Corporate Sponsors,
Culture in Museamericas

A colossal stone head weighing several tons is being transported into classrooms around the Americas, thanks to MuseAmericas, a new on-line museum highlighting art, culture and history from North, Central and South America and the Caribbean.

The MuseAmericas site will link more than 1,000 museums and cultural institutions in the 34 member countries of the Organization of American States (OAS). The site went on line in April 2001. The goal is to link all the cultural Web sites in the hemisphere through a single "information plaza."

This ambitious endeavor is being funded entirely through corporate sponsorship, which has been generous and continues to grow. Donations from corporations include not only operating funds but also invaluable technical support. Many of these donors are also contributing toward the longer-term goal of building a Museum of the Americas in Washington, D.C., to celebrate the region’s culture.

Telmex, Mexico’s largest telephone company, provided the seed capital for MuseAmericas and is directing the technical construction of the project. The electronic hub of the site is located in Monterrey, Mexico. Telmex president Carlos Slim Helú, who has been personally involved with MuseAmericas since its inception, is Chairman of the Inter-American Board of Advisors of the Museum of Americas Foundation. His daughter, Soumaya Slim-Domit, serves on the Board of Directors.

Microsoft Corporation provided the Museum of the Americas Foundation with seed capital for feasibility studies, fund-raising campaigns and other start-up costs. Microsoft has been even more generous toward the MuseAmericas site, providing technical assistance, software and public relations support.

Cisco Systems is providing routers, servers and firewalls for MuseAmericas for the next three years. Cisco also is providing extensive public relations support.

Global Crossing is providing free access to its submarine fiber optic cable, which literally encircles the Americas from the North Atlantic coasts, through St. Croix, around Cape Horn and up the Pacific Coast. The submarine cable is in place to allow classrooms around the Americas to receive audio and video in real time.

Lucent Technologies and its spin-off company, Avaya Communications, are contributing their expertise and technological support in interactive long-distance education. Another key contributor is cl@se, the Cisneros Television Group's multimedia educational service, which currently reaches 38,000 schools and one million subscriber homes throughout Latin America.

Hewlett Packard’s invaluable contribution will address the critical issue of access to the MuseAmericas "information plaza." The company is donating computers and technical support to thousands of classrooms in the hemisphere, focusing on schools that would otherwise not be able to afford the technology.

Other international companies supporting the Museum of the Americas Foundation include Wachovia Bank, Stanford Financial Group, Visa International, and Philip Morris