What We Do | Managing American Spaces

Download a one pager about American Spaces here.
With over 600 locations worldwide, American Spaces are the U.S. government’s primary public cultural and information centers for communities worldwide interested in learning more about the United States.
American Spaces include American Centers, American Corners, Binational Centers, and Affiliate Spaces, all of which operate on different models. The majority are managed through institutional partnerships that provide tremendous value, generally with rent-free space and no-cost staff support.
In open, modern environments equipped with accessible technologies, programs at American Spaces are free and open to the public, equipping the U.S. government with effective and attractive platforms for person-to-person interaction on U.S. foreign policy priorities, including media literacy, economic development, and American culture, society, and values.
Opportunities for public engagement are at the core of American Spaces, and they allow the U.S. government to develop an ongoing relationship with audiences and a known brand among local communities, exerting a strong, positive impact on how the United States is understood and viewed around the world.

Highlights

In countries including Ukraine, China, and the Balkans, American Spaces counter disinformation with media literacy campaigns and workshops that show journalists, students, and other members of the public how to recognize and push back against inaccurate reporting and news hoaxes.
In recent years, American Spaces have augmented U.S. missions’ strategies to support foreign policy objectives in underserved locations through virtual, mobile, and pop-up Spaces. In countries including Greece and Nepal, these types of Spaces have allowed posts to directly engage with populations in response to local developments.
In regions like Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, and Central and Southeast Asia, English language learning, professional skills building, STEM education, and makerspaces at American Spaces provide hands-on learning opportunities for today’s youth and tomorrow’s leaders to improve their lives and their nations’ economies.
In 2024, the Office of American Spaces launched a centralized digital library available to all American Spaces users via the OverDrive platform. This library features “essential” American fiction and non-fiction e-book collections, as well as audio books and other tools that support the six pillars of American Spaces programming across all 600 locations.