2006 press releases

U.S. Ambassador Awards Over $70,000 to Ministry of Culture

Funds to Restore and Conserve Archeological Site in Tyre, Preserve Manuscripts at the National Library

September 15, 2006

U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Jeffrey D. Feltman and Minister of Culture Dr. Tarek Mitri signed two grant agreements, providing over $70,000 to the Ministry of Culture for conservation and restoration projects in Lebanon. The signing ceremony took place at the Ministry of Culture, Friday, September 15, 2006, at 11:00 a.m. Funding for these projects comes from the U.S. Department of State Ambassador’s Fund for Cultural Preservation, an initiative established by the U.S. Congress in 2001.

A grant in the amount of $35,065 will be given to the Ministry of Culture's Directorate of Antiquities for the conservation, protection and public presentation of the Mubarakeh Tower located at the historic port of Tyre in South Lebanon. This project is part of a broader effort to preserve and showcase the rich cultural heritage of Tyre. A second grant in the amount of $35,000 will be given to the Lebanese National Library Foundation (LNLF) to support their rare Arabic book and manuscript preservation project. The grant will fund the restoration of 25 manuscripts housed in the Islamic Manuscript division at the Lebanese National library. This is the first time in Lebanon that two Ambassador's Fund grants have been awarded in the same year, based on a world-wide competition for funds.

Through the Ambassador’s Fund for Cultural Preservation, the U.S. aims to demonstrate respect for other cultures and their rich cultural traditions. The Ambassador's Fund for Cultural Preservation is the only program in the U.S. government that provides direct small grant support to heritage preservation. In creating the fund, Congress noted, "in efforts to assist in preserving the heritage of other cultures, we show our respect for them."

This is the fourth year Lebanon has been awarded monies from the Ambassador’s Fund for Cultural Preservation. In 2003, the U.S. Government provided a grant to conserve and improve the presentation of the Funerary Complex at al Bass Necropolis Site in Tyre. In 2004, funds from the Ambassador’s Fund were used to restore the Hermitage of Mar Bichay at the Mar Antonios Monastery. Located in the Kozhaya Valley, Ehden, the hermitage underscores the importance of spiritual life and reflection in Lebanon’s history and now. Last year, a grant to the Ministry of Culture, Directorate of Antiquities funded the restoration and conservation of a Roman-era temple in the Beqaa Valley city of Temnin.

In his remarks at the signing, Ambassador Feltman noted the importance of continuing investment in Lebanon's cultural heritage tourism sector: “I am proud that the people of the United States can help contribute to preserving and developing Lebanon's cultural treasures…. In this truly abnormal year for Lebanon, it is refreshing and heartening to participate in this grant signing; a fundamentally normal act between two sovereign governments. The activities that these grants will support are of something that a sovereign government normally does – protect its cultural assets to preserve them for future generations. Today represents a renewal of the American commitment to the Government of Lebanon to support it and the Lebanese people, in all of its exercises of sovereignty, be they large or small, political or cultural. To me, these projects mean so much to insuring that Lebanon's rich and diverse history can by preserved not only for generations of Lebanese to come, but for the rest of the world as well.”

For more information on the Ambassador's Fund for Cultural Preservation and the projects it funds around the world, please visit the program's homepage at http://exchanges.state.gov/culprop/afcp/.