Save Venice Inc., based in New York with an office in Venice, has raised more than 20 million dollars to restore over 400 works of art and architecture in Venice. Every year, the Board of Save Venice, including a Projects Committee of renowned experts, selects restoration projects in collaboration with the Venetian Superintendencies of Monuments, Fine Arts and Museums. Save Venice currently has more than 30 projects underway throughout the city, made possible with support from individuals, foundations, and Chapters in Boston and California.
Save Venice Inc. was established in response to the serious damage caused by the November 1966 floods – the highest tide in Venice in the last century. More than thirty international committees were formed under the administrative umbrella of UNESCO to restore and preserve the priceless and irreplaceable cultural heritage of Venice.
Originally the Venice Committee of the International Fund for Monuments, Save Venice became an independent, charitable organization in 1971. The founders were an extraordinary trio: John McAndrew (1904–78), Professor of Art History at Wellesley College; his wife, Betty Bartlett McAndrew (1906–86); and Sydney J. Freedberg (1914–97), Chairman of the Department of Art at Harvard and Chief Curator Emeritus of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. Their successors, now spread across the United States and the globe, have made Save Venice by far the largest and most active committee preserving the cultural patrimony of Venice.
Each year, the Superintendents for the Artistic and Historic Heritage of Venice and for the Architectural Heritage of Venice, along with church leaders, museum curators, interested citizens, and friends of Save Venice suggest works of art and buildings in need of restoration. The board of Save Venice then chooses which projects to sponsor according to artistic merit and urgency of need. The conservation treatments are carried out by carefully selected restorers in Venice, and the restorers’ work is supervised both by the Superintendency and by Save Venice representatives. This attention to detail assures that donations are tracked at each step of the restoration process and are used wisely.
About our website:
Savevenice.org is sponsored by The Hazen Polsky Foundation, Inc. and redesigned in 2010. We are grateful for its generous and continued support.
Production Team: Melissa Conn, Leslie Contarini, Elizabeth S. Makrauer, Karen L. Marshall, Dagna R. Rucewicz
Design/Coordination: Michael LaPlaca, LaPlaca Creative http://www.laplacacreative.com/
Construction and XLimage® technology: Centrica http://www.centrica.it/
Photographs provided by: Cameraphoto Arte, Dino Chinellato, Matteo De Fina, Claudio Franzin, Michael LaPlaca, Ralph Lieberman, Karen L. Marshall, Mario Polesel, Procuratoria di San Marco, Mark Smith, Superintendency of Fine Arts and Monuments of Venice, Musei Civici Veneziani, and the Save Venice archives. Photographs are reproduced with permission of the Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali, Fondazione Musei Civici Veneziani, Curia Patriarcale di Venezia, and Procuratoria di San Marco. Event photographs by: Jesse Camacho, Linda Dubilier, Roger Farrington, Art Gray, Mary Hilliard, Justin Knight, Mia Matheson, Patrick McMullan, Lee Salem, Julie Skarratt, and Darren Stahlman. Writing and Research: Lorenzo Buonanno, Elizabeth Carroll, Melissa Conn, Leslie Contarini, Frederick Ilchman, Elizabeth Makrauer, Karen L. Marshall, David Rosand, Dagna Rucewicz. Student interns involved with the research of this site: Carolina Bianchi, Erica Kamin, Ashlyn Lovejoy, and Kimberly Tamboer. Save Venice thanks Tia F. Chapman, Beatrice H. Guthrie, and the Columbia University Media Center for their work in creating and first launching savevenice.org which was also sponsored by The Hazen Polsky Foundation, Inc.
