The vision of MHAA: Third week's adventure!

This week at the Museum of History, Anthropology and Art can be summed up on a single word; surprise. As the week unfolded the word took multiple meanings as the surprise varied between from the arrival of a bigger group of visitors to the one expected, to learning the ways museum ensure every visitor enjoys the exhibit, an aspect I will explain as the blog continues.

It started on Sunday, where I helped organize and execute the "Libro Alterado" workshop, it’s an activity where individuals modify a book either by drawing, writing, folding or just cutting one of the pages. At first, I couldn't understand the appeal until I saw the devotion of the participants, the workshop allowed them to tell a story (either the book's or their own) with a different approach. In addition to this wonderful revelation, my first lesson of the week was when the number of participants predicted double in a matter of seconds! Although being a good thing, it was a challenge reorganizing the area (adding tables, chairs, and materials) in the shortest time possible as the workshop was set to start soon. The learning MHAA journey continued the upcoming days as I shadowed an exhibit designer, a curator, and a budgeting manager. This helped me not only appreciate the effort put into their jobs but to learn more of how the MHAA functions. It was an exciting approach!

As the week unfolded my responsibilities were spread between leading workshops and preparing the materials for upcoming events, to studying the exhibit (as my supervisor told me I was going to lead future tours!), to handling office tasks such as inventory or phone calls. It surely was a productive week; it’s unbelievable how every day since the internship started, I keep learning something new every day! 

My favorite aspect of the week is a tie between giving the final touches of the xylography piece and discovering the reason behind the specific location of the vitrines and paintings in the exhibition and seeing the braille statements besides the objects displayed. The MHAA works toward offering Puerto Ricans and those who visit the island an opportunity to learn about Puerto Rico's culture, at the same time of not only conserving said culture but also preserving it. As explained by the Head of the Conservation Department, "La diferencia entre conservar y preservar es que lo que se preserva es abstracto, en contraste con la conservación. El museo al conservar las piezas y artefactos, preserva la cultura puertorriqueña.", which is indeed an abstract subject. Determined to accomplish this idea, (as I learned during my time in the design department) one of the jobs of the exhibitions' designer is to make sure every aspect of the museum is accessible to all visitors, which leads to creating vitrines in a height available for individuals in wheelchairs, which is also a measure taken when the paintings are placed. Learning about this aspect, who some may discard as insignificant, is a major influential and positive factor as it exhorts other entities to act the same way in order to assure everyone can enjoy what said company or organization has to offer. 


Although delighted with the museum's commitment, this blog would not be finished without mentioning (and finally showing) my first xylography piece! Xylography is a type of "grabado", which consists of creating a design which is later passed on wood with carbon paper, and then carved out. After carving the wood (step I finished in the previous week) then comes the part of the "grabado" which includes covering the wood with a specific ink, followed by applying a piece of paper and adding pressure on top of it to create a copy of the wood's design. "Visión del Baquiné" is a piece I created in efforts to represent the happiness of Oller's perspective and the sorrow in Alicea's as they illustrated a Baquiné (also known as "Wake of an Angel") in their paintings or in Alicea's case, xylography. Below I will show pictures of the process and other pictures that capture this week’s adventure!