Contact:
Holly Evarts
Director of Public Relations
95 Madison Avenue
New York, NY 10016
Phone: 646-424-9594
Fax: 646-424-9593
E-mail: hevarts@wmf.org
Web: www.wmf.org

Membership Information
Yes, you can join World Monuments Fund by calling 646-424-9494 or visiting www.wmf.org. Our members help save endangered architectural and cultural sites around the world. When you contribute to WMF, you know that your dollars are really being put to work. WMF has received the highest rating from Charity Navigator, an independent charity evaluator—nearly 90 percent of our revenue goes directly toward preservation projects, fieldwork, and educational programs.

WMF members also receive a year-long subscription to ICON, WMF’s award-winning magazine, as well as invitations to special events, gallery openings, and lectures with some of the world’s most respected preservationists. In addition, members can participate in the Membership Travel Program, gaining incomparable behind-the-scenes access to WMF sites with leading experts in the field.

Brief Summary of the Organization and Its Mission
The World Monuments Fund (WMF) is the foremost private, nonprofit organization dedicated to the preservation of endangered architectural and cultural sites around the world. Founded in 1965, WMF has helped save historic structures at more than 450 sites in over 80 countries. WMF’s work spans a wide range of sites, including the vast temple complexes at Angkor, Cambodia; the historic center of Mexico City; Nicholas Hawksmoor’s London masterpiece, St. George’s, Bloomsbury; the iconic modernist A. Conger Goodyear house in Old Westbury, New York; and the extraordinary eighteenth-century Qianlong Garden complex in Beijing’s Forbidden City.

From its headquarters in New York City—and offices and affiliates in Paris, London, Madrid, and Lisbon—WMF works with local partners and communities to identify and save important heritage through innovative programs of project planning, fieldwork, advocacy, grant-making, education, and on-site training. Every two years, WMF issues its World Monuments Watch list of 100 Most Endangered Sites, a global call to action on behalf of sites in need of immediate intervention.

Initiatives in the Past Year Illustrating the Focus and Direction of the Organization
Over the past year, WMF continued to identify and draw global attention to important historic and cultural sites facing destruction or irreversible decay through the World Monuments Watch program. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, WMF added the Gulf Coast as the 101st site on the 2006 Watch list and formed a partnership with the National Trust for Historic Preservation to advocate for restoration and the use of sensitive reconstruction methods in rebuilding the rich historic and cultural assets of the Gulf Coast and New Orleans. WMF also teamed up with the Preservation Trades Network to run a series of demonstration restoration projects in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, and New Orleans' Holy Cross neighborhood.

WMF continued to work with the Getty Conservation Institute (GCI) on their joint GCI/WMF Iraq Cultural Heritage Conservation Initiative, helping Iraqi conservation professionals regain the capacity to care for their cultural heritage damaged during the war and its aftermath.

In the summer of 2006, WMF launched its Modernism at Risk initiative, a new program consolidating WMF’s efforts to preserve Modern landmarks through a combination of advocacy, public education, and architectural conservation. Great works of modern architecture are threatened by neglect, deterioration, demolition, and public apathy—few people believe that buildings of our own time and the not-so-distant past are worth preserving—and WMF is leading the battle to save them.

Preservation Issues that are of Particular Concern to Your Organization
WMF believes strongly in the importance of sustainable education and training in the building crafts and preservation arts around the world. Towards this end, in late 2004, WMF launched its Traditional Building Arts Training Initiative. On a national level, WMF has brought together representatives from organizations both within and outside the preservation mainstream to identify issues affecting traditional building arts training, assess available resources, and formulate solutions—including the development of national standards and guidelines. At the local and state level, WMF is working with communities and partners to develop hands-on training programs that harness and expand resources—including existing education programs—and create the opportunities needed to support and institutionalize long-term traditional building arts education. In the summer of 2006, WMF launched a pilot field school for traditional and historic preservation at Mount Lebanon (NY) Shaker Village. On an international level, WMF is continuing its efforts to revive “lost” or fast-disappearing arts by participating in a host of projects, including restoring the Qianlong Garden in Beijing’s Forbidden City. We are also working on a strategic plan to guide the next stage of the Traditional Building Arts Training Initiative, including the replication of the model field school and high school curriculum, like the one we developed at the Brooklyn High School of the Arts.

Sites in conflict are another issue of special concern to WMF. We launched a new program to draw attention to this need and to address the distinctive problems these sites share. By working closely with local communities, WMF will be able to help develop practical solutions to challenges, and work to overcome political and economic prejudices that isolate sites in conflict from the international community of support.

Preservation Trends/Opportunities that Your Organization Views as Advancements or Potential Advancements in the Field of Historic Preservation at Large and/or Advancements in Historic Preservation within Your Organization
WMF approaches projects from a comprehensive and multidisciplinary viewpoint. We think it is critical to ensure that professionals from the fields of anthropology and history, as well as geographers, environmentalists, curators, and economists, and local stakeholders, work alongside traditional experts (architects, engineers, archaeologists, and conservators). Through this multifaceted approach, project managers have a much higher chance of creating effective and successful management plans. We are encouraged to see that this holistic approach to conservation planning and site management is fast catching on in projects the world over.

Ways the AIA/HRC and Its Members Can Be Supportive of Your Organization
AIA/HRC and its members can support WMF by
- joining WMF as a member
- advocating for WMF sites and projects
- nominating endangered cultural heritage sites for inclusion on WMF’s Watch list via www.wmf.org/watch
- identifying sites that would benefit from WMF’s initiatives or programs