{"id":4031,"date":"2019-03-25T13:32:21","date_gmt":"2019-03-25T17:32:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/students.com.miami.edu\/reviewing\/?page_id=4031"},"modified":"2019-03-25T13:45:11","modified_gmt":"2019-03-25T17:45:11","slug":"richter-exhibits-cuban-heritage","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/students.com.miami.edu\/reviewing\/?page_id=4031","title":{"rendered":"Richter exhibits Cuban Heritage"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Posted March 24, 2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By ADAM SPECTOR<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most students are familiar with the University of Miami\u2019s Lowe Art Museum on campus, however, not everybody is aware that there is a small museum-like space on the second floor of the Richter Library. This small and obscure exhibit area and archive is called The Cuban Heritage Collection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A portion of the Cuban Heritage Collection at UM’s Richter Library (Photo courtesy of the University of Miami).<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The current exhibit is titled, \u201cIlluminating Women: Representations\nand Narratives from Ediciones Vigia.\u201d This collection consists of Cuban artwork\nmade from books from Ediciones Vigia, a Cuban publisher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amanda Moreno, an archivist for the Cuban Heritage Collection,\nexplained that in addition to being made from books published by Ediciones\nVigia, the artwork on display in some way connects to females.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe exhibit\u2019s focus is on how women are represented in that\npublisher, so we’ve chosen books that are related because they are either drawn\nby women are designed by women, or the text inside it was written by a female\nauthor, or if women are the subject matter of the book,\u201d Moreno said. \u201cSo\nthat’s the premise of the exhibit.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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While the current exhibit is an art exhibit, the Cuban Heritage Collection carries far more than just Cuban artwork. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Martin Tsang, curator of the Cuban Heritage Collection and the Latin American Collections, said this is currently the most extensive collection of materials on or about Cuba that is located outside of Cuba. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moreno explained that the collection is not a museum, as the\nexhibits are only changed roughly twice a year and only showcases 40 to 50 artifacts\nat a time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe’re not technically a museum; we’re a library archive that\ncollects on Cuba and the Cuban Diaspora,\u201d Moreno said. We collect all that\u2019s\nrelated to Cuba or the Diaspora from the colonial period to the present.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tsang elaborated on what The Cuban Heritage Collection collects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe collect as much as we can, different types of things that speak to Cuba,\u201d Tsang said. The collection includes books, newspapers, journals, maps, photos, artist books and also what we call manuscripts and papers,” Tsang stated. “So, for example, if a prominent professor, a Cuban professor, or business acumen business wants to donate their papers, their life work, for example, written records, that notes, their diaries, their correspondence, we will also have those here. So we collect things that are published, but also things that are not published as well and it can be in various formats. We also have some art, which happens to be on display now.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tsang then explained why there are no windows in the showroom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt’s an exhibition space, so it’s designed to showcase a few of our\nmaterials at a time,\u201d Tsang said. \u201cThe temperature and light are carefully\ncontrolled to preserve the objects, so they’re not exposed to too much light,\nand then not exposed to too high or low temperatures, which preserves documents\nand objects for future generations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moreno estimates the Cuban Heritage Collection currently has over\n50,000 books and periodicals and more than 700 archival collections of various\nsizes. In addition to this, the collection has lent out artifacts to a number\nof museums across the country including the Smithsonian. Despite its massive\ncollections, the exact total value is not known, but it was confirmed to be a\nlot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWell, there’s two types of value. There’s economic value as well as\nresearch value and often what\u2019s of value to us has research value that doesn’t\nhave much of a price tag to it,” Tsang said. “I would say that one of\nour most valuable single objects would be a book containing hand-painted\nmanuscripts, which is valued at around a million, but we also have priceless\nthings that are irreplaceable. The collection in total has not been yet been valued\nand we need to have a value for insurance purposes, but it is in the hundreds\nof millions of dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Cuban Heritage Collection is considered a part of the Richter\nLibrary and is funded by the University of Miami. This archive is intended to\naid research and teach people about Cuba in its entirety. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ryan Grille, 23, a UM student of Cuban heritage, views the collection as a good way of teaching people about Cuba before and during Castro\u2019s reign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI’ve never actually been to Cuba, so I can’t say \u2018oh this reminds\nme of Cuba,\u2019 but I can tell you that a lot of what’s brought back (artwork) from\nCuba by relatives looks a lot like this,\u201d Grille said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grille views the historical collection as being most important for\nwhat Cuba was before it became a communist country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt’s pretty difficult for people in Cuba. They don’t have air conditioning, they are still driving ’50s cars and people work for very little pay. Some of the comforts that we take for granted here in the United States aren’t the case for Cubans,” Grille said. “The Cuban Heritage Collection is especially important because it also represents what Cuba was and not just Cuba what it is today.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Posted March 24, 2019 By ADAM SPECTOR Most students are familiar with the University of Miami\u2019s Lowe Art Museum on campus, however, not everybody is aware that there is a small museum-like space on the second floor of the Richter … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":19,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"sidebar-page.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-4031","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/students.com.miami.edu\/reviewing\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4031","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/students.com.miami.edu\/reviewing\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/students.com.miami.edu\/reviewing\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/students.com.miami.edu\/reviewing\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/students.com.miami.edu\/reviewing\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4031"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/students.com.miami.edu\/reviewing\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4031\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4035,"href":"https:\/\/students.com.miami.edu\/reviewing\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4031\/revisions\/4035"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/students.com.miami.edu\/reviewing\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/19"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/students.com.miami.edu\/reviewing\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}