Pricketts Fort gets $18,000 from grant

Plans: Expand visitors’ services, educational technology

By Veronica Nett

FAIRMONT — With the approval of an $18,000 grant, Pricketts Fort Historical Center is moving forward to expand its visitors’ services and educational technology.

Melissa May, executive director of Pricketts Fort Memorial Foundation, said the grant money will go toward purchasing an interactive touch screen kiosk, development of the historic park’s Web site and upgrading office equipment.

The grant is through the state’s Community Participa-tion Program. The Marion County Commission approved the grant contract for the foundation Wednesday.

The interactive kiosk will feature information of the different types of crafts offered at the historic park and of the person who does the craft, May said.

The historic park features frontier skills and practices such as weaving, spinning, blacksmithing, gunsmithing and pottery. The park is a living presentation of historic life, May said.

“We talk to visitors —the general public — but we’re also very heavily involved in education for schools,” she said.

The technology developments will tie in directly with the foundation’s new educational curriculum, Teaching History Through the Arts, she said.

The foundation launched its Teaching History Through the Arts curriculum this year, which is aimed at students kindergarten through 12th grade.

This year, the foundation has been working with 15 state schools to pilot and refine the program, she said.

By next year, May said the foundation should make the curriculum available to all schools in the state.

To develop the educational curriculum, the foundation hired a group of teachers with experience with different age levels to develop the educational program for the historic park.

This is the second curriculum project the foundation has taken on. Two years ago it put together an eighth-grade social studies program.

The Teaching History Through the Arts project will tie in with the new technology developments the historic park is taking on.

“With the kiosk and by developing our Web site, we’ll show the general public the same kind of things as students in the classroom,” she said.

The visitors’ center, the historical interpretation program and all special events are managed by the Pricketts Fort Memorial Foundation, under a long-term contract with the state.

For more information about Pricketts Fort, visit www.prickettsfort.org.

E-mail Veronica Nett at vnett@timeswv.com.