Richard Kurin, the Smithsonian’s Under Secretary for History, Art and Culture, will present "Saving Haiti’s Heritage: Cultural Recovery after the Earthquake" Thursday, May 17th as part of the Cultural Policy Center.

The presentation will be from 1:30 - 3:00 PM, at 1115 E. 58th Street.

The catastrophic earthquake that struck Haiti on January 12, 2010, killed more than 250,000 people, left over 1.5 million homeless and destroyed much of the nation’s infrastructure. It also devastated Haiti’s rich cultural heritage. Historic buildings, museums, libraries, archives, galleries, churches, theaters, artists' workshops and marketplaces were damaged and ruined. In the aftermath of the earthquake, the Smithsonian Institution spearheaded an emergency project to try to rescue, safeguard and preserve Haiti’s important collections of art, artifacts, museum objects, architectural features, documents, film, photographs and video and sound recordings. Richard Kurin, the Smithsonian’s Under Secretary for History, Art and Culture and author of Saving Haiti’s Heritage: Cultural Recovery after the Earthquake, will tell the inside story of how the Smithsonian managed to pull off one of the few successful international efforts to respond to cultural disaster.

For more information, or to download the book, visit the Cultural Policy Center site.