Ministry of Culture Inaugurates New CENACOD Offices

Ministry of Culture Inaugurates New CENACOD Offices
Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic 3/19/2012

The National Center for the Conservation of Works of Art and Documents is an office that functions under the Ministry of Culture and is in charge of curating, conserving, predicting and reversing the esthetic and material deterioration of the country´s cultural heritage.

“Today we re-inaugurate this project with its own funding in that it is one of the few entities in the National System of Culture that is growing with its own funding as well as providing an invaluable service to society,” said Minister Lantigua.

The Ministry of Culture inaugurated the new installations of the National Center for the Conservation of Works of Art and Documents (CENACOD in Spanish), located in the Archive of the Nation, as part of the 37th anniversary of its foundation.

The opening event was overseen by José Rafael Lantigua, Minister of Culture; Nereida Lahit-Bignott, National Director of CENACOD; Edda Grullón, Director of Monumental Heritage; Elías Wessin Chávez, General Administrator of National Heritage and Dominican painter, Elsa Núñez, among others.

Father Pedro Alejandro Batista, of our Lady of the Rosary Parish in Moca, blessed the new installations.

In his words of welcome, Minister of Culture Lantigua expressed the importance of occasion for the Ministry of Culture (MINC in Spanish) and for the conservation and restoration of documents in the Dominican Republic.

The Minister said that CENACOD is one of the entities that has experienced significant growth as a result of the quality of work it does and for the accumulation of actions it carries out in its recuperation of documents.

“Today we re-inaugurate this project with its own funding in that it is one of the few entities in the National System of Culture that is growing with its own funding as well as providing an invaluable service to society,” said Minister Lantigua.

The Director of the National Center for the Conservation of Works of Art and Documents and the Administrator of the National Heritage also spoke at the event, praising the work and services provided by CENACOD.

The new infrastructure incorporates all the material and necessary technology to undertake the conservation and restoration of national heritage items such as books, magazines, newspapers, documents and various works of art.

To that end, the new offices have specialized laboratories and interdisciplinary professional teams to carry out the physical, chemical and biological testing on paper and other areas in which the center will be working.

In addition to the activity of preservation and recuperation of national heritage items, the center will be providing specialized consultation in preventative conservation, research, preservation and restoration of the country’s cultural, artistic and bibliographic heritage all around the DR. It will also offer services such as the evaluation of spaces and studies on physical and environmental conditions.

The objectives of CENACOD include contributing to the preservation and conservation of national cultural property of the Dominican Republic, train personnel in modern conservation techniques, restoration, microfilm use and the digitization of documents, books and photographs as well as providing technical assistance services to public and private institutions as well as to the general public.



Edda Grullón, Nereida Lahit- Bignott, Culture Minister, José Rafael Lantigua, Elías Wessin Chávez and Elsa Núñez.

Authorities cutting the ribbon of the new Center

Inside the new installations