Cultural Emergency Response Programme
Tue, 2015-03-03 21:12
Where cultural heritage has been adversely affected by conflict, natural or manmade disaster, the Cultural Emergency Response (CER) programme at the Prince Claus Fund can offer help. CER can consider funding proposals that aim to stabilise the situation in the immediate aftermath of disaster in countries within Africa, Latin America, Asia, Eastern Europe or the Caribbean. We act as a “cultural ambulance”, providing immediate support to halt the continued deterioration of a situation, as well as providing first relief.
The projects that CER has been involved in include the evacuation of Islamic manuscripts from Timbuktu to prevent their destruction at the hands of rebel forces in the north of Mali. CER also supported the urgent repair of the San Guillermo church in the Philippines after a magnitude 7.2 earthquake left it severely weakened and helped to rehouse the collection of the Zenica city museum in Bosnia and Herzegovina after it flooded in 2014. More information on these projects is available on the CER website here.
In certain situations, CER is also able to support other emergency actions, including preventative actions where a disaster seems inevitable and Damage Assessment Missions, where no reliable information about the impact of the disaster or conflict is available. These missions aim to map the damage to cultural heritage and determine priorities in need of quick intervention. Please contact us for more details.
Should you or anyone within your network know of a site recently damaged and in need of immediate help in a region in which CER operates, we would welcome a proposal, to be submitted to: cer@princeclausfund.nl. The form for submitting a proposal can be found on the right hand side of this page, in the Fund’s three working languages of English, French and Spanish. For a detailed overview of countries that are eligible to receive CER support, please click here.
PLEASE NOTE: CER does not provide long-term development or peacebuilding funding related to cultural heritage.The grants provided are usually relatively small (up to 35,000€) and always limited in duration (e.g. a few months, or one year).
We would advise any interested parties with questions about potential emergency relief projects to send those to the CER Programme team at: cer@princeclausfund.nl. These questions can be in any of the funds three working languages of English, Spanish or French.