The annual North Dakota Historic Preservation Conference is sponsored by Preservation North Dakota, a private nonprofit organization providing historic preservation leadership and educational opportunities. The 2010 conference theme is “Partners in Preservation.” Sessions will focus on preservation basics and how preservationists can work with others in a wide variety of professions and fields to successfully advance preservation initiatives in North Dakota. Featured sessions include documentary photography, Prairie Churches and adaptive reuse, and stories from the renaissance zone. The keynote speaker is Dr. Steven Bedford, Program Director, Historic Preservation/Building Conservation Program at University of Massachusetts-Amherst. The conference also features regional heritage tours, including a walking tour of downtown Dickinson, and a preservation crawl highlighting area heritage resources such as the Hutmacher Farm and Knife River Flint Quarries.

These scholarships are made possible through the Rurik Ekstrom Scholarship Fund, which was established in 2005. The scholarship was created by family and friends in honor of Rurik Ekstrom, board member and past president of Preservation North Dakota. Rurik received his bachelor of Architecture from the University of Virginia and his Master of Fine Art from Yale University. He served as professor and chairman of the Department of Architecture and Landscape Architecture at North Dakota State University located in Fargo, ND.

Students may apply for the Rurik Ekstrom Historic Preservation Scholarship by completing the online application – www.prairieplaces.org/scholarship.cfm.

The deadline for applications is April 1, 2010.