Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation (Uzbekistan)

The Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation provides grants to preserve historic sites, artifacts, manuscripts and museum collections, as well as traditional forms of expression, such as music, dance, and language. The Ambassadors Fund has already provided nearly $1 million to support 12 projects in Uzbekistan.

Cultural Preservation awards are based on the importance of the site, object, or traditional form of expression to be preserved as well as the urgency of its preservation need. Сultural organizations, educational institutions, NGOs, and museums are eligible to submit proposals.

Focus Areas

• AFCP supports projects to preserve cultural heritage in the following three areas:
  • Cultural sites, including but not limited to ancient or historic buildings and archaeological sites;
  • Cultural objects and collections from a museum, site, or similar institution, such as archaeological and ethnographic objects, paintings, sculptures, manuscripts, and general museum conservation needs; and,
  • Forms of traditional cultural expression, such as traditional music, indigenous languages, and crafts.

Projects Criteria

• Projects that meet one or more of the following criteria will receive consideration:
  • Directly support U.S. treaty or bilateral agreement obligations.
  • Directly support U.S. policies, strategies and objectives in a country as stated in the Integrated Country Strategy or other U.S. government planning documents.
  • Support disaster risk reduction for cultural heritage in disaster-prone areas, or post-disaster cultural heritage recovery.
  • Partner, connect with, or feed into other ECA or public diplomacy programs.

Ineligible Projects

• Please note that the following types of projects are not eligible:
  • Independent U.S. projects overseas.
  • Individual projects costing less than $10,000 or more than $500,000;
  • International travel, except in cases where travel is justifiable and integral to the success of the proposed project or to provide project leaders with learning and exchange opportunities with cultural heritage experts;
  • Costs of work performed prior to announcement of the award;
  • Contingency, unforeseen, or miscellaneous costs or fees;
  • Costs of fund-raising campaigns;
  • Cash reserves, endowments, or revolving funds (funds must be expended within the award period [up to five years] and may not be used to create an endowment or revolving fund);
  • Conservation plans or other studies, unless they are one component of a larger project to implement the results of those studies;
  • Digitization of cultural objects or collections, unless part of a larger, clearly defined conservation, documentation, or public diplomacy effort.
  • Removal of cultural objects or elements of cultural sites from the country for any reason;
  • Relocation of cultural sites from one physical location to another;
  • Creation of replicas or conjectural reconstructions of cultural objects or sites that no longer exist;
  • Creation of new or modern adaptation of existing traditional dances, songs, chants, musical compositions, plays, or other performances;
  • Commissions of new works of art or architecture for commemorative or economic development purposes;
  • Construction of new buildings, building additions, or permanent coverings (over archaeological sites, for example);
  • Acquisition or creation of new exhibits, objects, or collections for new or existing museums;
  • Historical research, except in cases where the research is justifiable and integral to the success of the proposed project;
  • Archaeological excavations or exploratory surveys for research purposes.
  • Development of curricula or educational materials for classroom use.
  • Preservation of published materials available elsewhere (books, periodicals, etc.).
  • Preservation of news media (newspapers, newsreels, radio and TV programs, etc.).
  • Preservation of hominid or human remains.
  • Preservation of natural heritage (physical, biological, and geological formations, paleontological collections, habitats of threatened species of animals and plants, fossils, etc.) unless the natural heritage has a cultural heritage connection or dimension.
  • Preservation or purchase of privately or commercially owned cultural objects, collections, or real property, including those whose transfer from private or commercial to public ownership is envisioned, planned, or in process, but not complete at the time of application.

For more information, visit U.S. Embassy in Uzbekistan.