U.S. Embassy Funds Cultural Preservation in Lebanon

October 22, 2008

Ambassador Michele J. Sison at the podium

Ambassador Michele J. Sison and Minister of Culture Tammam Salam signed two grants today worth $66,000 to fund cultural preservation projects in Lebanon through the U.S. Ambassador’s Fund for Cultural Preservation.  

The Arab Image Foundation, a non-governmental organization in Beirut, received $30,000 for the preventative conservation of photographs from Lebanon dating to the 19th century.  The Institut Superieur de Musique at Antonine University received $36,000 to preserve traditional wedding songs from villages in the North, Mount Lebanon and the South.  With these two grants, the total funding for cultural preservation projects in Lebanon since 2003 is $286,000.

Ambassador Sison also announced the opening of the 2009 Ambassadors Fund competition.  Project proposals from a wide variety of restoration, conservation and preservation fields are due to the U.S. Embassy by December 3, 2008.

The Ambassadors Fund demonstrates the United States’ respect for other cultures’ rich traditions by assisting in with preservation.  The U.S. Department of State sponsors the Ambassadors Fund, an initiative created by the U.S. Congress.  This is the only U.S. Government program providing direct, small grant support for this purpose.

Previous projects include the preservation of the Ras-Nahel Khalwet religious site in the Shouf Mountains, the Mubarakeh Tower in Tyre, Islamic manuscripts at the Lebanese National Library, the funerary complex at the Al Bass Necropolis site in Tyre, the Hermitage of Mar Bichay at the Mar Antonios Monastery in Ehden, and a Roman-era temple in Temnin in the Beqaa.

For more information on the Ambassadors Fund and application procedures for the 2009 competition, visit the U.S. Embassy website: http://lebanon.usembassy.gov.