Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation

Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation 2022 Grants Program

The U.S. Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation (AFCP) supports projects to preserve a wide range of cultural heritage in more than 100 countries, including historic buildings, archaeological sites, ethnographic objects, paintings, manuscripts, and indigenous languages and other forms of traditional cultural expression.

This competition is not open.

The Ambassador’s Fund for Cultural Preservation was established by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs in 2001 to help countries preserve their cultural heritage and to demonstrate U.S. respect for different cultures around the world.

AFCP in Russia

The U.S. Ambassador’s Fund for Cultural Preservation has supported seven projects in Russia since the program’s establishment in 2001:

2006-2007: Preservation of a former GULAG Camp in Perm
2007-2008: Preservation of the 18th-century wooden Voronin-Mekhov House in Uglich
2008-2009: Preservation and training in traditional crafts of the indigenous Mansi people
2009-2010: Restoration of the late 17th-century Church of the Icon of the Mother of God of the Sign in Dubrovitsky in Podolsk
2010-2012: Preservation of traditional 19th-century log house of the Vologda State Historical and Architectural Museum in Vologda
2019-2020: Preservation of the lighthouse church in Krokhino
2020-2021: Restoration of three Raphael school frescoes at the State Hermitage Museum

To Apply

Government agencies, cultural organizations, educational institutions, and NGOs may submit proposals.

The minimum amount is US $10,000 per project. The maximum amount is $500,000 per project. Proposed projects should be completed in 60 months or less.

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 (addressing damage or deterioration to an object or site)
Consolidation (connecting or reconnecting elements of an object or site)
Documentation (recording in analog or digital format the condition and salient features of an object, site, or tradition)
Inventory (listing of objects, sites, or traditions by location, feature, age, or other unifying characteristic or state)
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 only with fine arts, decorative arts, and historic buildings)
Stabilization (reducing the physical disturbance of an object or site)

Notification of Funding

The selection of a winner will be determined after two rounds of competition. After reviewing initial concept notes, the U.S. Ambassador to Russia will choose and submit the most compelling proposals to the State Department for final consideration. The Ambassador’s Fund for Cultural Preservation Cultural Heritage Center will then select finalists from the worldwide pool of submissions. Finalists invited to participate in Round Two of the worldwide AFCP competition will then need to submit a full technical application in April 2022. The Center anticipates funding 20 to 30 projects worldwide. Winners can expect to be notified of final selection in late spring or summer 2022.

Please note that issuance of this funding opportunity does not constitute an award commitment on the part of the AFCP program or the U.S. government. AFCP reserves the right to waive program formalities and to reduce, revise, or increase project scopes and budgets in accordance with the needs of the program and the availability of funds.

For further information about AFCP worldwide, please visit:

https://eca.state.gov/cultural-heritage-center/ambassadors-fund-cultural-preservation

For further information on the competition in Russia, please contact AFCPRussia@state.gov.