U.S. Embassy Vientiane: Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation 2017 for Laos

Deadline: 5 January 2017

The U.S. Embassy in Vientiane (Laos), the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) and the Cultural Heritage Center (“the Center”) of the U.S. Department of State are seeking proposals for its Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation (AFCP-2017) with an aim to preserve cultural sites or objects that have historical or cultural significance for Laos.

Project Types

CULTURAL SITES: conservation of an ancient or historic building, preservation of an archeological site, or documentation of cultural sites in a region for preservation purposes.
CULTURAL OBJECTS AND COLLECTIONS: conservation treatment for an object or collection of objects; needs assessment of a collection with respect to its condition and strategies for improving its state of conservation; inventory of a collection for conservation and protection purposes; the creation of safe environments for a storage or display of collections; or specialized training in the care and preservation of collections.
FORMS OF TRADITIONAL CULTURAL EXPRESSION: documentation and audiovisual recording of traditional music and dance forms for broad dissemination as the means of teaching and further preserving them, or support for training in the preservation of traditional applied arts or crafts in danger of extinction.

Grant Information

Awards ranged from US $10,000 to US $200,000.

Eligibility Criteria

Proposals for projects that meet one or more of the following criteria will receive consideration in FY 2017:
- Directly support U.S. treaty or bilateral agreement obligations, such as cultural property
- protection agreements;
- Support the preservation of inscribed UNESCO World Heritage sites;
- Support disaster risk reduction for cultural heritage and post-disaster cultural heritage recovery in seismically active and other disaster-prone areas; and
- Engage women, youth, or under-served communities.
The Center defines eligible project applicants as reputable and accountable non-commercial entities, such as non-governmental organizations, museums, ministries of culture, or similar institutions and organizations that are able to demonstrate that they have the requisite experience and capacity to manage projects to preserve cultural heritage.
AFCP encourages cost sharing, inkind contributions, and other forms of cost participation. There is no minimum or maximum percentage required for this competition.