Iraq Cultural Heritage Project
On October 16, 2008 Mrs. Bush spoke at the launching of the Iraq Cultural Heritage Project at the Iraq Embassy in Washington, D.C.
The State Department has already invested more than $3 million in this program and the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad is funding the Iraq Cultural Heritage Project with a grant of nearly $13 million. The State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs will provide an additional million dollars and Iraqi officials are requesting increased funding from their own government for preservation efforts that will complement the Project's goals.
Three principal initiatives will be implemented with the first new funding.
- A new conservation and historic preservation institute will be established in Erbil in order to train new professionals to preserve and protect Iraq's historic treasures.
- A two-year professional development program will be set up at Chicago's Field Museum of Natural History, in collaboration with the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago in order to bring Iraqi professionals to study in the United States, where they'll learn the new methods of preservation.
- The Project will continue improvements to the Iraq National Museum, which is home to one of the world's finest collections of Mesopotamian antiques.
To read more about the Iraq Cultural Heritage Project, click here.