Gustavo F. Araoz elected president of ICOMOS

Gustavo F. Araoz, AIA, was elected President of the International
Council of Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) during the organization's
16th General Assembly and International Scientific Colloquium, held
in Quebec City, Canada, from September 29 to October 4, 2008. Mr.
Araoz currently serves as Executive Director of the United States
Committee for ICOMOS (US/ICOMOS), headquartered in Washington, DC.
He is the seventh President of ICOMOS, and the first American ever
elected to this office. ICOMOS was founded in 1965 to create an
international network of professionals and supporters of heritage
conservation and has grown to become the pre-eminent global historic
preservation organization.

Mr. Araoz ran on a platform calling for broader and more active
participation by the 120 national ICOMOS committees globally,
greater engagement of young professionals, and improved
institutional effectiveness, efficiency and transparency.   In sum,
Mr. Araoz envisions an ICOMOS that is a universally accessible stage
for the open exchange of ideas, a major source for the creation and
spread of knowledge, a venue for cross-border cooperation, an alert
steward of cultural heritage places everywhere, and, foremost, the
undisputed world authority in heritage conservation.

Born in Cuba, Mr. Araoz is a preservation architect by training. His
career combines professional practice, academia, and institutional
management. He has served as Executive Director of the United States
Committee of ICOMOS since 1995. Since 2002, he has served as
International Vice President of ICOMOS, spearheading organizational
reforms and advocating greater engagement of ICOMOS members
worldwide. He has taught at several universities in the US,
including the University of Pennsylvania.  He has been visiting
professor at the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil, the Catholic
University of Salta in Argentina, and at CICOP in Tenerife and
Buenos Aires.

Commenting on the election results, John Fowler, Chairman of the
Board of US/ICOMOS, observed: "Mr. Araoz's election signals a great
future for all ICOMOS. For the United States, this is an
unprecedented opportunity to increase our participation in
international cooperative efforts to preserve the world's cultural
heritage. Mr. Araoz has worked diligently for ICOMOS in the past,
and we are certain that from his new position he will bring
exceptional skill and energy to promote heritage conservation as an
important part of the global agenda."

ICOMOS is an international, non-governmental organization dedicated
to the conservation and protection of cultural heritage places and
to the creation, dissemination and application of theory,
methodology, and scientific techniques for heritage conservation.
Headquartered in Paris, France, it is the only global non-government
organization of this kind. Its 9,500 members spread throughout the
entire world to form the only global inter-disciplinary and
multi-cultural network of heritage experts and supporters, among
which are architects, historians, archaeologists, construction
materials conservators, art historians, lawyers, geographers,
anthropologists, engineers, anthropologists and town planners. For
more information on ICOMOS, go to
<URL:http://www.international.icomos.org>

As the sole international body with global multidisciplinary and
multi-cultural expertise, ICOMOS has been designated official
adviser to UNESCO on the implementation of the World Heritage
Convention. For more information on the World Heritage program, see

    <URL:http://www.unesco.org/culture>

US/ICOMOS is among the more than 120 National Committees of ICOMOS,
and is one of the largest and most active in the organization. Its
mission is to foster international preservation principles in the
United States and to support the active engagement of American
specialists in all international heritage forums. For more
information on US/ICOMOS, go to <URL:http://www.icomos.org/usicomos>

For further information, contact

    US/ICOMOS
    202-842-1866
    401 F Street NW, Room 331
    Washington DC 20001-2728


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 22:22
                 Distributed: Monday, October 13, 2008
                       Message Id: cdl-22-22-002
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