Culture Ministry Announces the Restoration of the Museum of the Dominican Man

The Minister of Culture, José Rafael Lantigua, announced the remodeling of the Museum of the Dominican Man in order to bring the museum and the building up to date on the newest museum standards and necessary improvements.

“There is certainly a situation of serious deterioration of the physical installation which is barely forty years old and there is a lack of seriousness for the relevance of the museum and its contents.”

Lantigua said the Office of Cultural Infrastructure has already made an evaluation for the “short term solution” which will entail an investment of $3.7 million to improve the physical structure of the museum over a period of less than three months.

Lantigua added that the General Office of Museums already has the evaluation which it will use to improve the museum’s collection, to upgrade what it already has and meet current demands.

“There is certainly a situation of serious deterioration of the physical installation which is barely forty years old and there is a lack of seriousness for the relevance of the museum and its contents.” He added that, nevertheless, this situation is not only a result of recent years, “according to the people who have worked there since it was built and since the Museum began to function, the museum began to fall into deterioration before it was even a decade old.”

“In fact, we’ve established that many of the solutions we are now providing to the present situation could have been resolved a while back if they had applied creative management mechanisms. Nothing justifies so many writing mistakes, lack of letters on the signs, the absence of explanatory texts alongside the panels on exhibition, the lack of painting and cleaning in the halls, among many other aspects that could have been taken care of with much more promptness and care,” said Lantigua.

Now “they have updated the digital map of the building and contemplated the opening of a space for temporary exhibitions on the first floor, in the style of the Smithsonian Institute. As such, they are projecting a gradual improvement in staff which is another component of great importance in the new plans to be carried out by the Museum of Man.”

“We are going to be remodeling the building and its contents, hall by hall, under the rigorous supervision of experts so that we will be able to have a new Museum of Man, perhaps with a new name, for the celebration of Santo Domingo as the Cultural Capital of Latin America in 2010,” said the Minister of Culture while supervising the building.

“In general, the situation of abandonment of our main museums has faced a great deal of setbacks but this work has allowed for the recuperation of the Alcázar de Colón Vice Regal Museum, the restoration of the Atarazanas Naval Museum which we had to close in 2004 due to deterioration and loss of many valuable pieces although it is scheduled to reopen this year. The National History and Geography Museum is closed until construction of the new building which we are working on since the building collapsed a while back,” said Lantigua.