Oseta Jolly Primary School Visit

On Friday May 13^th 2016 we welcomed thirty eight grade four students from Oseta Jolly Primary School. Ms. Browne and Ms. Corrine accompanied their grade four classes.  They toured the garden and the Caicos Heritage House as well the timeline at the Development Office. We had some great interaction and since they toured other historical sites that same day they were able to make connections that made their visit even more interesting. They are now looking forward their upcoming visit to the museum in Grand Turk.

Osetta Jolly Primary School Ms. Coreene’s Grade 4,  May 2016

Osetta Jolly Primary School Ms. Browne’s Grade 4,  May 2016

Provo Christian School Visit

Provo Christian School’s grade twos visited the Museum’s Development Office and Caicos Heritage House and Exhibit on Friday 20^th May 2016. The group of twenty- six students was accompanied by their teachers Ms. Gardiner and Ms. Jones. They were particularly interested in the Caicos Heritage House Exhibit, they even showed the actions that would have accompanied use of the various implements in the house.

Provo Christian Primary School Grade 2, Ms. Gardiner & Ms. Jones, May 2016

Please call the Grand Turk museum at 946-2160 or 247-2160 if you would like to schedule a school trip.

Or if you are on Providenciales and would like to visit our Provo campus, please call 241-2161.

We are always happy to accommodate a school group and we can help you by tailoring the visit to a specific interest or your curriculum.

L-R: Sanfra Foster, Olive Connell, Fernand, Candianne Williams, Zoya Faessler, B. Naqqi-Manco,Prince Selver, Arlene Deveraux,Sonia Grant joined together to plant the Caicos Pine and have pledged to work with the museum on the heritage gardens.

On Saturday 30th April, RBC Royal Bank partnered with the Turks & Caicos National Museum Foundation for the maintenance and care of the gardens and grounds of the Caicos Heritage House. Following its past partnership on the Wise Water Project to help create water conservation gardens and awareness, RBC Royal Bank has pledged financial support for landscaping maintenance and has committed to its staff’s voluntary service for helping with upkeep of the agricultural, native plant, and medicinal plant gardens.During the ceremony, there was also a planting event of Caicos pine, the National Tree of Turks & Caicos Islands. Four Caicos pine trees grown by the Caicos Pine Recovery Project under the Department of Environment & Coastal Resources were planted at the Caicos Heritage House as part of the Project’s National Tree Restoration Strategy for outreach and education. B Naqqi Manco of the Department of Environment & Coastal Resources led the tree planting.

Jada Johnson and Aime Flanigan help plant an endangered Caicos Pine.

This collaborative effort demonstrates a commitment to the conservation of natural resources and historical preservation amongst the private, non-government, and government sectors. The event was hosted by Museum Representative Candianne Williams, who stated “We are happy to accept the continued and additional support of our established partner, RBC Royal Bank, and we hope to cultivate more partnerships like this very successful one.”

Candianne Williams accepts check from Sanfra Foster of RBC.

The Caicos Heritage House, a representation of a Nineteenth Century Caicos Islands homestead, is open to visitors 9AM-1PM weekdays and is located in the Village at Grace Bay.

On Thursday April 14, 2016 a team from CMK Realty Corporation representing the Sailrock Development of South Caicos met with Pat Saxton to discuss collaboration on the creation of a historical walking tour in Cockburn Harbour, South Caicos.

Scott Hoskins, President of CMK Realty along with Liz Le, Marketing Director and CJ Walstrom, Marketing Specialist spent the afternoon touring the Museum and the Botanical and Cultural Garden.  The history of South Caicos and points of interest for inclusion in the walking tour were the focus of the discussion. B. Naqqi Manco from the Department of Environment and Coastal Resources  (DECR) also attending to provide background information on the natural history of South Caicos.

L-R: Scott Hoskins, Pat Saxton, CJ Walstrom, and Liz Le

We applauded the Sailrock Development for taking the time and effort to make sure their tour is historically accurate. The Museum hopes that all new developments will take these important steps to ensure that accuracy and sensitivity towards the local natural and cultural history are considered.

In 2012 Bryan Naqqi Manco (DEMA) together with a team from the Turks & Caicos Islands Environmental Club and under the Department of Environment & Maritime Affairs under the “Rescue & Collection of Endangered & Endemic Plants” Project, rescued several very special orchids from the path of development and bulldozers on North Caicos.

All five of TCI’s native Encyclia orchids were planted in the Museum Botanical Garden and have flourished despite their early rough start (to read more about their rescue read Orchid Survivors in our blogs). This spring one of these tough, beautiful orchids, the Roufus Encyclia, sometimes called the Butterfly Orchid, is putting on a show. This orchid is found throughout the Bahamas and Turks & Caicos Islands. It normally blooms red-brown (rufous colored) but here it usually blooms yellow or green.

Young bloom, still very green.

Encyclia Rufa “fruits” are delicate looking, but tough.

The plant has long graceful leaves and grows in a “clump.”

The blooms are on long stems, up to 90 cm long, and can have more than a dozen flowers that may redden with age.

Our very own orchid in full bloom in the Museum Garden. Photo by Bryan Naqqi Manco

Please do come by, see and smell this extraordinary Museum’s living collection every December to April; other species of orchids will flower at different times of the year.

Thank you to all who came out for the first in our 2016 series Evening with the Experts with Mr. Ivan Day, one of Britain’s foremost food historians.  Day is particularly noted for his reconstructions of period meals and has curated exhibits in many museums in the US and Europe including the Getty Museum, the New York City Metropolitan Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

Ivan Day (left) explaining the tricks and tips of “period” foods.

In Royal Ragoos: Courtly Dining and the Cookery in Early Georgian Britain, Day took us back to a time where food was not only for fuel, but for presentation and a statement of wealth. The craftsmanship of the dishes presented to 17^th Century royalty were incredibly and painstakingly beautiful—and all done without electricity!  They even had ice cream..and molded it to look like vegetables and fruit!

If you look closely you can see whole crayfish in the mold.

We thank Mr. Day for taking time out from his holiday to give this lecture.   We should also point out that he is the elder brother of Grand Turk residents Seamus and Paul, who are our friends and neighbors.

Open spit cooking was done on a different scale than your back yard bar-b-que grill. It all looks good enough to eat!

This Twelfth cake, served on the feast day of the Epiphany, was intricately iced with two gilded sugar crowns, for the king and queen of the evenings events.

Ivan Day in a typical kitchen of the period.

For more about the work of Ivan Day see the following links:
NY Times: Setting a Place for History
BBC Country File: The Evolution of the Country Christmas Dinner
Historic Food: A Feast for the Eyes
The Getty Museum: Celebrating Sugar in The Edible Monument

As a member, you can have a front row seat to these special events. Join the Museum today so that you too can experience this wonderful series for free! Non-members $10.

Reference to the Turks and Caicos Islands is synonymous with miles of beautiful white sandy beaches and excellent snorkeling on the coral reefs. These reefs support marine life, contribute significantly to the economy and protect the shoreline of these islands. Therefore coral reef conservation and preservation should be of paramount importance to us all. One of the ways to ensure this is through education.

L-R: Amy Avenant, Don Stark, Candianne Williams, Edgar Howell join forces for reef education.

Turks and Caicos National Museum, TC Reef Fund, Department of Environment and Maritime Affairs are all involved in the coral reef education of our youth on these islands and have now joined forces to develop a coral reef conservation and preservation curriculum for grades one through six focusing specifically on the Turks and Caicos Islands. This is being done in collaboration with the Department of Education and will be integrated into the National Curriculum, currently being developed by the Department of Education to be introduced into schools September 2016, at the beginning of the new school year.

A workshop will be conducted for teachers to introduce them to the coral reef conservation and preservation education program and the resources and support available to them to bring a practical component to the program. It is our hope that this program will foster a better understanding of and appreciation for our marine environment in our youth. We trust that the environmental groups that will be the offshoots of the program will be a catalyst to coral reef conservation and preservation island-wide.

Three groups of Grade two students totaling 73 students, accompanied by their teachers, visited from Ianthe Pratt Primary School.  A group of Grade 4 student visiting from Osetta Jolly Primary school made for a busy week. They all choose to visit the Caicos Heritage House and Garden and the Museum’s Development Office as an Education Week Activity.

Ms. Fabienne Forbes and Grade 2 class from Ianthe Pratt Elementary School.

Two of their teachers, Ms. Aliathe Michel and Ms. Fabienne Forbes worked at the museum in Grand Turk before they moved to Providenciales and became teachers. So, once they heard that the museum had a presence in Providenciales they put taking their students to visit at the top of their list. Having had the experience of working in the museum they are passionate about instilling in their students the importance of a knowledge of and appreciation for their history and cultural heritage.

Ms. Alianthe Michel and grade 2 class from Ianthe Pratt Elementary School.

A group of Grade 4 students from Osetta Jolly Primary School with their teacher Ms Vinette Forbes particularly liked the Caicos Heritage House.

Ms Vinette Forbes and Grade 4 students from Osetta Jolly Primary School inside the Caicos Heritage House

Shining Stars Preparatory School is one of the schools whose students visited the Museum’s Development Office during Education week, which is observed during the first week of March. This visit was a little different because they were doing early career exploration under the theme “Preparing Today for Tomorrow”.

Don Stark of TCI Reef Fund and Candianne Williams , museum representative made a presentation to them that spanned the spectrum of careers on the land and sea that work together to create the museum experience. The students were very engaged throughout the visit and asked many questions.

One such interesting question was directed to Don, the student wanted to know if he had seen any mermaids as an underwater videographer. I think I can safely say that we have budding, archaeologist, underwater videographers, artists who want to specialize in museum design and layout, museum managers and genealogists to name a few. We were delighted to spend some time with the students on their career exploration.

L-R: Elishah Sidnord, Tyrese Lewis, Solomon Dormeus, Arvana Lucsama, coach Ms. Anetra Musgrove
2nd Row: Ludwina Fulford, Pat Saxton

Congratulations to Aravna Lucsama, Elishah Sidnord, Solomon Dormeus and their coach Ms. Anetra Musgrove, on winning the Turks and Caicos National Museum’s first annual History and Cultural Heritage Quiz.

Ms. Rachel Harvey served as quiz moderator.

The event final round was held on March 1^st during Education Week at the Gustarvus Lightbourne Sports Complex. It was a very exciting final between Maranatha High School and Clement Howell High School, the two schools scoring the highest points in the preliminary round, which was also closely contested by the participating six secondary schools. All of the teams represented their schools very well and the great effort that was put into preparing for the quiz was evident and a great source of encouragement for all of the partners involved in the organizing of this quiz.

L-R: David Bowen, Pat Saxton and Ludwina Fulford serving as judges.

The Quiz was one of the events held by the museum to mark its twenty-fifth anniversary and was done in collaboration with the Department of Education.  The prize for the winning team and their coach is a trip to Cap Haitien where they will visit the Citadelle which is a UNESCO protected world heritage site. The team and coach from Clement Howell High School are excitedly planning their trip.

We would like to thank our very dedicated quiz team for doing a wonderful job at both the preliminary and final round of the quiz; Apostle Claudette Basden for opening the events with prayer, Ms. Rachel Harvey for being a wonderful moderator, Ms. Ludwina Fulford, Mr. Edgar Howell, Mrs. Patricia Saxton for their inspirational and encouraging words as well as judging the events. We would also like to thank Mr. Alexander R. McLeod Environmental Officer in the Department Environment & Maritime Affairs; Mr. David Bowen-Education Officer responsible for Public and Private Secondary Schools, Mr. Gordon Burton – Accountant and President of the Kiwaniis Club for performing the unenviable tasks of judging the events.

Don Stark (TCI Reef Fund) and Talisha Simons (Fortis) present certificate to Elishah Sidnord, representing the Clement High School team.

Special thanks to Mr. Mark Garland, Deputy Director of Education and Mr. David Bowen,  Education Officer responsible for all of the private and public secondary schools for the guidance, assistance and support given to Mrs. Candianne Williams of the National Museum throughout the process of taking the idea of the quiz to a successful reality. We say thank you to our partners Ms. Amy Avenant – Environmental Outreach Coordinator, Dept. of Environmental & Maritime Affairs (DEMA), Ms. Angela Freites, Cultural Officer, Department of Culture and Mr. David Bowen, Director of Wellness, Culture and Entertainment, and Grace Bay Resorts  supported by Grace Bay Resorts Community Foundation for working along with Mrs. Patricia Saxton and Mrs. Nikki Jennings of the National Museum to facilitate the workshop for teachers, provide study materials and contribute questions for the quiz.

Our sponsors; Fortis TCI, Caicu Naniki Tours and Marco Travel have been instrumental in making this event a success and to them we say a big thank you.

On Friday March 4, 2016 the teachers from the Mills Institute in Providenciales came to visit the Turks and Caicos National Museum on Grand Turk. Twenty-two teachers were guided through the Museum by Fred Glinton, then spent some time in the gift shop. The teachers were here for “Teachers Appreciation Day” as part of Education week.

Fred Glinton (center) provides information about the Molasses Reef Wreck exhibit to Mills Institute teachers.