Since 1994, the National Park Service (NPS) and the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) - Mexico have been collaborating with New Mexico-based Cornerstones Community Partnerships and the Universities of Arizona and New Mexico to conduct workshops known as TICRATs (Taller Internacional
de Conservación y Restauración de Arquitectura de Tierra, International Workshop on the Conservation and Restoration of Earthen Architecture), disseminating adobe and plaster conservation and restoration techniques to hundreds of participants, including INAH staff, University professors, students, emerging and established professionals in preservation and related fields, members of numerous Native American tribal groups, and the public.
In addition, staff from dozens of NPS units throughout the Southwestern US and Service-wide will be able to participate.
The workshops consist of lectures, case studies, tours and most importantly, hands-on fieldwork in the areas of building documentation, condition assessment, stabilization, adobe brick-making, and lime and earthen plaster preparation and application.
Approximately 75 individuals participate in each TICRAT workshop, with hundreds having been engaged in the 25 year history of the program.
This project will usher in the next quarter-century of cross-border, interdisciplinary collaboration through the development and completion of TICRAT workshops beginning in 2019, and