Without Culture
Perspectives from The Artist's Road
Taller Buddha of Bamiyan Before and After Destruction (Wikipedia)
“Without culture, and the relative freedom it implies, society, even when perfect, is but a jungle. This is why any authentic creation is a gift to the future.”
- Albert Camus
Training began in March, 2020, for a new American force of specialists. The training took place at the Smithsonian Institution and the specialists were Army reservists, all experts in their fields of fine arts, conservation and archaeology. After training, the team members were deployed part-time to military units as needed. Their mission is to identify important cultural heritage sites in countries which are under siege by war or other disaster circumstances.
The team consists of museum directors and archivists who can identify vulnerable monuments and works of art with the goal of informing military forces and host nations of those sensitive cultural areas that need to be protect…