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The Foundation for Art and Preservation in Embassies (FAPE), the leading non-profit organization dedicated to enhancing the United States image abroad through American art, has received a generous grant from the Rockefeller Foundation in the amount of $300,000.

The funds will be used to fulfill FAPE’s USUN Cultural Initiative by providing an outstanding collection of American art for permanent display at the new United States Mission to the United Nations (USUN) in New York City.

The grant, which is available to FAPE through October 2010, will partially fund the organization’s first site-specific donation to USUN — Sol LeWitt’s magnificent Wall Drawing #832: A red spiral line on blue as well as acquire art for the more than 50 public spaces which have been identified by the building’s architect, Charles Gwathmey of Gwathmey Siegel & Associates.

FAPE is working closely with Gwathmey Siegel, the U.S. Department of State, and the U.S. General Services Administration to fulfill its Cultural Initiative, and to ensure that USUN is a showcase of our nation’s rich and diverse culture.

“We are grateful to the Rockefeller Foundation for their tremendous support of FAPE’s mission to use art as a diplomatic language to encourage cross-cultural dialogue,” said FAPE Chairman Jo Carole Lauder. “By donating significant American art to USUN, we hope that citizens, dignitaries, visa applicants and government visitors from around the world will get to experience the finest that American culture has to offer.”

The U.S. Mission to the United Nations was created in 1947 through an act of Congress to assist President Harry Truman and the State Department in conducting U.S. policy at the United Nations. The Rockefeller family as well as the Foundation have strong ties to the United Nations from donating the land for the USUN building to years of programmatic support. USUN, which is located directly across from UN Headquarters, is slated to open in the summer of 2010.

The Foundation for Art and Preservation in Embassies is the leading non-profit organization dedicated to enhancing the United States image abroad through American art. Founded as a public-private, non-partisan partnership in 1986, FAPE works with the U.S. Department of State to contribute fine art to U.S. embassies around the world. FAPE’s donations include works by more than 186 preeminent American artists placed in over 140 countries. Headquartered in Washington D.C., FAPE has raised over $42 million in art and monetary contributions to date.