01/07/2010
Lady Clarke named culture ambassador of the Regione del Veneto
Lady Clarke had been named amabassador for the culture of the Veneto region at an international workshop on tourism.
President of the Regione del Veneto, Luca Zaia, presented Lady Clarke with the award during a ceremony held at the Giorgio Cini Foundation on 1 July 2010. A number of committees were invited.
The following has been taken from the official programme of the ceremony:
Lady Frances Molyneux Clarke is well known and estimated worldwide for the commitment which she has selflessly and adamantly shown to the cause of safeguarding Venice, a city that she loves and has always considered to be the expression of a centuries long civilisation, a precious heritage to protect and to make available for all mankind. She has shown tireless dedication to this cause, initially with her husband, the late British Ambassador Sir Ashley Clarke, and then continuing in his footsteps with the establishment of the Venice in Peril Fund. The Fund was established to rise to the emergency of the exceptionally high tidal water that affected the city in 1966 and set the trend for the founding of other foreign Committees having a similar scope. Since 1968 she has striven actively to restore and preserve monuments of exceptional excellence, including Sansovino's Loggetta in St. Mark's Campanile, the Church of Madonna dell'Orto and the Emiliani Chapel in the Island of San Michele. Lady Clarke has received numerous acknowledgements and awards for the many aims achieved with the broad involvement of the international community and for the remarkable success of her prestigious initiatives: her untiring activity deserves mention not only for the innate generosity shown, but also for her discreet and modest attitude that arises from the desire to work driven by an authentic will to serve and support a whole community in the hard task of passing on to the future generation its inestimable historical, artistic and cultural treasures.
If the Veneto is acknowledged and famous worldwide for its immense heritage of culture, history, art and customs, the merit goes not only to the many Venetians who have taken and continue to take the characterising features of their land of origin there, where the events of the recent or distant past have led them, but also to a number of particularly prominent personalities who, although they are not Venetian by birth, have established a close bond with our Region, thus contributing to a large extent to the dissemination and the promotion of its image in the world.
As a result, it seems appropriate to suitably emphasise the major role played by such people, whom we might quite legitimately call 'Ambassadors' of our culture in the world. It is with this in mind that the Veneto Region has launched this initiative - in the framework of a broad programme aimed at enhancing its cultural heritage - to confer an award that will pay suitable tribute to those who have acted as prominent representatives of the Region: the aim is to highlight and sponsor their dissemination endeavour.
The Scientific Committee's choice immediately fell on Lady Frances Clarke: a prominent figure, a woman who has embraced, with enthusiasm and sincere passion, the cause of safeguarding and enhancing the Veneto's historical and cultural heritage, activating and involving many resources in the process. She is the emblem of a virtuous model that is becoming increasingly popular on the international scene.
Having, as she has, all the qualities that characterise an authentic 'Ambassador of Venetian Culture', the Region would like, with this award, to express its gratitude to her, trusting that her example will set a trend for others to follow in the future, with the will to encourage the appreciation of the inestimable and broad heritage that which contributes to defining our same identity.
The President of the Veneto Region
Luca Zaia