World Monuments Fund
June 2010
"Sacred Spaces" at Chautauqua this August
WMF has partnered with the Chautauqua Institution to develop a week of lectures and conversations on the theme of "sacred spaces" during the institution's annual summer program of educational arts and recreation programs. The series will explore the confluence of religion, history, geography, architecture, and culture. Featured speakers during this week, running from August 8 to 14, will include documentary film maker Ken Burns and architecture critic and professor Paul Goldberger. WMF President Bonnie Burnham will deliver the final lecture in the series.
WMF Europe's New Headquarters Opens
WMF Europe recently celebrated its move to the Hôtel de Talleyrand, an important, historic hôtel particulier in the heart of Paris by the Place de la Concorde. In addition to its architectural merits, the building has had famous owners, including Maurice de Talleyrand Perigord and the Rothschild family. The US government purchased the building in 1947, and used it to orchestrate the postwar Marshall Plan. The George Marshall Center, a series of 18th- and 19th-century interiors, was reopened last month by the State Department following its restoration. WMF Europe now occupies a suite of rooms adjacent to the George Marshall Center.
2010 Watch Sites Receive Grants
The 2010 Watch was announced just last October, but already a number of sites are getting assistance from WMF and other sources. In addition to the new project in Kyoto, announced in last month's e-news, sites that have received funds subsequent to Watch listing include the historic center of Buenos Aires, Argentina; the Convento-Museo Santa Teresa in Cochabamba, Bolivia; churches of Arica Parinacota in Chile; the San Fernando and San Jose Fortresses as well as the historic center of Santa Fe de Antioquia, both in Colombia; Ujumbe Palace in Comoros; the Todos Santos complex in Ecuador; the churches of Lesvos in Greece; Kaminaljuyu in Guatemala; the Gingerbread Houses of Port-au-Prince, Haiti; the vernacular architecture of the Kazakh Steppe in Kazakhstan; Las Pozas and the Acueducto de Tembleque in Mexico; the historic center of Colón in Panama; the rice terraces of the Philippine Cordilleras and San Sebastian Basilica, both in the Philippines; and Taos Pueblo in the United States.
Project in Mexico City Underway
The first phase of a major sustainable tourism project in the historic center of Mexico City is getting underway. The focus of this part of the project is the restoration of the early-20th-century Rule Building, badly damaged in a 1985 earthquake. The structure will be restored for use as a cultural center for both tourists and residents.
Project Completed in Historic Center of Lima
WMF recently completed a project at the Casa de las Columnas in the historic center of Lima, Peru. Originally part of a 16th-century Dominican convent, it has long been a residential complex and a National Monument since 1972. The site had been deteriorating for many years before the historic center of Lima was placed on the 2008 Watch. The result of the listing was a project aimed at restoring the public parts of the Casa de las Columnas, with local workers trained on-site. A ceremony marking the completion of the project is scheduled for July and will be attended by members of WMF's Peru Committee and local partners.
Garden Opens in Czech Republic
WMF President Bonnie Burnham and Vice President for Field Projects John Stubbs participated in a symposium on the occasion of the inauguration of a new herb garden at Valtice Chateau in honor of the late Tiree Chmelar, who helped draw attention to the deteriorating Valtice-Lednice landscape and castles in the early 1990s, which were on the 1998 Watch and are now UNESCO World Heritage sites. Chmelar and her husband also helped create the now-famous Czech Greenways cultural heritage trails.
PERU COMMITTEE TAKES PART IN ECONOMIC SUMMIT

Two members of WMF's new Peru Committee, President Marcela Perez de Cuellar and Executive Director Juan Pablo de la Puente Brunke, spoke about preserving architectural and cultural heritage at the Bloomberg Peru Economic Summit on June 9 in Lima.
 

SUMMER WORKSHOPS

Spots are still available for the July 12-22 window sash restoration workshop at Mt. Lebanon Shaker Village in New York. This is a great chance to work with some of the best craftspeople from the prestigious North Bennet Street School. For more information on this and the August timber-framing workshop, visit our website.

 EVENTS

Modernism at Risk in Nantucket

WMF IN THE NEWS

The New York Times:
US Restores Paris Home of Marshall Plan

The Scotsman:
Scotland's Historic Graveyards Finally Rest in Peace

Agence France-Presse:
Le Belvédère de Marie-Antoinette à Versailles Va Être Restauré

La Jornada:
Comienza la Recuperación del Edificio El Rule


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