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Museum Day 2000 |
The Turks and Caicos National Museum Open Day held on Saturday 18th November, 2000 was a great success. Around 400 local people attended during the day and were entertained by the choirs from Ona Glinton School, H J Robinson High School and Eliza Simons School. In fact calling them choirs limited what they actually did. They also recited passages from books, played musical instruments and performed dances.
As well as the shows from the schools, Mitch Rollin gave a performance during which local Children joined him on percussion. Guided tours of the Museum informed visitors of the Museum’s collection and its role in preserving the country’s heritage whilst a local student gave guided tours of the Museum Arboretum describing the uses of indigenous and imported plants.
The Museum assistants carried out sessions of face painting to keep the Children entertained, whilst displays from the Victoria Library and Philatelic Bureau linked the Museum to education and tourism. Also Belonger and Museum Member, Mrs Roberts brought in examples of her handicrafts.
To help Children get a feel of the History displayed in the Museum a quiz was set up. Around a quarter of the 63 entrants answered all the questions correctly and from these the Chair of the Museum Trustees, Sandy Lightbourne, drew three winners who were Gardé Alleyne, Edward Hall Jnr. and Rikardia Pardo. The one question, which perplexed most entrants, was, who were the people who started the cotton industry in the Caicos Islands? (For those who don’t know it was the Loyalists fleeing from America, and not the Bermudans). Congratulations to these winners who were given a collection of books from the Museum Shop.
The Museum staff were run off their feet all day, ending up tired but with a sense of satisfaction that so many people had come and enjoyed themselves. In fact the part time Museum assistants discovered new skills they never knew they had – they are now all accomplished face painters. Not to be out done several Museum Trustees came to assist and in the end sponsored the refreshments, but we couldn’t encourage any of them to have their faces painted.
This was the beginning of what will become a major annual event at the Museum. If you have any ideas what you would like to see as part of this event please contact us.
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Turks and Caicos National Museum |
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