10.10.2005 

10.10.2005

Yekaterinburg, Russia

September 27, 2005

THE CONSULATE GENERAL

News release

The grant of the US Department of State Ambassador’s Fund for Cultural Preservation will support restoration of the Memorial Center for the History of Political Repression “Perm-36”.

The US Consulate General reports, the Consul General John Stepanchuk will visit Perm on September 6, and officially announce the awarding of the grant to restoration works at the Memorial Center-Museum for the History of Political Repression “Perm-36” through the Ambassador’s Fund for Cultural Preservation program.  The project provides for reconstruction of the guard perimeter and the particular treatment barracks of the former GULAG.    

In 2005 the Ambassador’s Fund for Cultural Preservation will support 87 projects in 76 countries around the world.  The Ambassador’s Fund was established by the US Congress in 2001.  It is helping eligible countries around the globe preserve  museum collections, ancient and historic sites, and traditional forms of art.  Since its inception, the program has awarded 292 projects in 106 countries.  This year, the funding level was raised to $2.5 million. 

US ambassadors of 100 of the 120 eligible countries in the developing world responded overwhelmingly to the Fund’s call for project proposals submitting 156 projects for consideration.  The 2005 projects represent the heritage of all geographic regions and vary from archive preservation to museum collections, historic building restoration, and ethnographic documentation.    Projects include:

• The preservation of rock art sites in Honduras, Kenya, and Namibia
• A comprehensive survey and restoration program for the historic center of Kabul, Afghanistan
• Restoration works in the Memorial Center “Perm-36” in Perm, Russia
• Assisting the reconstruction of buildings which suffered from tsunami, Nias island, Indonesia
• A post-Tsunami survey of buildings in the 13th century coastal town of Matara, Sri Lanka
• Preservation of historic documents including South Arabian texts inscribed on wood in Yemen, and in Kosovo, a manuscript collection dating from the Ottoman Empire

The Ambassador's Fund for Cultural Preservation is administered by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Through a range of cultural preservation activities, the Bureau promotes cooperation with other countries to reduce the threat of pillage of irreplaceable cultural heritage, and to develop long-term strategies for preserving cultural property.

For more information on the Ambassador's Fund for Cultural Preservation, as well as a complete list of funded projects for 2005, please visit http://exchanges.state.gov/culprop/afcp/

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