| 2006 Annual Report
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|
The World Monuments Fund 2006 Annual Report is now online!
To request that an Annual Report be mailed to you, please call
(646) 424-9594 or send your request, including your postal address,
to development@wmf.org. |
| Travel with
WMF |
LAST CHANCE!
Ancient, Imperial, and Modern
China: October 21-31, 2007
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| A New Era for
WMF |
 On June 22,
noted art historian and author Dr. Marilyn
Perry, chairman of
the board of the World Monuments
Fund since 1990,
graciously welcomed her successor to the post, W. L. Lyons Brown.
Ambassador of the United
States to the
Republic of Austria from 2001 to
2005, Ambassador Brown has been a long-time friend of WMF. A former
chairman and chief executive officer of the Brown-Forman Corporation
based in Louisville, Kentucky, Ambassador
Brown has dedicated the better part of his life to supporting
preservation and cultural programs. He is chairman and trustee
emeritus of the
Winterthur
Museum and Garden in
Delaware, chairman and
trustee emeritus of the J.B.
Speed
Art
Museum in Kentucky, and a member
of the Chairman's
Council of The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New
York.
Upon accepting
his post, Ambassador Brown, said "I feel privileged to follow Dr.
Perry, who has so skillfully led WMF to become the influential voice
for heritage preservation it is today, and I look forward to helping
expand WMF's global priorites in the coming decade."
In addition to
her extraordinary service to WMF, Dr.
Perry served as President of the Samuel H. Kress Foundation in
New
York from 1984 to
2007, administering a distinguished program of philanthropy for the
greater understanding and enjoyment of the art and architecture of
Europe. The Kress
Foundation has long been a supporter of WMF's work, particularly its
portfolio of important European projects.
Photo: Dr. Marilyn Perry and incoming chairman, W. L. Lyons
Brown. |
| Announcing the 2008 World Monuments Watch List of 100
Most Endangered Sites |
On
Wednesday,
June 6, 2007,
WMF headquarters in New
York
held a press conference to announce the 2008 World Monuments Watch List of 100 Most Endangered
Sites.
The
briefing featured remarks by WMF Board Chairman Marilyn
Perry
and WMF President Bonnie
Burnham,
as well as an extensive Q&A session with Ms. Burnham, Vice
President for Field Projects John
Stubbs,
Program Manager Michelle
Berenfeld,
Field Projects Director Norma
Barbacci,
and Technical Director Mark
Weber. It was attended by some 60
journalists from a broad
array of media outlets including The New York Times, Associated Press, WCBS, Travel & Leisure
magazine, and several foreign publications. WMF in Britain
and WMF Europe also held press briefings with strong turnouts on
June 7 and June 11, respectively.
As
a result, WMF has generated a great deal of coverage, with
news of the Watch
appearing in more than 300 media outlets around the world, including
USA Today, The New York
Times,
the Daily News, the New York Post, the Los Angeles Times, ABC
News.com,
Christian Science
Monitor, BBC News,
and NPR.
In
conjunction with the Watch
announcement, WMF developed a new website that is focused on the
2008 Watch
sites, their principal threats, and the Watch
selection process. The
website, which went live during the New
York
press conference, has already attracted nearly 100,000 visitors with
an incredible one-day spike of more than 14,000
visitors.
The
Watch
website now features even more information, including a complete
year-by-year review of past Watch
sites. See it for
yourself at www.worldmonumentswatch.org.
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| WMF
Announces 2007 Kress European Preservation Program
Awards |
 The World Monuments
Fund has announced
that the Kress Foundation European Preservation Program--a
partnership between the Samuel H. Kress Foundation and WMF--has
selected 11 historic sites in ten European countries to receive
grants in 2007. The
individual grants will help ensure the preservation of significant
architectural and artistic heritage sites.
Projects include
14th-century frescoes in an Italian cemetery, subterranean
Macedonian tombs in Greece, the fine
interiors of a Georgian house in Ireland (photo), and
12th-century painted panels in the sanctuary of London's Westminster
Abbey, among others in Spain, Georgia, Turkey, Latvia, France, and
Poland. Created in 1987, the
Kress/WMF partnership has become synonymous with the highest
international standards in conservation and has funded more than 150
projects in dozens of countries. See the full list of
awardees and read more about the Kress European Preservation
Program.
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| In Focus:
Sites of the Mayan Civilization |
Mexico's
Yucatán
Peninsula
contains some of the best preserved examples of architecture and
urban settlements from the pinnacle of Maya culture (a.d.
800-1000).
Temple
pyramids, palaces, ritual ballcourts, and arches remain as testament
to the sophistication of the Maya. Maya architecture of the
Yucatán
Peninsula
has been compromised over time by exposure to the elements, which
has deteriorated stone and mortar and destabilized monuments. The
structural integrity of many of the buildings has been further
compromised by inappropriate repairs implemented in the late 19th
and early 20th centuries.
WMF is
delighted to announce that it has recently signed an agreement with
the philanthropic arm of Banamex (Fomento Cultural Banamex), the
State Government of Yucatan, and the National Institute of
Anthropology and History of Mexico (INAH) to fund conservation,
archaeological research, and site interpretation projects at the
Maya sites of Aké, Kabáh, Chichén Itzá, and Xocnaceh. Directing
funding to teams of experts working at various sites, the initiative
will couple best-practice conservation measures with ongoing
and new archaeological investigations. Exposed monuments will be
further documented and those in poor condition will be treated and
have their unsympathetic repairs reversed. Other program objectives
include increasing public access and enhancing site
interpretation and presentation. Read more about WMF's work at
Maya sites in Mexico. |
| Summer
School |
 As
part of our Traditional Building Arts Training Initiative, WMF has
launched a second season of a model field school dedicated to
traditional building and historic preservation at the North Family
Site of Mount Lebanon Shaker Village, New York. The project is a
partnership with the Shaker
Museum
and Library,
Preservation Trades Network, American
College
of the Building Arts, and University of Florida College of Design,
Construction and Planning.
The Shaker
Village
is a National Historic Landmark that was placed on both the 2004 and
2006 World Monuments Watch
Lists of 100 Most Endangered Sites. The field school will serve as a
model to be replicated at other WMF sites in the United
States.
The
eight-week field school, which began on June 14, 2007, has brought
together nine participants--four masonry apprentices and five
graduate students--from institutions across the United States to
work alongside experienced craftsman and academics. The students at last year's
field school helped document and restore the timber frame of the
1838 Village's North Family Shaker Granary; this summer's project is
focused on documenting and restoring the rubble stone walls of the
1859 North Family Stone Barn (photo). While the largest of its
kind in North
America,
the barn has stood as a ruin since it burned in 1972. Read more about the Traditional Building Arts Training
Initiative.
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