#Providenciales, November 7, 2019 – Turks and Caicos – Delivering
on a promise made by the Hon. Premier, Sharlene Cartwright-Robinson earlier
this year at the inaugural Museum fundraising Gala, Hon. Karen Malcom, Minister
of Education, Youth, Culture and Library Services presented a
fifty-thousand-dollar sponsorship check to the Turks and Caicos National Museum
Foundation (TCNMF) at the third
Right Excellent JAGS McCartney Lecture Series at the National Memorial Site.
The
money will be used by the museum to:
- Expand
and create new events which will increase their fundraising ability and
community programming,
- Expand
the museum’s research programming into little known aspects of TCI history to
also include local students that can train in heritage management
- Create
new products to help educate locals on undiscovered TCI history,
- Develop
new exhibits, and
- Expand
the archival storage ability to help with the increased request to store
historic documents.
Museum
Director, Dr. Michael Pateman explains that “Over the next year we will be premiering
many new programs including a documentary on traditional boat building, several
history books aimed at the local schools, new exhibits on Salt and Governance
in the TCI and so much more.”
President of the TCNMF Seamus Day said, “On behalf of the Members and Directors, we thank the Turks and Caicos Islands government and especially the Hon. Premier for this support. Over the last several years, the Museum has refocused on incorporating the local community more into our events, programs and exhibits and the government’s support will really allow us to expand on that.”
The
sponsorship check from the government was not the only donation the Museum
received during heritage month. Mr.
Alton Higgs a traditional “bush doctor” from Lorimers, Middle Caicos (now
resident on Grand Turk) gave the museum a basket he made from coconut leaves
and stems marking the occasion of his 99th Birthday on October 17th
2019.
The TCNMF is a registered not for profit organization aimed at recording, interpreting, preserving and celebrating the history of the Turks and Caicos Islands and its people. The TCNMF is headquartered at two-hundred-year-old Guinep House on Grand Turk and also has a facility in the Village of Grace Bay on Providenciales.
Release: TCI National Museum