Find out what’s happening behind the scenes

Volunteers Needed

The Turks & Caicos National Museum Foundation is seeking the help of volunteers to assist with the running of the existing Provo museum facility in The Village at Grace Bay.
Duties will include conducting short tours and assisting with gift shop sales and will amount to a few hours a week, at set times. It is hoped to assemble a team of 3-4 persons so a roster can be established. Full training will be given.
The National Museum Foundation is also establishing a fund-raising committee on Providenciales to assist with raising funds for the new museum building designed by globally renowned architect, Ron Shaw. The committee will consist of a representative from the TCI Government, a representative of TCHTA, two existing board members and a number of
volunteers from the wider community.
The objectives of the committee are to create public awareness for the new national museum building and to work on various fund-raising initiatives to cover the construction cost.
Interested persons should contact Lisa Talbot, National Museum Manager at
info@tcmuseum.org or 649-247-2160 or Seamus Day at seamus.day@tcmuseum.org or 649-431-2849 or please visit the national museum’s website: www.tcmuseum.org
TCNMF is a registered not for profit organization aimed at recording, interpreting, preserving and celebrating the history of the Turks and Caicos Islands and its people.
The museum on Grand Turk is housed in the historical Guinep House; an iconic structure in the nation’s capital. The new expanded Provo museum building will be adjacent to the existing museum facility and heritage house in The Village, Grace Bay.

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National Museum Receives Government Sponsorship

Delivering on a promise made by the Hon. Premier, Sharlene Cartwright-Robinson earlier this year at the inaugural Museum fundraising Gala, Hon. Karen Malcomb, Minister of Education, Youth, Culture and Library Services presented a fifty-thousand-dollar sponsorship check to the Turks and Caicos National Museum Foundation (TCNMF) at the third Right Excellent JAGS McCartney Lecture Series at the National Memorial Site.
The money will be used by the museum to:
  • Expand and create new events which will increase their fundraising ability and community programming,
  • Expand the museum’s research programming into little known aspects of TCI history to also include local students that can train in heritage management
  • Create new products to help educate locals on undiscovered TCI history,
  • Develop new exhibits, and
  • Expand the archival storage ability to help with the increased request to store historic documents.
Museum Director, Dr. Michael Pateman explains that “Over the next year we will be premiering many new programs including a documentary on traditional boat building, several history books aimed at the local schools, new exhibits on Salt and Governance in the TCI and so much more.”
President of the TCNMF Seamus Day said, “On behalf of the Members and Directors, we thank the Turks and Caicos Islands government and especially the Hon. Premier for this support. Over the last several years, the Museum has refocused on incorporating the local community more into our events, programs and exhibits and the government’s support will really allow us to expand on that.”

The sponsorship check from the government was not the only donation the Museum received during heritage month.   Mr. Alton Higgs a traditional “bush doctor”  from Lorimers, Middle Caicos (now resident on Grand Turk) gave the museum a basket he made from coconut leaves and stems marking the occasion of his 99th Birthday on October 17th 2019.
The TCNMF is a registered not for profit organization aimed at recording, interpreting, preserving and celebrating the history of the Turks and Caicos Islands and its people.  The TCNMF is headquartered at two-hundred-year-old Guinep House on Grand Turk and also has a facility in the Village of Grace Bay on Providenciales.

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2019 Eco Camp

The TCNM & DECR Eco Camp 2019 on Grand Turk was a great success. We had a big group of great kids this year who enjoyed swim lessons, swimming, bird walk/scavenger hunt, Gibbs Cay trip, a tour of the National Park, learning about the environment and ocean life. Special thanks to Grand Turk Divers & White Sands Charters for the trip to Gibbs Cay, Island Tram for helping transport the kids and Deep Blue Charter for the informative boat ride about the National Park. Many others helped make this a success: Kerri-Ann Smith for volunteering and helping out, Ben Stubenberg for swim lessons, Amy Avenant from DECR for running the camp, Salt Raker, Osprey Beach Hotel, Big Mums, Sandbar and Hilary Day for the fantastic lunches! It was a week of Fun & Education! The club is made possible by sales of the book “Where is Simon? Sandy”, written by Donna Marie Seim.

 

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Memories of Provo Summer Camp 2019!

There were many first time experiences for our campers at the Turks and Caicos National Museum’s 2019 Living History Summer Camp in the Village at Grace Bay, Providenciales. The making of homemade ice cream using a hand cranked ice-cream maker with Mr. Simmons was a delicious one. Another was the hydroponics farm; they were fascinated with the concept and had many questions for Mr. Harrison who graciously answered them all.
Though the visit to the desalination plant at Beaches Resort was another first, they were able to relate it the hydroponics farm since Mr. Harrison also uses desalinated water and so they developed an even greater appreciation for water, our scare but vital resource.

However, corn, with its origins attributed to the indigenous people of this region of the world, was the big story of the week. Each camper planted their very own corn seeds and took them home to nurture them into plants. They learnt how to grind corn to make grits and roast corn outside on the fire and of course, there was the popping of corn. Learning traditional dance steps from Mr. Bowen that culminated in a dance party was loads of fun. Speaking of fun that aptly describes the learning and playing the game of cricket lovely cricket with Coach Daryl. We did make some time to enjoy a picnic on the gorgeous North Shore Beach of Little Water Cay and learn all about the iguanas and mangroves. At our closing sessions they was a unanimous “best camp ever” so I think I can safely say the campers enjoyed summer camp 2019.

We say thank you to our sponsors and all who have made this year’s camp the success that it was. To Turks and Caicos Banking Company, Donna Seim, Mario Smith and the Department of Agriculture, Turks and Caicos National Trust, Turks and Caicos Cricket Association, Beaches Resort, Sunshine Nursery, David Bowen, Ian Harrison, Dekkel Simmons, Blovena Greene, Lloyd Stubbs, Ron Higgs, Tatiana Stubbs, Witlene Williams, Guilmese Gustave and Thania Phanord, thank you!

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Grub, Grill & Good Times to be an Annual Event

The July 20th event held up to its name of Grub, Grill and Good Times. The event was a great success. Front Street was lined with with vendors participating in a chicken and conch fritter cook-off. Liv’s Kitchen was the big winner taking home the prize money for both categories. Everyone that attended enjoyed the food, drinks and live band “Island Vibes”. The children played games and won prizes. Other Non-Profits participated to do some fund raising of their own making this a true community event. This will be an annual event and we expect it to be even better next year.

We want to thank the participants, judges and all the sponsors that donated raffle prizes, drinks and money to help make this event possible: Beaches, Blue Water Divers, Bohio, Drift Villa, Exclusive Escapes, Grand Turk Divers, Humpback Dive Shack, Jack Shack, Margaritaville, Misick Gas, Oasis Divers, Osprey Beach Hotel, Salt Raker, Sandbar, Morris Cottingham and Ministry of Tourism.  We especially thank everyone in the community that came out on a VERY hot day and supported the event.
 
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Children’s Club

The Grand Turk Monthly Children’s club for 2019 kicked off on Saturday February 16th. One of the projects for the club is to create a story book with the story and illustrations all to be completed by the children. They drew pictures and created an adventure for their characters.

On March 16th, the kids toured the museum with Director Dr. Michael Pateman.    The kids then did paintings and learned facts about whales, octopus and other marine life!

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Movie – Vanishing Sail – Provo – Saturday, March 30th

The Turks & Caicos National Museum and TCISA are presenting a showing of Vanishing Sail on Providenciales Saturday, March 30th.   

Saturday March 30th
Brayton Hall Theatre – Providenciales
Movie starts at – 7 PM
$20 General Admissions/$30 Balcony
Tickets can also be purchased in advance at the Museum on Provo
Snacks & Refreshments available for sale
Proceeds will be used towards the Museum’s new project on documenting the Boat Building Industry in The Turks and Caicos Islands and used for development of the museum on Providenciales. The documentary Vanishing Sail follows Alywn Enoe’s (in Carriacou) journey of determination and resilience over three years, from hauling trees with his sons, to a final traditional launching ceremony. Stories of the old Caribbean – trading by sail and smuggling contraband interweave a tribute to the independent spirit of a small island community.
It is our goal to document the Caicos Sloop industry and be able to preserve the methods through Museum displays and educational programming.
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Evening with the Expert – Grand Turk March 12th

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March 2019 Newsletter

Click here to see our March 2019 Newsletter https://conta.cc/2EDKB2E

 

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Celebrating 30 Years as Diving Partners

Catherine Chitwood of Tennessee and Vicki Durst of California first met in 1987 on a Costeau Project Ocean Search expedition in the British Virgin Islands. One of the sites that they dove on was the wreck of the Royal mail ship Rhone that wrecked in the 1867 hurricane.  They became fast friends and have been diving partners since then.

To celebrate 30 years diving together, they decided to meet in the Turks and Caicos, do a dive expedition and spend a few days vacationing. While touring the historical timeline at the museum’s office in Providenciales on May 26th, they were delighted to hear the story of about Jeremiah Murphy, pioneer, hard hat diver who salvaged the wreck of the Rhone mail ship a couple years after it had wrecked and also to learn that the bell from that ship is in the bell tower in Anglican Church in South Caicos.

What a lovely connection for these avid divers to find between the place that they first met and where they chose to celebrate thirty years as diving partners. We wish you many more great dives!

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