Update from the Diplomacy Center Foundation
Ambassador Roman Popadiuk, President. April 2019
On May 8, 2019, the Founding Ambassadors Concourse of the United States Diplomacy Center will be dedicated during a special luncheon hosted by the Diplomacy Center Foundation. This very special event will honor individual donors who have received presidential appointments and have donated $100,000 or more.
To date, there are 65 Founding Ambassadors, and a total of $7.5 million has been raised. The campaign has been spearheaded by Ambassador Stuart Bernstein (ret.), who serves on the DCF Board of Directors. The Founding Ambassadors is a limited program that will end with the opening of the National Museum of American Diplomacy (formerly known as the United States Diplomacy Center) in 2022. In addition to a donor wall, a biography of each of the Founding Ambassadors will be available for viewing on a digital kiosk.
On permanent display in the Founding Ambassadors Concourse is a Signature Segment of the Berlin Wall with the signatures of many of the world leaders who dealt with the issue at the time, including President George H.W. Bush, German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev.
In October, Smithsonian Exhibits will install a permanent exhibit, which will highlight the leaders associated with this amazing moment in diplomatic history. There will be a timeline and explanation of the artist’s renderings on the wall itself. The Founding Ambassadors’ Concourse is currently used for outstanding public events and hosts very dynamic diplomatic simulation programs for students of all ages, which is administered by the NMAD education team. In the future, the Founding Ambassadors Concourse will have a media wall that will help enhance education programming along with a gift shop and café.
