Bonnie Burnham: “The Greater World Doesn’t Understand, or Think About, the Preservation of Monuments”
Bonnie Burnham discusses pressing issues facing the field of archeological preservation worldwide and the lack of priority given to protecting historical and cultural heritage today.
Burnham is the president emerita of World Monuments Fund (WMF). Joining as executive director in 1985, she led WMF’s historic international preservation work. Previously she served as the executive director of the International Foundation for Art Research, from 1975 to 1985. Burnham is an expert in the protection and preservation of cultural heritage. She has been honored as a Chevalier of the French Order of Arts and Letters, is a Distinguished Alumna of the College of Fine Arts of the University of Florida, and is the first recipient of its Beinecke-Reeves Distinguished Achievement Award in Historic Preservation. She received the Founders Award for Civic Leadership from Partners for Livable Communities in 2013. She holds an honorary doctorate from Florida Southern College and degrees in the history of art from the University of Florida and the Université de Paris-Sorbonne.