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Preserving Endangered Culture
Our aim is to ensure knowledge of the world’s cultural diversity is not lost. Our grants support the documentation of endangered cultural heritage, ensuring it is available to future generations.
We recognize that change is part of the historical processes that shape our cultures, and that true loss of heritage occurs only if we miss the opportunity to record it. Much of the world’s cultural and historical heritage remains poorly known, receives little protection, and is at risk of erasure, leaving our perception of history and culture impoverished and distorted.
Our grants support digital documentation of unique written materials, artefacts, sites, practices and languages which are poorly recorded and under imminent threat. We primarily fund documentation outside Europe and North America, where the need is greatest and resources are most limited. Our projects create partnerships with local organizations and institutions able to secure long term preservation and free access to the records.
Focus Areas
Archives and manuscripts
Our grants help digitize at-risk collections. These can include anything written, from ancient religious texts to official state documents, as well as photographs, audio and video recordings, and even born-digital material. Since 2002 we have supported initiatives that together have digitized and published online more than 15 million pages of materials that would not have been available otherwise.
Intangible culture
We support documentation of endangered languages and cultural practices. Our long-standing programme to record at-risk languages has so far documented more than 550 languages around the world. We also help to digitally record endangered traditional practices, knowledge and skills.
Heritage sites
We help to document archaeological sites and buildings. We currently support projects that document heritage sites in Sub-Saharan Africa, Pakistan and Northern India, the Middle East and North Africa, Central Asia, Southeast Asia, China and Nepal. The documentation varies from records based on satellite imagery, to extensive on-the-ground documentation and 3D scans of buildings and the objects they contain.
Approach to grantmaking
Priorities
We have updated our grantmaking priorities to reflect technological developments in documentation and digitization. Read more about our priorities here.
Regranting programmes
We have five cultural regranting programmes, hosted by partner organizations. Our regranting programmes support a range of small-scale projects, often developed locally by communities. Read more here.
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Case Study: 05 December 2022
Digitizing at-risk archival collections from the 20th and 21st Centuries
The Modern Endangered Archives Program documents and digitizes at-risk materials from the previous and current century.
Programme: Preserving endangered cultureFocus area: Archives and ManuscriptsGrantee: The University of California, Los Angeles -
Case Study: 25 November 2022
Mapping and protecting Africa's archaeological heritage
The MAEASaM project is mapping thousands of archaeological heritage sites in eight African countries.
Programme: Preserving endangered cultureFocus area: Heritage sitesGrantee: University of Cambridge -
News: 16 September 2022
New grant to continue the Modern Endangered Archived Program
Our new grant of $13m will support an additional 150 projects over the next eight years. All resulting materials will be made available online for free.
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Article: 03 March 2022
Cultural regranting programmes
Our regranting programmes help our funding reach further and support a wide range of small-scale projects, often developed locally by communities.
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Article: 03 March 2022
New priorities for our cultural programme
New priorities for our programme to preserve endangered culture will help us put our principles into action.
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Reports: 25 February 2022
Annual report 2021
Our 2021 annual report is now available, in which we share highlights from our grantees’ work and details on new initiatives.
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News: 11 November 2020
New grant to continue the Endangered Material Knowledge Programme
Our new grant to the British Museum will support EMKP for an additional seven years.
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Case Study: 15 September 2020
Documenting threats to maritime and coastal archaeology in MENA
The Maritime Endangered Archaeology project (MarEA) records and assess threats to archaeology along a 55,000 km coastline.
Programme: Preserving endangered cultureFocus area: Heritage sitesGrantee: University of Southampton -
Case Study: 10 September 2020
Recording the world's endangered languages
The Endangered Languages Documentation Programme supports linguists in recording at-risk languages.
Programme: Preserving endangered cultureFocus area: Intangible cultureGrantee: Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften -
Case Study: 10 September 2020
Endangered Archaeology in the Middle East and North Africa (EAMENA)
The rich archaeological heritage of the Middle East and North Africa is under threat from agricultural development, urban expansion, warfare and looting.
Programme: Preserving endangered cultureFocus: Heritage sitesGrantee: University of Oxford, School of Archaeology -
Case Study: 10 September 2020
Documenting archaeological heritage in Central Asia
The Central Asian Archaeological Landscape (CAAL) project works to document, digitize and help protect Central Asia’s rich archaeological heritage.
Programme: Preserving endangered cultureFocus area: Heritage sitesGrantee: University College London -
Case Study: 26 August 2020
Documenting historic temples and wall paintings in Shanxi, China
Many of these buildings contain wall paintings illustrating stories from Chinese folk beliefs, Buddhism and Taoism.
Programme: Preserving endangered cultureFocus: Heritage SitesGrantee: University College London - Institute of Archaeology -
Case Study: 22 September 2020
Documenting monuments and heritage objects in Nepal
Creating an online database of sites and monuments in the Kathmandu Valley.
Programme: Preserving endangered cultureFocus area: Heritage sitesGrantee: Heidelberg University -
Case Study: 22 September 2020
Digitizing at-risk manuscripts in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and South Asia
Digitizing manuscript collections in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia and making them freely accessible.
Programme: Preserving endangered cultureFocus area: Archives and manuscriptsGrantee: Hill Museum & Manuscript Library -
Case Study: 21 September 2020
Digitizing endangered archives
The Endangered Archives Programme supports projects to digitize neglected, vulnerable or inaccessible archives around the world.
Programme: Preserving endangered cultureFocus area: Archives and manuscriptsGrantee: British Library -
Case Study: 10 September 2020
Maldives Heritage Survey
The island nation of the Maldives is an important site on the maritime crossroads of the Indian Ocean.
Programme: Preserving endangered cultureFocus area: Heritage sitesGrantee: University of Oxford, Centre for Islamic Studies
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Dr Arthur Dudney
Director of Cultural Programmes
Arthur manages Arcadia’s cultural grants. He was previously a research fellow at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, and a teaching fellow at SOAS. He holds a PhD from Columbia University’s Department of Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies, and an AB from Princeton University’s Department of Classics.
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Dr Mike Heyworth
Consultant to Cultural Programmes
Mike works as a consultant as part of the culture team. He is an archaeologist by training and was previously the executive director of the Council for British Archaeology. He is now a consultant working with a range of archaeology and heritage groups across the UK. He holds a PhD from the University of Bradford in archaeological science.
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Total awarded since 2002:$million% of Arcadia’s total giving:%Number of active grants:Number of grants: