Programs

Through years of fieldwork, WMF has learned that historic architectural conservation is not just a matter of restoring individual buildings. Communities all over the world have culturally significant places that represent local traditions and artistic achievement that can be preserved for future generations. However, some communities face difficult choices when it comes to saving their cultural heritage. Immediate pressures, such as population growth, lack of economic resources, natural disasters, political conflict, and public apathy, can mean that important historic and cultural sites lack constituents who care about them.

Recognizing that these issues affect a wide range of communities, WMF has developed a number of programs and initiatives to help address some of these challenges.

Through our Traditional Building Arts Training Initiative, WMF is addressing the need for new generations of skilled craftspeople to carry out restoration work side by side with architects, planners and government policy makers.

Responding to the destruction of great modern architecture around the world, WMF is undertaking documentation, advocacy, and conservation efforts to bring awareness of the special threats to modern buildings and to build constituencies to fight on their behalf.

Sites in countries in or emerging from conflict often need special intervention, such as Iraq, where WMF is helping to rebuild the capacity of the Iraqi conservation community to protect its rich heritage.