CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 1/14/2014

The Smithsonian Haiti Cultural Recovery Project and the Future of Heritage Disaster Response

This week on the Metropolis Books site, Corine Wegener, Cultural Heritage Preservation Officer for the Smithsonian Institution, reports on the Haiti Cultural Recovery Project, ensuring that "those in need will have a heritage to return to, for themselves and for their children."

Photos below are by Corine Wegener. To read the complete post, continue to the Metropolis Books site.

Haiti's National Cathedral in Port-au-Prince. Begun in 1884, the Cathedral was renowned for its stained glass.

'The Last Supper,' a damaged mural from The Holy Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, prior to its removal for restoration. The Cathedral was home to 15 murals painted between 1947 and 1951 before it was destroyed.

CORINE WEGENER works as the Cultural Heritage Preservation Officer in the Office of the Under Secretary for History, Art and Culture at the Smithsonian Institution where she coordinates the Smithsonian’s role in the preservation of cultural heritage threatened by natural disasters, human conflict, and other challenges. She served as International Project Coordinator for the Smithsonian’s Haiti Cultural Recovery Project, 2010-2011. An art historian of American and European decorative arts, Wegener’s last position was Associate Curator in the department of Decorative Arts, Textiles and Sculpture at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts where she worked for thirteen years. A retired major in the U.S. Army Reserve, Wegener served as the Arts, Monuments and Archives Officer for the 352nd Civil Affairs Command in Baghdad, Iraq, where she assisted staff of the Iraq National Museum and Iraqi Ministry of Culture with the recovery and preservation of their collections in 2003-2004. She is also the founder of the U.S. Committee of the Blue Shield, a nonprofit organization dedicated to U.S. implementation of the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict. Wegener earned her dual Master of Arts degrees in Political Science and Art History at the University of Kansas and her bachelor’s degree in Political Science at the University of Nebraska at Omaha.