FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
ICOMOS-USA to Receive $20,000 Award from the National Endowment for the Arts for World Heritage USA Monuments Toolkit Project
13 January 2025, Washington DC
ICOMOS-USA is pleased to announce it has been approved by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) for a Research Grants in the Arts award of $20,000. This grant will support the Monuments Toolkit Project.
In total, the NEA will award 18 Research Grants in the Arts for a total of $1,045,000 in funding to support a broad range of research studies that investigate the value and/or impact of the arts. NEA Director of Research & Analysis Sunil Iyengar said, “The research undertaken by these NEA grant recipients, including World Heritage USA Monuments Toolkit Project, covers a compelling array of fields and topics. The studies will contribute to a formidable body of research that is strengthening public knowledge about the arts’ benefits to our lives and communities.”
“The arts have a unique quality and potential to serve as a balsam to soothe wounds and to help us see our common humanity. Despite the fraught history regarding the monument landscape, this grant can help foster connections that unite us as a whole,” said Cequyna Moore, Monuments Toolkit Program Director, World Heritage USA.
In September 2021, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation awarded the United States Committee of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS-USA) a grant to support the development of the Monuments Toolkit, a website and app aimed at addressing monuments of oppression. World Heritage USA, ICOMOS-USA’s supporting organization, now carries out this program on ICOMOS-USA’s behalf.
The project will help continue to examine the impact of placemaking activities around monuments that tell undertold and untold stories on community healing.
For more information on other projects included in the NEA’s grant announcement, visit arts.gov/news. Visit arts.gov/impact/research to explore more of the NEA’s work in research and analysis, including the agency’s five-year research agenda; in-depth reports and analyses of research topics in the arts; collections of statistics, graphics, and summary results from data-mining about the arts; and more.
About ICOMOS-USA and World Heritage USA
The U.S. National Committee of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS-USA) is part of the worldwide ICOMOS network of people, institutions, government agencies, and private corporations who support the conservation of the world’s heritage. As the only U.S. professional preservation organization with a global focus, ICOMOS-USA is the gateway for U.S. professionals to participate in worldwide heritage conservation. World Heritage USA, the supporting organization of ICOMOS-USA, oversees the Monument Relocation, Removal, and Reinterpretation Toolkit program (Monuments Toolkit); and organizes an annual international scientific symposium, an international intern exchange program, bimonthly World Heritage webinars, and occasional publications.
ICOMOS-USA is a private, non-profit, non-governmental organization with 501(c)(3) status.
For more information, please contact director.monumentstoolkit [at] worldheritageusa.org.