large, ready-made plastic snow/rain globe featuring famous local attractions like the Space Needle and Mt. Rainier. This year, for the first time, we seek to take the award to another level by commissioning an artist-designed “globe” that is site-specific to the 2010 Golden Rain Globe awardee.

The 2010 Golden Rain Globe awardee’s name will be revealed confidentially to the selected artist, designer or creative team immediately following the selection process in February. The person or team selected for this opportunity will then be asked to create the sculptural award, which is specific to the 2010 awardee. Help us celebrate local achievements within the heritage community, and be the first to find out the 2010 recipient by applying today!

Learn more and download the call.

Image: 2009 Golden Rain Globe Award presented to Museum of Flight

The National Trust for Historic Preservation was created through legislation signed by President Harry Truman in 1949, sixteen years before the establishment of the National Endowment for the Arts. Its charge was simple: to provide leadership, education, advocacy and resources to protect the irreplaceable places that tell America’s story.

May is Preservation Month in America and it’s fitting that we acknowledge the accomplishments and evolution of the preservation field. 4Culture is proud to offer two funding programs backed by Lodging Taxes – Landmark Rehabilitation Program and Landmark Challenge Grants. These two programs provide financial resources to ensure that sites and structures significant to King County’s unique history are preserved for future generations of residents and visitors to our region.

The preservation movement has grown exponentially over the past sixty years and its advocacy efforts have made communities much more aware of the economic and ecological benefits of preserving older buildings. The “out with the old, in with the new” attitude is no longer sustainable. Adaptive reuse is the new mantra. Older buildings can easily be retrofitted for new uses, with enormous benefits to tourism and the environment. When older buildings are torn down or allowed to deteriorate, a part of our past is irrevocably lost and our landfills are stretched to capacity.

Preserving older buildings or districts like Pioneer Square creates places that encourage tourism. Think about where you go when you travel. Most of us travel to experience a place that is not like home. King County’s story is preserved in its farms, barns, historic houses, museums, maritime centers, districts, and industrial sites, many of which are promoted in our new Destination Heritage guide series.

For the past three years, 4Culture’s Heritage and Preservation programs have collaborated on the “Golden Rain Globe Award” for Heritage Tourism. It is the only award program in the state of Washington that specifically celebrates the contributions of historic places and history museums to the local tourist economy. Our first two recipients were The Center for Wooden Boats and the Northwest Railway Museum. These two organizations do a great job of promoting their many programs beyond the region and the interpreting two themes that were critical to the region’s growth.

This year 4Culture is proud to acknowledge The Museum of Flight, one of the great cultural attractions in the Pacific Northwest. I have visited many times, especially when my children were younger. My (at the time) eight-year-old son sat in the cockpit of an F-16 until he had to be yanked out. We walked through Air Force One; visited the exhibits in the Red Barn, the historic birthplace of the Boeing Company; and sailed in a simulated glider. On his twelfth birthday my son and a few friends took control of a space mission in the Challenger Learning Center. An unforgettable family experience.

I’m often asked to explain the difference between heritage and preservation. The truth is these two fields are one and the same, when it comes to heritage tourism. The Museum of Flight is both a heritage museum dedicated to telling the story of aviation, and a preservation site, preserving irreplaceable aircraft and the original structure in which Bill Boeing and a collection of brilliant engineers launched the industry that put Seattle on the map.

Congratulations to The Museum of Flight and its Director Dr. Bonnie J. Dunbar for being this year’s Golden Rain Globe award recipient. And thank you for all you do to promote tourism in King County.

Jim Kelly
Executive Director

The Museum of History and Industry, 2700 24th Avenue East, Seattle

Join us for the Association of King County Heritage Organizations annual awards ceremony, a free celebration honoring those who have made significant and memorable contributions to King County’s heritage in the past year. Don’t miss the special presentation of 4Culture’s 2009 “Golden Rain Globe” Heritage Tourism Award. Enjoy hors d’oeuvres, drinks (no-host bar) and mingling with some of the superstars of our heritage and local history community.

Please RSVP with name and address by April 21. Contact Helen Divjak at hele...@seattlehistory.org / 206 324.1126 ext 30

image: © Courtesy of 4Culture