The United States Embassy and National Museums and Monuments of Zimbabwe (NMMZ) celebrated the completion of the Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation (AFCP) project of a cloud-based database to manage and share the at-risk collections at the Museum of Human Sciences.
“This collection management system will allow Zimbabweans and the global community to access, research, and better understand the museum’s significant and unique cultural artefacts,” said U.S. Ambassador Pamela Tremont at the commissioning ceremony
In 2020, AFCP awarded $75,000 to National Museums and Monuments for the Zimbabwe Museum of Museum Sciences to develop a web-based database to document and safeguard thousands of important cultural items in its collection. The transition from a manual catalogue to a digital format documentation system will reduce the risk of theft, improve access to the collection, and spur greater interaction between the museum, public, scholars, and students.
The exchange of knowledge between Zimbabwean and American experts was a critical component of this project. The collaboration between the Zimbabwe Museum of HumanScience, the Fowler Museum at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles and the Harare Institute of Technology led to the creation of a database that is user-friendly and meets international standards for research and inter-museum loans.
The U.S. Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation has supported the conservation of cultural heritage around the worldfor nearly 25 years. U.S. Embassies in eligible countries have partnered with governments, universities, and NGOs around the world to preserve invaluable cultural materials through grants and information exchange. Since 2007, the American people, through AFCP, have invested US$950,000 in the documentation, conservation, and restoration of key heritage sites, artifacts, and traditions in Zimbabwe, of which $846,000 have been for projects with NMMZ.
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