Public diplomacy

Cultural Programs

The Public Diplomacy section also organizes cultural programs to promote better understanding of the diversity of American arts and culture. A Department of State-sponsored photography exhibit, American Roadside Architecture, was exhibited at three sites in Lebanon in 2004-05. For more than 25 years, architectural historian John Margolies crisscrossed the continental United States, camera in hand, to capture and preserve images of a vanishing tradition in American commerce—the early gas stations, roadside lodging and quick stop restaurants that sprung up along American roadsides. Exhibited in Beirut, Byblos, and Baatron, Margolies’ photos offered a look at America during the beginning of the automobile age.

Thanks to a PD-organized program on American Independent Cinema. Beirut audiences also had an opportunity to view two highly acclaimed American films, in March 2004. The Embassy held public showings of the Academy Award winning documentary The Fog of War and Sundance Film Festival award winning drama, The Station Agent. Writer-Director Thomas McCarthy met with Lebanese students, filmmakers, and professionals, to discuss his film, The Station Agent.

Ambassador’s Fund for Cultural Preservation program was established in 2001 to help countries preserve their cultural heritage and to demonstrate U.S. respect for other cultures. The U.S. Embassy Beirut has provided funds for conservation work of the funerary complex at the al Bass Necropolis site in Tyre and to restore and conserve the Mar Bichay Hermitage at the Monastery of Mar Antonios Kozhaya. The Public Diplomacy section welcomes proposals for cultural preservation projects in Lebanon.