KAROL WIGHT APPOINTED TO US STATE DEPARTMENT CULTURAL PROPERTY ADVISORY COMMITTEE

Karol Wight, president and executive director of the Corning Museum of Glass in New York, has been appointed to an advisory post on the US State Department Cultural Property Advisory Committee. Former president Barack Obama confirmed Wight to the post on January 11.

The committee counsels the president and various government officials on the renewal or creation of memoranda designed to safeguard the cultural heritage of foreign countries. The committee is made up of eleven experts appointed by the president for three-year terms. Two advisors, of which Wight will be one, speak on behalf of museums. Some advisors have training in fields such as anthropology, archaeology, and ethnology, while others are chosen to represent the interests of the general public.

Wight will stay at the Corning Museum but will spend time each year in Washington, DC, to fulfill her new duties. “I am deeply honored to have been appointed by President Obama to the Cultural Property Advisory Committee and look forward to representing the American museum community in future discussions concerning the protection of cultural patrimony of other nations,” Wight said. “I feel very privileged to serve my country in this way.”