Transcripts For CSPAN3 Smithsonian 20240703 : vimarsana.com

CSPAN3 Smithsonian July 3, 2024

You can also stay current with the latest episodes of washington journal and find a scheduling information for c spans tv networks and cspan radio plus a variety of compelling podcasts. Cspan now is available at the apple store and google play. Download for free today. Cspan and now her front road seat to washington, anytime anywhere. On behalf of the Smithsonian Institution and its secretary lonnie bunch, i would like to welcome you all to the Smithsonians National museum of Natural History and this very special graduation ceremony. Im richard karen, the smithsonians distinguished scholar and ambassador at large. I would first and foremost like to extend a welcome to our colleagues and friends from the u. S. Army, distinguished leaders and of course our officer graduates and their rightly proud and maybe allowed families. I would like to welcome distinguished guests from the Monuments Men and Women Foundation including members of the board and relatives of the world war ii monuments officers. This is a very special occasion. I dont usually wear this every day to work at the smithsonian. But i would also like to welcome our guests from bank of america who have supported the initiative from the beginning and my smithsonian colleagues and those from sister organizations involved in Cultural Heritage protection like the department of state, the fbi, International Council museums and others who have participated in this program as instructors, guides and enablers. The ceremony and what it stands for is especially significant. And since we as a museum study and present history all of the time, let me take the liberty to tell you how and why we got here. The recent history begins in 2010 with the earthquake in haiti that killed over 200,000 people, left of the country in a devastated state. Haitians looked toward their history and culture to give them strength, a sense of resilience at the time they needed it most to recover from that tragedy. But their artwork, artifacts, archives, museums and libraries galleries were all buried under the rubble and in danger of being lost forever. The smithsonian had close ties to many cultural figures in haiti and wanted to help but quite frankly we didnt know what to do. Enter cory wagner, curator at the Minneapolis Institute of art, a reservist who served in iraq, as a Civil Affairs officer and helped save the Baghdad Museum and the jewish archives sponsored by the work of the Monuments Men and women of world war ii. She called a meeting in washington, leaders of Cultural Institutions came and i listened to what she had to take. She knew what she was talking about. A few weeks after meeting corey , we were in haiti meeting with Southern Command general kent kane who was leading some 12,000 u. S. Troops providing humanitarians and civil support in haiti. He encouraged and aided our effort to save its Cultural Heritage. We worked and planned with haitian officials. The minister in charge of response and recovery was a guy named patrick. He had been a Research Fellow at the smithsonian, a curator years before. At the time after that earthquake, with his country in ruins, he was reading a book written by Robert Edsall called the monument. That inspired him and convinced him we should undertake this effort to try to rescue haitis Cultural Heritage in the wake of the earthquake and its destruction. The haitian president and the white house agreed and with smithsonian backing and usaid and expertise from the American Institute of conservation and cory wagners power sweep mounted a major effort. We rented a building, hired a haitian lead staff, established conservation facilities, deployed 80 experts from the smithsonian and other museums and saved 35,000 artworks and artifacts. We trained more than 1000 haitians and conservation first aid, repaired and improved galleries and museums, and with the help of ben stiller established a Conservation Center so that haitians could be trained to conserve Cultural Heritage in their own hands as rightly should be the case. I hired court at the smithsonian and we started the Cultural Rescue Initiative. Without a congressional appropriation and crucial key support from bank of america from the very beginning. We were called on to respond to crisis in mali, nepal, syria, egypt, the bahamas and working domestically with fema and others we took on projects after super storm sandy, the midwest, puerto rico, and elsewhere. Corey ran trainings and workshops for Civil Affairs officers. With cooperated with dod on no target lists for the middle east. Our colleagues were running Training Programs for iraq he archaeologists and heritage professionals and the smithsonian was training fbi agents and experts as well as those from homeland security. Corey let our efforts working with at the university of pennsylvania Cultural Heritage center, the American Association for the advancement of science and others to develop methods for analyzing cultural damage and destruction by isys and by asad via satellite monitoring. In 2016, president obama signed the protect and preserve Cultural Property act and under the leadership of the state department that has brought together dod, doj, fbi, smithsonian and other federal agencies to coordinate efforts to help save Cultural Heritage around the world. With dod, corey and the u. S. Committee of the blue shield researched and printed booklets that pinpointed cultural sites that were due protection that during the allied taking of rocker and muscle from isys. Those booklets were carried by troops in the field on the ground and written in arabic, kurdish and english and the point of them was, and the taking of those ancient cities, we not purposefully destroy what isys was trying to destroy as part of their mission. By 2019, while so many efforts flowered, more would be needed in the future. As the u. S. And its military would be called on in both conflict and humanitarian crisis to help safeguard Cultural Heritage. We needed to up the partnership. They worked closely with corey, colonel jesse knew his stuff, had a great sense of mission and envisioned what we could do together. In 2019, he and general Jeffrey Coggin from the u. S. Army Civil Affairs command and its moores came to the smithsonian and amidst meetings with lynn nichols who had written the seminal study of europa about working to control Cultural Heritage and world war ii viewed our collections at the archives of american art where we keep the monuments officers materials, photographs from their mission, notebooks from monuments officers, and we signed an agreement. Reestablishing the training of monuments officers. We then faced training in the midst of covid but worked closely together with the military, with the situation in afghanistan trying to protect artifacts and people. I remember those days, 24 seven muscat corey and i were on the phone emailing texting trying to do right by the heritage of afghanistan. With ukraine we have been getting supplies and materials into our colleagues. A smithsonian fellow during the time of the haiti project is now a leader of ukrainian Cultural Heritage protectant efforts. One of our graduates today, captain Hayden Bassett who works at the Virginia Museum of Natural History leads the Cultural Heritage monitoring love and partnership with the smithsonian. He and his team monitored some 28,000 cultural sites in ukraine and in cooperation with the state department, document potential war crimes related to cultural damage and destruction. All of this, thats capsule history, sorry for taking so long but its important to know that story, all of this is what brings us together today. Cultural heritage gives us as human beings, as people of particular nations and communities, a sense of identity. It gives us a sense of our history. It provides the touchstones for learning about the past and provides knowledge and hopefully some wisdom to live in the present and it provides a source of strength and resilience and enabling us to overcome travails and build, sometimes rebuild our future. In light of so many and so many increasing threats to Cultural Heritage, we need to increase our capabilities. You are the founding inaugural class of monuments officers. Men and women. You are the foundation of that effort. Thank you. Couldnt be here todt lonnie has been with the smithsonian and for over 40 years the fou my boss, ndinlonnie bunche, secretary of the smithsonian couldnt be here today but lonnie has been with the smithsonian for over 40 years, the founding director of that africanamerican history and culture. I think we have a video. Inaugural graduates of the officer Training Program, hello and congratulations on this special day. As a secretory of the smithsonian, im so gratified for the work you are doing. For the past several days you have undertaken rigorous training for military concepts youve learned and the Cultural Heritage Emergency Response methods smithsonian staff have taught you. They will give you the tools to make a real difference around the world. You have also volunteered and sworn an oath to serve as military officers, a selfless commitment that demonstrates a degree to which you care about this project. As the nations preeminent Cultural Institution for over 75 years, it is the smithsonians responsibility to protect architecture, artifacts , and other objects of cultural and religious heritage. The 1954 haiti convention was the first multilateral trading to urge to protect Cultural Heritage. A preamble to the convention noted that quote, damage to Cultural Property belong to any people means damage to Cultural Heritage of all mankind since each people makes his contribution to the culture of the world. To me it was clarion call to our profession to recognize that culture is essential for our shared future. The threats that loom over our irreplaceable heritage are as pronounced as ever, whether it is natural disaster, climate change, political instability or more. When an earthquake devastated haiti in 2010, it galvanized the smithsonians determination to help preserve culture no matter where it was. My dear friend dr. Richard kieran smithsonian distinguished scholar and ambassador at large let our efforts to help train colleagues in haiti. The work that began more than a decade ago continues in a permanent conservation facility in portauprince. The networks we created and the impact we made convinced us to create the Smithsonian Cultural Rescue Initiative led by cory wagner and implementing the lessons of haiti, it has had a tremendous impact thats true in places like egypt, nepal and syria, but also here in the United States in places like post Hurricane Florence south carolina. Another way we protect Cultural Heritage is through our collaboration with the u. S. State departments Cultural Heritage coordinating committee. As a charter member, the smithsonian facilitates sharing data and knowledge to better preserve and protect the cultural output of peoples everywhere. The war in ukraine is a reminder of just how important these kinds of efforts are as the war takes a terrible toll, not just on its citizens but also on its history and culture. It is vital we continue improving our ability to make a difference. The Smithsonian Cultural Resource Initiative is partnering with the Virginia Museum of Natural History on the Cultural Heritage Monitoring Lab using satellite imagery to monitor 28,000 Ukrainian Cultural sites to document any damage and share it with the proper authorities. The profound value of making connections was underscored when colleagues from ukraine, who participated in previous Cultural Heritage courses alerted us to the plight of several ukrainian fulbright scholars. Thanks to the office of advancement, the office of International Relations and the office of academic appointments , the smithsonian is hosting four of the scholars whose academic programs ended in may. Had they not had this opportunity, they would have to return to uncertain situations in their wartorn hormone. The Army Monuments Training Program is recognition that culture transcends geography, race, or religion. Preserving the artistic and cultural projects of human creativity is a noble endeavor. I thank you all for recognizing Intrinsic Value of protecting the tangible and intangible expressions of our shared humanity. Congratulations again and thank you for all that you do. That gives me pleasure to introduce larry, from bank of america. Larry . Front of general carter, marched down the aisle. I was in the navy for 15 years. But i thanks very much, richard. Just to show the army has a sense of humor, they put me in front of jimmy carter. I hope i didnt embarrass you too bad. Im larry im the president for bank of america for greater washington, d. C. Pickets of religion and im here on behalf of 2000 teammates including 3000 in this area to thank you for what you are doing to express our great pride and privilege that we have to be the principal corporate funder of the smithsonians Cultural Rescue Initiative and of this program. Its we truly value history and legacy in our company. We dont measure in thousands of years like you do with of the work you are doing but our companys oldest element goes back to 1784, the massachusetts bank. We have ledgers with john hancock and paul revere as clients. Here in washington it goes back to the bank of metropolis. We funded 20 of the rebuilding of washington after the british i see if you brits in the audience destroyed our capital. We are over that now. But we are really proud. Our time with this culture rescue initiative goes back a little less, 2018, we were the original corporate funder. We were very proud to do that. Its aligning with all the work we do, our company has our Conservation Company we find. With funded the restoration of 6000 pieces of art around the world and more than 40 countries. Art that needed to be restored, tapestries, paintings, sculptures, et cetera. Its something that we believe is a very important aspect of culture and of society. We also have longstanding relationship with the military. , military officer myself but we have probably about 20,000 plus or minus four military spouses, family members in our company. This year alone, 20 of all of our hires in the company have been military. Former military. We have a great limitary with the United States military of which we are very proud. Finally, a long relationship with the smithsonian. Lonnie, terrific, great american. We have been the founding members of the board of the National Museum of African American history and culture. Our co remains on the board and we are very proud. This program ties together Three Streams of activities, conservation, support of the military and supported the smithsonian. Thats very important to our company. It is terrific to work with richard and corey and the others, colonel the jesse, and team to be able to support you and what you do. I had the privilege and in a prior life to be the head of Public Affairs and the department of defense. Had a great opportunity to work with Civil Affairs officers, psychological operations officers and related professions and the other services. I had a chance to spend time during the phase four operations in iraq after iraq he freedom in baghdad with the team that was over there immediately after the hostile operations went to the Baghdad Museum, saw the terrible devastation, corey was there the time. I dont that we were there the same time but the rescue that was taking place at that time and then coming full circle with the restoration and pieces of art over the last 20 years, its incredible what you are doing. Its a privilege for bank of america to be part of it and a privilege for me to be here with you today to help you celebrate you

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