Image
three people in yellow vests stand over a small round pool filled with water and objects

What We Do

Following the Haiti Cultural Recovery Project in 2010, where heritage professionals from around the world worked with our Haitian colleagues after the earthquake, the Smithsonian continued to enthusiastically advocate for and develop further capacity to coordinate and participate in emergency preparedness and disaster recovery of cultural heritage worldwide. In November 2012, Corine Wegener was named Cultural Heritage Preservation Officer at the Smithsonian, and she began to assemble a team of experts integral to the process of responding to cultural crises sparked by armed conflict or natural disaster.

Drawing from our talented Smithsonian experts, from archaeologists to conservation scientists to collections managers, we are aiming to create a place exclusively designed to protect cultural heritage and respond in times of disasters. Working together with our collaborating partners, we can provide the advice and on-the-ground assistance that is needed in times of crisis. We want to create and share new research dedicated to uncovering the root causes of damage to cultural heritage in disasters. And we want to provide a place of leadership and learning, a place where people can come to learn techniques for saving their own cultural heritage when it is at risk.

Our Mission: To protect cultural heritage threatened or impacted by disasters and to help U.S. and international communities preserve their identities and history.

Smithsonian Cultural Rescue Initiative

The Smithsonian Cultural Rescue Initiative’s mission is to protect cultural heritage threatened or impacted by disasters and to help U.S. and international communities preserve their identities and history.  We fulfill this mission in four ways:

We aim to elevate the status of cultural heritage issues until they are an integral part of global conversation and action surrounding disaster risk management and emergency response.

We aim to help ensure that through intervention and action, cultural heritage is spared from destruction and continues to be accessible to the communities it represents.

We aim to foster the professional development of the global community involved with the protection, preservation, and stewardship of heritage and give them tools to use when a disaster puts their heritage at risk.

We aim to expand the knowledge and understanding of the causes and responses to cultural heritage destruction, informing strategic solutions and investments in action.