American Express Awards $1 Million to Preserve Cultural Heritage Sites
American Express Awards $1 Million to Preserve Cultural Heritage Sites
American Express and the World Monuments Fund have announced a $1 million grant to help preserve six cultural heritage sites.
The first distribution from a five-year, $5 million grant awarded by American Express to the fund in support of the latter's World Monuments Watch will help finance projects to preserve and/or stabilize the eighteenth-century Balaji Ghat building in Varanasi, India; the bombed-out ruins of the former Cathedral of Saint Michael in Coventry, England; and the Ruta de la Amistad outdoor sculptures in Mexico City. The funds also will support efforts to preserve and rebuild the historic center of Salvador de Bahia, Brazil's first capital; the earthquake-damaged Canterbury Provincial Government buildings in Christchurch, New Zealand; and Edo-period townhouses in the city of Sawara, Japan, which were damaged by the March 2011 earthquake that struck the island nation.
The six sites are among sixty-seven endangered cultural heritage sites listed by this year's World Monuments Watch as in need of conservation assistance. Launched in 1995 with American Express as the founding sponsor, the program works to raise international awareness of threatened cultural heritage sites and foster local participation, innovation, and collaboration in preserving those sites.
"WMF is grateful to American Express for its longstanding commitment to the World Monuments Watch," said World Monuments Fund president Bonnie Burnham. "Over the years, the company's steadfast support has helped to preserve a hundred and thirty-eight sites in sixty-two countries, benefiting both the local populations and the many people from across the globe who visit them for their beauty and to learn about history and culture."
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