Supporting Cultural Heritage after Hurricanes Irma & Maria

Statement from the Museums Association of the Caribbean (MAC) regarding Hurricanes Irma & Maria and the Caribbean’s Impacted Heritage Institutions and Collections.
The MAC board and membership would like to express their sympathies for the Caribbean region and populations impacted by hurricane Irma & hurrican Maria. While the region’s first priority must be the reconstruction of basic facilities in regards to human life and health in the devastated areas, MAC is concurrently working to identify the storm-related impact to heritage institutions and their collections.

Working with the guidance of international organizations such as UNESCO, ICOM and ICOM’s Disaster Risk Management Committee, we plan to co-ordinate funding from granting agencies, for one overall comprehensive assessment of the damage to both collections and facilities. In the short-term, MAC has set up a Facebook group to disseminate general information regarding recovery resources and the state of the heritage institutions and collections that represent the history and heritage of our member institutions and the countries in the region.

This press release is available in Dutch, English, French or Spanish.

For those currently in the affected areas, please consider submitting a status report of the damage, or lack thereof, to Caribbean cultural heritage.