Corine Wegner is the Cultural Heritage Preservation Officer in the Office of the Under Secretary for History, Art, and Culture at the Smithsonian Institution. She coordinates the Smithsonian’s role in emergency response and recovery for cultural heritage threatened by natural disasters, human conflict, and other challenges. Her connection to Smithsonian began with the Haiti Cultural Recovery Project, where she served as international project coordinator for the preservation of more than 30,000 objects of Haitian heritage after the devastating 2010 earthquake. Her recent projects include assistance for cultural heritage in New York after Hurricane Sandy and emergency training workshops for cultural heritage professionals from Mali, Iraq, Syria, Nepal and other countries experiencing disasters.

Before her arrival to the Smithsonian, Corine was associate curator in the department of Decorative Arts, Textiles, and Sculpture at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. In her concurrent Army Reserve career, she served her last assignment as the Arts, Monuments, and Archives officer for the 352d Civil Affairs Command in Baghdad, Iraq. Corine assisted staff at Iraq National Museum in the aftermath of devastating looting and supervised the preservation and freezing of the water damaged collections known as the Iraqi Jewish Archive. Now retired from the Army Reserve, she continues to serve on the board of the Civil Affairs Association and organizes regular military cultural heritage awareness events at Smithsonian. In 2006, Corine founded the U.S. Committee of the Blue Shield, part of an international organization dedicated to raising awareness of the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the event of Armed Conflict. Her efforts led to the U.S. ratification of this important treaty in 2009.

Corine lectures and writes about the importance of cultural property protection during natural disasters and armed conflict. She holds a BGS from the University of Nebraska-Omaha and dual MA degrees in Art History and Political Science from the University of Kansas. Read more . . .

Article

• Quntar, Salam Al, Hanson, Katharyn, Daniels, Brian I., and Wegener, Corine. 2015. "Responding to a Cultural Heritage Crisis: The Example of the Safeguarding the Heritage of Syria and Iraq Project." Near Eastern Archaeology, 78, (3) 154–160. https://doi.org/10.5615/neareastarch.78.3.0154. 2015

Chapter

• Wegener, Corine. 2014. "Epilogue: Ask Yourself “What If . . . ?”." In Unexpected—Earthquake 2011: Lessons to Be Learned. Charola, A. Elena, Wegener, Corine, and Koestler, Robert J., editors. 101–102. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press. In Smithsonian Contributions to Museum Conservation; No. 4. https://doi.org/10.5479/si.19492367.4. 2014

Conference Paper

• Lione, Brian Michael, Khorsheed Qadir, Abdullah, Hanson, Katharyn, Johnson, Jessica S., and Wegener, Corine. 2018. "Stabilization and Recovery of Iraqi Cultural Heritage in post-ISIS Contexts: Ongoing Efforts at the Iraqi Institute for the Conservation of Antiquities and Heritage." from ICOMOS 19th General Assembly and Scientific Symposium "Heritage and Democracy", 13-14th December 2017, New Delhi, India. ICOMOS. 2018

Dataset

• Gunter-Bassett, Madeleine, Bassett, Hayden, Hanson, Katharyn, Welsh, William F., Fitzgerald, Kaitlyn, Maher, Abigail, Aronson, Jacob, Cil, Deniz, Averyt, Katelynn, Carroll, Colleen, Wegener, Corine, and Daniels,Brian, I. 2023. [Dataset] Cultural Heritage Monitoring Lab Rapid Report: Damage to the Sudan National Museum (18 May 2023). [4958823-Bytes] Distributed by Smithsonian Cultural Rescue Initiative. https://doi.org/10.25573/DATA.22963304.V1. 2023
• Bassett, Hayden, Gunter-Bassett, Madeleine, Welsh, William F., Fitzgerald, Kaitlyn, Maher, Abigail, Aronson, Jacob, Cil, Deniz, Hanson, Katharyn, Averyt, Katelynn, Carroll, Colleen, Wegener, Corine, and Daniels,Brian, I. 2023. [Dataset] Cultural Heritage Monitoring Lab Rapid Report: Damage to the Sudan Natural History Museum (17 May 2023). [4259150 Bytes] Distributed by Smithsonian Cultural Rescue Initiative. https://doi.org/10.25573/DATA.22932470.V2. 2023

Book

• Charola, A. Elena, Wegener, Corine, and Koestler, Robert J., editors. 2014. Unexpected--Earthquake 2011: Lessons to Be Learned. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press. In Smithsonian Contributions to Museum Conservation, 4. https://doi.org/10.5479/si.19492367.4. 2014
• Charola, A. Elena, Wegener, Corine, and Koestler, Robert J., editors. 2014. Unexpected-Earthquake 2011: Lessons to Be Learned. In Smithsonian Contributions to Museum Conservation, 4. https://doi.org/10.5479/si.19492367.4. 2014

Presentation

• Rogala, Dawn V., Wegener, Corine, Billeck, William T., and Swift, Jacquetta. 2020. Before, During, and After: U.S. Cultural Heritage Policy Support at the Smithsonian Institution [presentation]. Cultural Heritage Preservation 11th Annual Conference, August 27, 2020. Virtual.