Nos renovamos
05/03/2024
By Mirielle Esther Robles
With great enthusiasm, we have begun the process of renovating our room called The Transisthmian Routes. This room is part of Phase 5 of the Canal Museum's permanent room renovation plan, which began in 2020. It is the penultimate room that will be dismantled and redesigned during this period. This process involves all the managements that are part of the Interoceanic Canal Museum, and allows us to grow as a team through joint participation, to develop spaces and experiences that help our public better understand our history, and so that we can also comply with our educational mission as a museum.
It is very curious to think about the exhibition rooms from their pieces, beyond their contents. Museum pieces fulfill the function of helping us represent in a physical, concrete and tangible way, the facts and events that we represent and describe in the museological texts that are described in our rooms. Between 50 and 300 pieces per phase can accompany these stories. Each and every one of which must be investigated, conserved and restored (if necessary), and placed in the best conditions so that as a museum and team in charge of its care, we can guarantee that they are preserved for posterity, as part of the Heritage Cultural of which we are custodians.
The role that we develop from the Collections Management involves not only the pieces of our permanent Collection, which are more than 30,000 pieces and objects of all types, but also the creation of strategic alliances with other institutions, allies and donors, to thus complete what we may need for each room renovation phase.
Thus, in past renovation phases, we have developed marketing strategies that have allowed us to reach larger audiences, and this has allowed us to receive invaluable pieces that have been donated and lent, and that are today displayed in our rooms. Without these strategies and calls open to our public, our Collection would not continue to grow, and we definitely would not be able to adequately nourish the historical story that we tell at the Canal Museum.
Although this stage forces us to close some exhibition spaces while we work on their redesign and construction, we are excited to be part of this process that allows us to provide our public with new experiences, modernize the contents and also renew the pieces that are presented and exhibited for our audience.
The new room, which we know as Phase 5, will tell the beginning of the history of the museum, from the Rise of the Isthmus of Panama, to the creation and fall of the Trans-Isthmus Railway, serving as a witness to the historical space in which Panama has served since its beginning as The Route that unites two oceans.
We hope to be able to share this new room with you in September 2024, and that you will completely enjoy it.
Foto: Museo del Canal
