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Our Mission
The Inter-American Culture and Development Foundation (ICDF) seeks to strengthen cultural development in Latin America and the Caribbean through plans, programs, and projects designed to promote socio-economic sustainable ways of reducing poverty, improving quality-of-life, and achieving greater social equity in the region.
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The projects supported by the ICDF help to preserve the cultural patrimony, increase the community participation and education, strengthen cultural industries, and improve the living conditions of people in Latin America and the Caribbean through culture.
Strengthening of Cultural Heritage
Preserving the cultural heritage of Latin America and the Caribbean is an issue attracting ever-greater interest from public policy-makers and practitioners at the national, regional, and multilateral levels.
In fact, multilateral agencies such as UNESCO, the World Bank, and the Organization of Ibero-American States (OIS) are working to highlight the social, historical, and cultural importance of heritage preservation as a touch point of cultural identity and diversity. Broadly speaking, these agencies are working to preserve a legacy for future generations: the region’s rich cultural heritage and diversity.
The emergence of major regional training centers for the protection and preservation of cultural heritage in Latin America is another good example of how this area is becoming increasingly important for the cultural development of our peoples. The Churubusco Center (Mexico), the Cuzco Regional Center (Peru), and the CECRE conservation and restoration course (Brazil) all have solid educational offerings recognized around the world.
Cultural heritage is an important thread in a society’s cultural tapestry. This diversity holds great economic potential in terms of tourism and urban development in Latin America and the Caribbean. Cultural heritage can be either tangible or intangible:
- Tangible cultural heritage is mainly buildings and fixed assets. Most protection and preservation initiatives relate to the restoration of infrastructure, historic city centers, museum collections, photographic archives, film libraries, and crafts.
- Intangible cultural heritage includes the cultural practices originating in varied expressions of artistic creation such as traditional festivals, music, dance, theater, and generally those forms of artistic expression not employing physical media.
This broad conceptual framework illustrates the importance of cultural heritage in Latin America and the Caribbean, and the relevance of this thematic area to the technical and/or financial support provided by our organization.
The cultural heritage of a people includes the works of its artists, architects, musicians, writers and scientists and also the work of anonymous artists, expressions of the people’s spirituality, and the body of values which give meaning to life. It includes both tangible and intangible works through which the creativity of that people finds expression: languages, rites, beliefs, historic places and monuments, literature, works of art, archives, and libraries.
Source: UNESCO: World Conference on Cultural Policies in Mexico City 1982