Museum Restoration Completed

Museum Countdown to Re-opening

Credit: Nasaria Suckoo Chollette

With the completion of the 13-month conservation and reconstitution project, Museum authorities are now focusing on finalizing exhibit arrangements and reviving programmes in preparation for grand opening in early 2009.

“With the building restoration phase now behind us,” said Board Chair Harris McCoy, “we are moving full steam ahead on all the necessary planning to restart and re-engineer a national Museum.”

Towards these goals, Mr. McCoy said that the Museum would be seeking to manage a tight ‘08/’09 budget, as the institution still has to pay for the rebuilding of exhibit modules now underway with a US specialist company. “Likewise, we will be doing our best to jump start our many fallen programmes by attracting the best professional staff we can.”

The Museum has commenced laying the foundation for a fund-raising drive, he said, hoping to raise some $1 million to cover its various exhibit-related needs.

Cost for exhibit support and other sponsorship project opportunities range from $2,000 to $300,000, with the average around $10,000. Among the most costly is the “Sail ‘Hoy” Maritime Heritage International Travelling Exhibit which will take the Cayman Islands to the world. In addition to being inscribed on name plates positioned next to exhibits, donors’ names will appear on a “Sponsors” Wall at the Courtyard of the Museum.

There is also the “Old Gaol” conservation and research programme, involving research by a historical preservation architect and another conservation expert who is working on exposing and showcasing old handwriting discovered last year on a Museum wall. The old handwriting can have important historic impact and the ultimate goal is that it will be presented for public viewing when the centuries-old wall coverings have all been peeled away in a meticulous expert initiative now underway.

The Object Theatre Auditorium, the setting for the audio-visual show, will be entirely re-vamped, with state-of-the art, back-of-house technology.

“This is a great project for a high-net-worth individual or company -- anyone would be proud to be associated with the show, which promises to rival the best there is out there. We envisage it will attract a huge local and overseas audience,” says Acting Director Debra Barnes-Tabora.

Mid-range opportunities include an underwater cave diorama, an exhibit on politics and the judicial system, and one local and visitor favourite, the “Old Seaman” diorama. More moderate sponsorship opportunities include the Welcome Kiosk, a mosaic of habitats, a “Walk-through-Time” history timeline, and church life and industry vignette, among others.

For those whose budgets will allow small donations, there is the “Special Specimens” changing display, among others, as well as panels on a variety of topics – conservation, bush medicine, island industries, shipbuilding, turtling, and fishing, for example. And who does the Museum envisage may become involved? “There is something for everyone,” says Mrs. Tabora-Barnes: banks and other entities in the financial sector, large hardware and other stores, freeport shops, dive operations, government departments, churches, associations, and schools at all levels, to name a few.

“We are also hoping that families, especially those whose names have been associated with the history and development of the Cayman Islands, will come forward so that their association can be preserved for posterity,” says Mrs. Barnes-Tabora.

Those interested in learning more about becoming a donor may contact the Museum at fundraising@museum.ky. Call the Museum at 949-8368.

The Museum is planning a “soft” opening in November for building tours and will have its grand opening in early 2009, when exhibits will be in place.