Helping Puerto Rican Heritage, San Juan, PR
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Marc Williams and Cesar Pineiro have created a project called Helping Puerto Rican Heritage. Marc is the former Chief Wooden Objects Conservator at the Smithsonian Institution and the founding Director of the Smithsonian’s graduate level Furniture Conservation Training Program. Cesar was trained in the second class of the Smithsonian program and practices conservation in Puerto Rico. Conservators are the professionals who assist museums, historical societies, historic houses, and other cultural institutions in better preserving and caring for their collections. For many years, we realized that conservation training and knowledge in Puerto Rico has lagged behind the mainland, and have established Helping Puerto Rican Heritage as an initiative to begin to remedy this. This need has been made even greater by the recent hurricane damage. Our efforts will be focused in two general directions, educational opportunities in conservation in Puerto Rico, and offering advice on collections preservation and care to museums and historic sites.
The project is designed around assembling 15 conservators in Puerto Rico for a week who will volunteer their time in a number of collections preservation and care activities. Included will be tours of conservation facilities and conservation projects; visits to museums and cultural sites in San Juan and Ponce; speaking to students and faculty at the University of Puerto Rico who are interested in conservation education; holding a seminar for staff of museums and historic sites on preservation and care issues, grant funding for collections care, capacity building, planning, and other aspects of collections stewardship, as well as emergency preparedness and disaster response for cultural heritage organizations; and a day-long hands-on collections preservation and care practicum at Casa Blanca, the first stone house and fortification in Old San Juan, overlooking the San Juan Bay, built as the residence for Juan Ponce de Leon and his family.
The participating conservators are volunteering a week of their time. In addition, they have to pay all of their own travel costs - air fare, lodging, food, local transport. There is no organizational, governmental, or other funding for this project. All of these costs have to be borne by the conservators.
We thank you in advance for your assistance. It will mean a lot not only to the conservators, but also to the cultural heritage of Puerto Rico.
Program, Helping Puerto Rican Heritage
Monday, February 4
San Juan National Historic Site
9:00 – 9:30 Coffee Meet and Greet
9:30 – 10:00 Welcome and Introductions of participants
10:00 – 12:00 Tour of San Juan NHS
12:30 – 2:00 Visit and tours, San Cristobal Archives and Cannon Conservation Project
2:00 Informal team building – explore Old San Juan or other activities
Tuesday, February 5
University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras Campus, San Juan
9:00 – 10:30 Visit Material Characterization Center
10:30 – 12:00 Visit Professor Fachini’s Physics and Analytical Laboratory
12:30 – 3:00 Question and answer session with students on the field of conservation and educational opportunities. One graduate of each of the major programs will be on the panel, and audience conservators also will participate.
3:00 Informal team building – explore Old San Juan or other activities
Wednesday, February 6
Field Trip to Ponce
9:00 – 10:30 Transportation to Ponce
10-30 – 1:00 Explore Ponce
1:00 – 3:00 Visit Museo de Arte de Ponce, including the Conservation Lab
3:00 – 5:00 Visit Hacienda Buena Vista, historic coffee plantation c. 1848
5:00 – 7:00 Return to San Juan
7:00 – 9:00 Group dinner with conservators and museum and educational staff at Restaurante Raices, authentic Puerto Rican cuisine.
Thursday, February 7
Seminar at Fundación Luis Muñoz Marín for staff of cultural property institutions
9:00 – 9:30 Basic preservation and care of furniture and wooden objects
9:30 – 10:00 Basic preservation and care of organic objects
10:00 – 10:30 Basic preservation and care of inorganic objects
10:30 – 11:00 Basic preservation and care of textiles
11:00 – 11:30 Basic preservation and care of paintings
11:30 – 12:00 Basic preservation and care of books
1:00 – 1:30 Basic preservation and care of paper
1:30 – 2:00 Basics of storage on a budget
2:00 – 2:30 Federal grants for funding collections preservation, care, and conservation
3:00 – 5:00 Questions on collections preservation and care from museum staff attendees answered by conservators
5:00 – 6:00 Reception at Fundación Luis Muñoz Marín
Friday, February 8
Hands-on Angels-like project at Casa Blanca
9:00 – 5:00 Built in 1521, Casa Blanca was the first stone house and fortification in Old San Juan, overlooking the San Juan Bay. It was built as the residence for Juan Ponce de Leon and his family, although Juan Ponce de Leon died before ever having the chance to live there. Today, the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture has turned Casa Blanca into an historic house museum depicting life as it was back in the 16th and 17th Centuries.
Due to chronic budget deficits, under-funding, and under-staffing, routine housekeeping of the collections has been neglected. Conservators will be assisting in remedying this. The activities will depend upon the expertise of the participating conservators and the specific needs of individual objects.
The project is designed around assembling 15 conservators in Puerto Rico for a week who will volunteer their time in a number of collections preservation and care activities. Included will be tours of conservation facilities and conservation projects; visits to museums and cultural sites in San Juan and Ponce; speaking to students and faculty at the University of Puerto Rico who are interested in conservation education; holding a seminar for staff of museums and historic sites on preservation and care issues, grant funding for collections care, capacity building, planning, and other aspects of collections stewardship, as well as emergency preparedness and disaster response for cultural heritage organizations; and a day-long hands-on collections preservation and care practicum at Casa Blanca, the first stone house and fortification in Old San Juan, overlooking the San Juan Bay, built as the residence for Juan Ponce de Leon and his family.
The participating conservators are volunteering a week of their time. In addition, they have to pay all of their own travel costs - air fare, lodging, food, local transport. There is no organizational, governmental, or other funding for this project. All of these costs have to be borne by the conservators.
We thank you in advance for your assistance. It will mean a lot not only to the conservators, but also to the cultural heritage of Puerto Rico.
Program, Helping Puerto Rican Heritage
Monday, February 4
San Juan National Historic Site
9:00 – 9:30 Coffee Meet and Greet
9:30 – 10:00 Welcome and Introductions of participants
10:00 – 12:00 Tour of San Juan NHS
12:30 – 2:00 Visit and tours, San Cristobal Archives and Cannon Conservation Project
2:00 Informal team building – explore Old San Juan or other activities
Tuesday, February 5
University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras Campus, San Juan
9:00 – 10:30 Visit Material Characterization Center
10:30 – 12:00 Visit Professor Fachini’s Physics and Analytical Laboratory
12:30 – 3:00 Question and answer session with students on the field of conservation and educational opportunities. One graduate of each of the major programs will be on the panel, and audience conservators also will participate.
3:00 Informal team building – explore Old San Juan or other activities
Wednesday, February 6
Field Trip to Ponce
9:00 – 10:30 Transportation to Ponce
10-30 – 1:00 Explore Ponce
1:00 – 3:00 Visit Museo de Arte de Ponce, including the Conservation Lab
3:00 – 5:00 Visit Hacienda Buena Vista, historic coffee plantation c. 1848
5:00 – 7:00 Return to San Juan
7:00 – 9:00 Group dinner with conservators and museum and educational staff at Restaurante Raices, authentic Puerto Rican cuisine.
Thursday, February 7
Seminar at Fundación Luis Muñoz Marín for staff of cultural property institutions
9:00 – 9:30 Basic preservation and care of furniture and wooden objects
9:30 – 10:00 Basic preservation and care of organic objects
10:00 – 10:30 Basic preservation and care of inorganic objects
10:30 – 11:00 Basic preservation and care of textiles
11:00 – 11:30 Basic preservation and care of paintings
11:30 – 12:00 Basic preservation and care of books
1:00 – 1:30 Basic preservation and care of paper
1:30 – 2:00 Basics of storage on a budget
2:00 – 2:30 Federal grants for funding collections preservation, care, and conservation
3:00 – 5:00 Questions on collections preservation and care from museum staff attendees answered by conservators
5:00 – 6:00 Reception at Fundación Luis Muñoz Marín
Friday, February 8
Hands-on Angels-like project at Casa Blanca
9:00 – 5:00 Built in 1521, Casa Blanca was the first stone house and fortification in Old San Juan, overlooking the San Juan Bay. It was built as the residence for Juan Ponce de Leon and his family, although Juan Ponce de Leon died before ever having the chance to live there. Today, the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture has turned Casa Blanca into an historic house museum depicting life as it was back in the 16th and 17th Centuries.
Due to chronic budget deficits, under-funding, and under-staffing, routine housekeeping of the collections has been neglected. Conservators will be assisting in remedying this. The activities will depend upon the expertise of the participating conservators and the specific needs of individual objects.
Spendenteam (2)
Marc Williams
Organisator
Sector El Campito, PR
Cesar Pineiro
Team member