Corine Wegener

Background

About Corine Wegener

Directs the Smithsonian Cultural Rescue Initiative for cultural heritage collections in international and domestic museums, galleries, archives, libraries, and at archaeological sites threatened by natural disasters, human conflict, and other challenges. • Former Associate Curator of Decorative Arts, Textiles, and Sculpture at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, American and European decorative arts collections. • Retired major, U.S. Army Reserve, Civil Affairs Corps. Served as Arts, Monuments and Archives Officer for the 352nd Civil Affairs Command in Baghdad, Iraq, 2003-2004, including assisting the Iraq National Museum with the recovery and preservation of their collections after the looting during the U.S. invasion of 2003. • Past founding president of the U.S. Committee of the Blue Shield, a nonprofit organization dedicated to U.S. ratification and implementation of the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict. Coordinates Blue Shield cultural heritage training program for US military personnel since 2007. Past board member of the Association of National Committees of the Blue Shield. • International Project Coordinator for the Smithsonian Haiti Cultural Recovery Project after the 2010 Haiti earthquake. Included establishment of the Cultural Recovery Center in Port-au-Prince where volunteer conservators and Haitian colleagues and trainees recovered, restored, and treated over works of art, works on paper, books and historical documents over the course of 18 months. • Serves on the board of the U.S. Committee of the International Council of Museums (ICOM), the ICOM Disaster Relief Task Force, board member of the Civil Affairs Association.