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A photograph of a group of people smiling in front of Petra, a rock carved facade of a building carved into a mountain

Our 10th anniversary

Celebrating 10 years of the Cultural Protection Fund

June 2026 marked a decade since the Cultural Protection Fund (CPF) was first launched as the UK's main response to international cultural heritage protection. 

To date, CPF has awarded over £57 million to 178 projects in 20 countries, enabling organisations and communities to protect, document and conserve culturally significant sites, objects, and traditions.  

We're celebrating our work, designed to safeguard heritage at risk from conflict and climate change, through a series of events, publications and other engagement activities.  

 

'10 Stories for 10 Years'

How do you end up protecting endangered cultural heritage?

To highlight CPF’s work over the past decade, we commissioned Frazer Hay to produce a ten-part profile series, 10 Stories for 10 Years.

This collection of exclusive interviews explores what drives those closest to the fund, tracing their varied paths towards protecting endangered heritage.

 

  • Lady smiling, arms folded, outside wearing black clothes.
    HRH Princess Dana

    ‘It’s All Connected’: HRH Princess Dana Firas and the Continuum of Cultural Heritage

    'Warm, thoughtful, relaxed and quietly funny. There was no sense of distance or performance. Instead, there was attentiveness, openness and genuine curiosity.'

  • Smiling man wearing a dark blazer and tie, stood outdoors by the River Thames in London with bright buildings and a bus on the bridge behind him.
    Sir John Whittingdale

    To Strive is to Shine: Sir John Whittingdale

    'Listening to Sir John describe the process, I was struck by how much persuasion, diplomacy and coalition-building were required simply to allow the Fund to exist.'

  • In a workshop, a woman wearing a headscarf it standing by an old framed painting while a man in a mask next to her takes notes.
    Nadia Hashimi

    Nadia Hashimi: Heritage, Resilience and the Foundation of Community

    'Kind, wise, and quietly inspiring. Her story speaks of a remarkable journey through resilience and determination.'

  • Woman with long dark hair wearing a beige embroidered dress standing in a stone doorway with hands in pockets.
    Omniya Abdel Barr

    Omniya Abdel Barr: Ideas, imagination and the soul of the city

    'That, perhaps, is where cultural heritage becomes most politically important. Not simply in preserving stones or facades, but in preserving evidence of complexity, tolerance, exchange.'

  • Two people stood in art gallery, both looking at the same artwork, the man pointing.
    Rashad Salim and Hannah Lewis

    Rashad Salim and Hannah Lewis: Boats, Memory and the Work of Reconnection

    'Safina Projects was never only about research. It was also about imagination.'

  • Man in sun, smiling, wearing blue T-shirt and sunglasses.
    Mahmoud Soliman

    Protecting Ways of Belonging: Mahmoud Soliman on land, memory, nonviolence and cultural heritage in Palestine

    'Mahmoud’s story is about continuity. Continuity between generations, between land and identity, between heritage and resilience.'

  • Lady smiling with flowery pattern on the wall behind her, to the left.
    Shoshana Stewart

    Shoshana Stewart: Craft, continuity and the courage to keep making

    'Shoshana is, at heart, a crew person, someone who believes in rhythm, endurance, collective effort and the discipline of pulling together.

  • Young woman in a hijab sits beside detailed plaster casts and sculpting tools in a bright art studio.
    Eshraq Al-Abrash

    Eshraq Al-Abrash: Stone, survival and the beginning of something new

    'No grand museum, no archive, no formal backdrop. Just a conversation, and a story that carried its own weight.'

  • Man smiling with other men beside him.
    Kimani Njogu

    Kimani Njogu: From Blue Hill to Bajuni Heritage

    'For Kimani, this is not only about saving words. It is about safeguarding knowledge, identity and possibility.'

  • Lady speaking to young students via a microphone as part of a visit to an exhibition.
    Lama Abboud

    Lama Abboud: Life returns to the stage

    'Trust, in Syria, is not an easy word. For Lama, it had to be rebuilt carefully, patiently, and often in silence.'

‘I can’t tell you how impressed I am by the Cultural Protection Fund… it is again of even greater importance to ensure we have something left in the face of all the challenges and disasters around the world.’

King Charles III

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Photograph of three men on a scaffold working to restore a dome made out of stone in Historic Cairo.

Ten years of the Cultural Protection Fund, yet the need is greater than ever

With CPF's extension to 2029, CPF Director, Stephanie Grant explains the work of the Fund and why it remains globally important.

Person in dark clothing crouches on a rocky landscape with large mountains in the background under a hazy sky.

Decoding Cultural Protection Fund's decade of supporting language preservation

Hear from Aksana Khan, CPF's Marketing, Communications and Engagement Manager, on why safeguarding and revitalising languages matters.

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The United Kingdom’s international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities.

A registered charity: 209131 (England and Wales) SC037733 (Scotland).