NORTHFIELD, Vt. — Norwich University’s Sullivan Museum and History Center will present “Today’s Monuments Men and Women: The Role of the Military In Cultural Heritage Protection,” a presentation by art historian and retired U.S. Army reservist Maj. Corine Wegener at 7 p.m. Feb. 5 in Mack Hall Auditorium.
Admission is free and open to the public.
The “Monuments Men and Women” of World War II provided a roadmap for cultural heritage protection in war, later codified in the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict. Despite efforts to improve training and security, loss of cultural property during armed conflicts has increased in recent years, partly because of intentional targeting by armed nonstate actors. Wegener will describe the work of the Word War II Monuments Men and Women and the modern military’s role in cultural heritage protection.
In a new project unveiled in October, Wegener will help train modern “Monuments Men” — service members who will work to preserve cultural treasures during wars, ABC News and other outlets reported. The program is part of an agreement between the Smithsonian Cultural Rescue Initiative and the U.S. Army Civil Affairs and Psychological Operations Command at Fort Bragg in North Carolina.
Wegener served an officer in the U.S. Army Civil Affairs Corps. Her last assignment was as an arts, monuments, and archives officer in Iraq. Smithsonian magazine reported that she helped the National Museum of Iraq recover items after looting took place in Iraq during the war in 2003.
She is an art historian and worked as a curator at the Minneapolis Institute of Art for 13 years. In 2010, Wegener served as international project coordinator for the Smithsonian’s Haiti Cultural Recovery Project, preserving more than 30,000 objects of Haitian heritage after the 2010 earthquake. In 2012, she became director of the Smithsonian Cultural Rescue Initiative, an outreach program to train and support cultural heritage professionals, first responders, and the military working in heritage disaster risk management and response. Projects have included assistance for cultural heritage in New York after Hurricane Sandy and emergency training workshops for cultural heritage professionals from Mali, Iraq, Syria, Nepal and other countries experiencing disasters.
Wegener has a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Nebraska, Omaha and Master of Arts degrees in political science and art history from the University of Kansas.
The Sullivan Museum and History Center, Vermont’s only Smithsonian affiliate, features permanent exhibitions and changing exhibitions. The museum, for which admission is free and open to the public, is open 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday during the academic year.
Call (802) 485-2183 or visit http://academics.norwich.edu/museum for more information about the programs or exhibit.
* * *
About Norwich University
Norwich University is a diversified academic institution that educates traditional-age students and adults in a Corps of Cadets and as civilians. Norwich offers a broad selection of traditional and distance-learning programs culminating in Baccalaureate and Graduate Degrees. Norwich University was founded in 1819 by Captain Alden Partridge of the U.S. Army and is the oldest private military college in the United States of America. Norwich is one of our nation's six senior military colleges and the birthplace of the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC). www.norwich.edu
Norwich University celebrates its bicentennial throughout 2019. In fulfillment of Norwich’s mission to train and educate today’s students to be tomorrow’s global leaders, Norwich launched the Forging the Future campaign in 2014. The five-year campaign, which is timed to culminate in 2019, is committed to creating the best possible learning environment through state-of-the-art academics and world-class facilities and is designed to enhance the university’s strong position as it steps into its third century of service to the nation. For information please go to: http://bicentennial.norwich.edu/
Media contact
Daphne Larkin
Office of Communications
Norwich University
Northfield, Vt.
(802) 485-2886
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
