The IES Agustín Espinosa recently opened to the public Knowing the Arrecife Marina, an exhibition that tells the history of Puerto Naos and the long maritime tradition of the island. The exhibition can be seen freely on Canalejas street in Arrecife, recently pedestrianized, and has been possible thanks to the free transfer of the material by Calero Marinas, which previously had it in the Marina Lanzarote sports port.
Knowing the Arrecife Marina tells essential aspects of Lanzarote's powerful seafaring legacy, offering information and historical photographs on topics such as the construction of the docks, the arts and fishing seasons, the riverside carpentry, the salt flats or the canneries. But it also delves into different points in the history of Lanzarote such as economic cycles, the time of piracy or the arrival of tourism, as well as other elements of the natural heritage of Arrecife such as geology or avifauna.
The objective of this transfer from Calero Marinas to the IES Agustín Espinosa is that this material, made up of 12 large-format bilingual panels, has a pedagogical use for projects of the emblematic educational center of Arrecife. In fact, the connection between both institutions comes from several years ago.
In 2018, Calero Marina premiered this exhibition at its headquarters in Arrecife, while Agustín Espinosa launched a Service Learning project in the 2020/21 academic year, through which they offered a guided tour service to this exhibition for students, mothers and fathers or teachers within the subjects of Geography and History of the Canary Islands and Heritage Routes. Thus, in past courses, especially during the pandemic, it was possible to give a cultural and educational outdoor activity on purely Canarian and Lanzarote contents to hundreds of students from the IES Agustín Espinosa, people from the AMPA of the center, exchange teachers from the Erasmus program or students from other centers such as the CEIP Nieves Toledo.
Now, ending this 2023/24 academic year, the new life of this exhibition involves its use for students and the general public on Canalejas street, attached to the educational center, which will also open a new access door to this recently pedestrianized road. The objective now is for the students to work with these panels and then continue offering the guided tour to Marina Lanzarote, which will be renovated and relocated.
The opening of the exhibition was attended by José Calero, president of Calero Marinas, Alfredo Morales, director of Marina Lanzarote, the mayor of Arrecife, Yonathan de León and the Island Director of Education, Carmen Pellón. On behalf of the IES Agustín Espinosa were present the director, Antonio Luis Alonso, and the head of studies, María del Valle Zurita, who were accompanied by Fatimatou Ahlbelkacem, Petra Romero, Patricio Mendes, and Hugo Espino, students of the center who have worked with this material and who briefly commented on the exhibition during the opening.
José Calero, president of Calero Marinas, was very satisfied: “We started this project with the intention of highlighting the history of the space where Marina Lanzarote was born and now our expectations are exceeded, which makes us feel very proud of the continuity that the IES Agustín Espinosa is going to give to this exhibition”. For his part, Antonio Luis Bonilla, the director of the educational center, “this initiative is a great opportunity to bring the pedagogical projects of the institute closer to the city.”
The mayor of the city, Yonathan de León, has congratulated the educational community of the IES Agustín Espinosa for this initiative, and Calero Marinas for its transfer. For the mayor, showing these panels about the history of Arrecife in that modernized promenade that connects the area of El Reducto with La Plazuela, and the Charco de San Ginés, is “allowing many more citizens, and especially visitors, to become familiar with the past of Arrecife”.