The V&A and the British Council are pleased to announce that the management and coordination of the Culture in Crisis programme will transfer to the Cultural Protection Fund (managed by the British Council) from the V&A, effective form 1 February 2026.

For over a decade the V&A has been home to the Culture in Crisis programme, working to bring together those with a shared interest in heritage preservation, developing an important forum for sharing information, supporting collective action and raising public awareness. From its founding, the programme’s mission has been to help to protect the world's cultural heritage and supporting communities that suffer cultural loss, whether through Conflict, Criminal Acts or the impacts of the Climate Crisis.

Through our collective efforts, Culture in Crisis has generated a thriving public programme, with an international reputation, comprising annual international conferences as well as bi-monthly public lectures, seminars and symposiums (in person and online). In 2019 the programme launched an ambitious digital project, to bring together the world’s heritage preservation projects onto a freely accessible database, the Culture in Crisis Portal. This is now the world’s largest database of heritage preservation activities, with over 1,200 projects connecting over 600 organisations, funders and practitioners, welcoming over 35,000 users from 182 countries each year.

This next phase will see the work of Culture in Crisis evolve under the stewardship of the Cultural Protection Fund, led by British Council in partnership with the UK’s Department of Culture, Media and Sport, and we look forward to working together to build on the achievements of the last decade.