General Provisions - California Cultural And Historical Endowment Act - CA Education

Section § 20050

This part of the law is called the California Cultural and Historical Endowment Act.

This chapter shall be known and may be cited as the California Cultural and Historical Endowment Act.

California Cultural and Historical Endowment cultural preservation historical heritage Endowment Act cultural initiatives historical projects heritage funding statewide cultural programs historical sites cultural grants heritage conservation cultural development California history historic preservation cultural resources

(Added by Stats. 2002, Ch. 1126, Sec. 1. Effective January 1, 2003.)

Section § 20051

This section highlights the importance of preserving California's historical and cultural heritage. It emphasizes that understanding our past through historical structures and artifacts is vital for defining cultural identity and shaping future values. The law acknowledges the uniformity in modern architecture and the need to preserve unique historical sites. There's a call for inclusive historic preservation efforts, recognizing contributions from diverse cultural groups in California, including Native Americans, Latinos, African-Americans, Asians, and more. The law encourages using historic structures in everyday life and stresses the significance of museums, historic missions, and partnerships with various organizations to promote conservation and education about California's rich history.

The Legislature finds and declares the following:

(a) Every civilization defines itself in part by its past, and an understanding of its past helps determine its basic values and future aspirations. Understanding of the past is strengthened and deepened through contact with the buildings, physical places, and artifacts of earlier times. Through learning this past, our young and future generations come to better understand the society in which they live and to better understand themselves.

(b) As America’s physical culture and built environment become remarkably similar throughout the country, it is left to the natural environment and the structures of the past to give a unique sense of place to our communities. Preserving these structures is becoming increasingly compelling as the homogeneity of our physical culture increases.

(c) The buildings, other structures, and artifacts that embody California’s past are in escalating danger of being redeveloped, remodeled, renovated, paved, excavated, bulldozed, modernized, and lost forever.

(d) For history to be part of our lives, we must include it in our daily lives, through the adaptive reuse of historic structures in our older commercial districts and inner cities.

(e) California has one of the most diverse populations on earth and its cultural and historic preservation program should reflect that fact. Early cultural and historic preservation efforts often focused on the structures and activities of our European ancestors. Without minimizing their contribution, it is important to pursue other historical threads that are important to California’s Latino population, to African-Americans, to Asians and Pacific Islanders, to Native Americans, to Jewish persons, and to many other groups of peoples with uniquely identifiable cultures and histories. It is increasingly important to preserve the physical and cultural history and folklife of these many groups’ presence and contributions to California’s history.

(f) Historic preservation should include the contributions of all Californians. The study of history once focused largely on the actions and works of wealthy, powerful, noble, brilliant, or famous persons. More recently, historians have tried to increase understanding of how more ordinary people lived and thought. California’s historic preservation efforts should allow its citizens and visitors to experience something of the physical world of both.

(g) In 1997, California’s Statewide Historic Preservation Plan was prepared pursuant to the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 and includes seven statewide goals, including the goal to promote the preservation and stewardship of cultural resources among a diversified state population representing all levels of the socioeconomic spectrum.

(h) California’s retained past certainly includes sites important to its prehistoric and later Native American people, and the remaining great structures of the 19th century. But the state also needs to consciously preserve selected remnants of the 1930s, of California’s great role in World War II, as well as representative structures and sites that were culturally or economically important during the 1950s, 1960s, and, in some cases, even more recently.

(i) California’s historic missions are among California’s most evocative historical structures. Their continued protection and restoration should continue to have high priority.

(j) California’s museums are among the most important and cherished repositories of the state’s cultural and historical heritage.

(k) California’s partnerships with federal, state, and local governmental agencies and nonprofit organizations have helped us understand the range and diversity of California’s history and historic and cultural resources and artifacts and have helped develop a better understanding of the educational, environmental, and economic benefits of, and tools available for, the preservation and interpretation of historic and cultural resources and artifacts.

historic preservation cultural heritage historical structures California diversity inclusive preservation cultural resources adaptive reuse Statewide Historic Preservation Plan prehistoric sites 19th century structures World War II sites museums historical missions partnerships educational benefits

(Added by Stats. 2002, Ch. 1126, Sec. 1. Effective January 1, 2003.)

Section § 20052

This section defines key terms used in the chapter. It clarifies what 'development' includes, such as improvement and restoration. The 'endowment' refers to a particular organization created for cultural and historical purposes. A 'museum' is defined as a nonprofit institution that displays objects for educational purposes. 'Nonprofit organization' describes entities dedicated to preserving cultural and historical resources. 'Preservation' is detailed to include activities like evaluation and restoration. Lastly, 'public agency' encompasses a variety of governmental and tribal organizations.

As used in this chapter, the following terms have the following meanings:

(a) “Development” includes, but is not limited to, improvement, rehabilitation, restoration, enhancement, preservation, protection, and interpretation.

(b) “Endowment” means the California Cultural and Historical Endowment created pursuant to Section 20053, or the board of the endowment, as appropriate.

(c) “Museum” means a public or private nonprofit institution that is organized on a permanent basis for essentially educational or aesthetic purposes and that owns or uses tangible objects, cares for those objects, and exhibits them to the general public on a regular basis.

(d) “Nonprofit organization” means any nonprofit public benefit corporation that is formed pursuant to the Nonprofit Corporation Law (commencing with Section 500 of the Corporations Code), qualified to do business in California, and qualified under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, that has, among its principal charitable purposes, the preservation of historic or cultural resources for cultural, scientific, historic, educational, recreational, agricultural, or scenic opportunities.

(e) “Preservation” includes, but is not limited to, identification, evaluation, recordation, restoration, stabilization, development, and reconstruction, or any combination of those activities.

(f) “Public agency” means a federal agency, state agency, city, county, district, association of governments, joint powers agency, or tribal organization.

cultural and historical endowment museum definition nonprofit organization preservation activities public agency development definition improvement enhancement cultural resources preservation educational purposes institutions tangible objects exhibition federal agency inclusion tribal organization rehabilitation restoration

(Added by Stats. 2002, Ch. 1126, Sec. 1. Effective January 1, 2003.)

Section § 20052.5

The California Legislature wants to consider merging the Office of Historic Preservation with the California Cultural and Historical Endowment. The goals are to boost the office’s influence and effectiveness, help the endowment benefit from the office's experience, and enhance the state's commitment to preserving history and culture.

It is the intent of the Legislature that consideration be given to the transferring and fully integrating the Office of Historic Preservation with the California Cultural and Historical Endowment, which is created pursuant to this chapter, for the following purposes:

(a) To increase the stature, visibility, authority, and entrepreneurial capabilities of the Office of Historic Preservation in the interest of helping it carry out its missions and purposes.

(b) To allow the California Cultural and Historical Endowment to benefit from the Office of Historic Preservation’s experience and expertise, and from the experience and expertise of its constituents and supporters.

Office of Historic Preservation California Cultural and Historical Endowment historic preservation cultural preservation Legislature intent stature and visibility entrepreneurial capabilities expertise experience state commitment synergistic benefits missions and purposes constituents and supporters integration authority

(Added by Stats. 2002, Ch. 1126, Sec. 1. Effective January 1, 2003.)