Dear Rafael Juan: I had not yet recovered from the surprise of hearing you in the last Plenary compare the future Museum of the History of Arrecife Castillo de San Gabriel with the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, when I ...
Dear Rafael Juan:
I had not yet recovered from the surprise of hearing you in the last Plenary
compare the future Museum of the History of Arrecife Castillo de San
Gabriel with the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, when I find in a press
release your suggestion to create a "museum complex" in the surroundings of
the fortress.
Fortunately, you do not insist on the plenary proposal to "create a network of
cultural infrastructures like the one in Santa Cruz de Tenerife."
It is always painful to remember that on the island of Teide the Government of
the Canary Islands has made sufficient investments so that they currently have
an auditorium designed by Santiago Calatrava, a Museum of Fine
Arts with funds on deposit from the El Prado art gallery and a
Museum of Nature and Man, with sufficient specific weight to
participate in international archaeological research meetings.
Not to mention the El Tanque cultural space, the Tenerife Island
Photography Center or the Tenerife Arts Space, designed by
Herzog & de Meuron, and which was inaugurated just three years ago.
In Arrecife we have an auditorium project and a House of
Culture in ruins and waiting for the investment
committed for the current year by the regional Executive to become a reality. And in the
same perimeter, although not of municipal ownership, an old Cabildo that
is peeling before our eyes and a Casa de los Arroyo that lost its
status as the Blas Cabrera museum in the face of its inexorable deterioration. And...
oh, yes! the Castle of San Gabriel.
That is why it saddens me that a person like you, linked to Education
and who has been a member of one of those Governments that forgot about
our city again, intends to play politics with the Museum of History.
Regarding your arguments, only very large museums - I am thinking of the
Prado, the Natural Sciences, the Archaeological, the Reina Sofía or the
MACBA - can afford to carry out research tasks. The rest struggle
to survive by selling souvenirs and signature cuisine.
As for what you describe as an "isolated museum", I fear that you are unaware of the
content of the agreement signed between the City Council, the University of
Las Palmas and the Canarian University Foundation of Las Palmas, for the
scientific advice of the Museum of History of Arrecife.
The document explicitly states that the museum will be launched in
three successive phases. The second, and I quote verbatim, says:
"Adaptation of the surroundings of the Castle in order to create a circuit
open-air museum, which takes advantage of the heritage resources
existing in the area". And it mentions the bridge, the bay, the cistern, the
beaches...
It seems, Rafael Juan, that we finally agree...
To round off the criticism, you refer to management. And of the same,
little needs to be added. The person in charge of the museum will be a qualified
academically, a City Council worker who will combine his
current work with the management of the Castle, always under the supervision
of a political and scientific body. And at no additional cost to the municipal
municipal coffers.
In any case, even if we had a budget to hire
a staff of ten workers for the Museum, which is not the case,
we do not consider it necessary either.
Because, and perhaps I should remind you again, the Castle of San Gabriel is not
is the Guggenheim. Unfortunately.
Eva de Anta
Councilor for Culture and Historical Archive
Arrecife City Council