U.S. Ambassadors Fund Cultural Preservation Grant: Supporting Global Heritage Protection

The AFCP Grants Program supports the preservation of archaeological sites, historic buildings and monuments, museum collections, and forms of traditional cultural expression, such as indigenous languages and crafts.

Appropriate project activities may include:

•Anastylosis: Reassembling a site from its original parts.

•Conservation: Treating or otherwise addressing damage or deterioration to an object or site.

•Consolidation: Reconnecting elements of an object or site.

•Documentation: Recording the condition and important features of an object, site, or tradition in analog or digital format.

•Inventory: Listing of objects, sites, or traditions by location, feature, age, or other unifying characteristic.

•Preventive Conservation: Addressing conditions that threaten or damage a site, object, collection, or tradition.

•Restoration: Replacing missing elements to recreate the original appearance of an object or site, usually appropriate for fine arts, decorative arts, and historic buildings.

•Stabilization: Reducing the physical disturbance or increasing the stability of an object or site.

SPECIAL NOTE REGARDING SITES AND OBJECTS HAVING A RELIGIOUS CONNECTION: The establishment clause of the U.S. Constitution permits the government to include religious objects and sites within an aid program under certain conditions. For example, an item with a religious connection (including a place of worship) may be the subject of a cultural preservation grant if the item derives its primary significance from, and is nominated solely on the basis of, architectural, artistic, historical, or other cultural (not religious) criteria.