U.S. Embassy in Uzbekistan

Overview

The Ambassador’s 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 Ambassador’s Fund has already provided nearly $1,500,000 to support fourteen preservation projects in Uzbekistan. For further information, please click here.

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. For further information, please click here.

AFCP supports the preservation of archaeological sites, historic buildings and monuments, museum collections, and forms of traditional cultural expression, such as indigenous languages and crafts. Appropriate project activities may include:

• Anastylosis: Reassembling a site using its original parts.
• Conservation: Addressing damage or deterioration to an object or site.
• Consolidation: Connecting or reconnecting elements of an object or site.
• Documentation: Recording the condition and important features of an object, site, or tradition in analog or digital format.
• Inventory: Listing objects, sites, or traditions by location, feature, age, or other unifying characteristics.
• Preventive Conservation: Addressing conditions that threaten or damage a site, object, collection, or tradition.
• Restoration: Replacing missing elements to recreate the original appearance of an object or site, usually appropriate for fine arts, decorative arts, and historic buildings.
• Stabilization: Reducing the physical disturbance of an object or site.

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.
• Directly support host country or community goals beyond preserving cultural heritage.
• Support risk reduction and resilience for cultural heritage in disaster-prone or economically disadvantaged areas, or post-disaster cultural heritage recovery.
• Partner, connect with, or feed into other ECA or public diplomacy programs.

The application process involves two rounds: In Round 1, the Embassy will collect project ideas from interested parties in the form of concept notes, due December 13, 2024; and in Round 2, the Embassy will invite selected concept note authors with promising ideas to submit full project applications.

Please note that the following types of projects are not eligible:

• 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.
• 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 of hominid or human remains.
• Preservation of news media (newspapers, newsreels, radio and TV programs, etc.).
• Preservation of published materials available elsewhere (books, periodicals, etc.).
• Development of curricula or educational materials for classroom use.
• Archaeological excavations or exploratory surveys for research purposes.
• Historical research, except in cases where the research is justifiable and integral to the success of the proposed project;
• Acquisition or creation of new exhibits, objects, or collections for new or existing museums;
• Construction of new buildings, building additions, or permanent coverings (over archaeological sites, for example);
• Commissions of new works of art or architecture for commemorative or economic development purposes;
• Creation of new or modern adaptation of existing traditional dances, songs, chants, musical compositions, plays, or other performances;
• Creation of replicas or conjectural reconstructions of cultural objects or sites that no longer exist;
• Relocation of cultural sites from one physical location to another;
• Removal of cultural objects or elements of cultural sites from the country for any reason;
• Digitization of cultural objects or collections, unless part of a larger, clearly defined conservation, documentation, or public diplomacy effort.
• Conservation plans or other studies, unless they are one component of a larger project to implement the results of those studies;
• 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);
• Costs of fund-raising campaigns;
• Contingency, unforeseen, or miscellaneous costs or fees;
• Costs of work performed prior to announcement of the award;
• 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;
• Individual projects costing less than $25,000 or more than $500,000;
• Independent U.S. projects overseas.

Questions regarding the application process can be addressed to Tashkent-program@state.gov (marked as “AFCP question” in the subject line).

Please submit concept notes in English as a Microsoft word attachment to Tashkent-program@state.gov no later than 23:59 Tashkent time, December 13, 2024. The subject line should read “AFCP Concept Note.”