By Madeleine Muzdakis on July 12, 2021
The Minister of Culture and Youth, Sylvie Durán (right), examines some of the newly repatriated artifacts alongside Leidy Bonilla (in white) and Daniela Meneses, from the Heritage Protection Program. (Photo: Museo Nacional de Costa Rica)
After a century away from their Central American home, 1,305 artifacts are returning to Costa Rica. The artifacts including rare pottery and stone pieces have long been held in The Brooklyn Museum, a New York institution which gained the pieces from the collection of American railroad tycoon Minor Keith who acquired them in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This unsolicited return of precious pre-hispanic historical items is a laudatory move as museums struggle with how and when to repatriate items acquired through colonialism, exploitation, and conquest.
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Through a series of online training modules organized by UNESCO in conjunction with the Ministry of Culture and Youth, the Costa Rican music sector seeks to strengthen its competitiveness and promote its professionalization. These activities aimed at artists, producers, technicians and music professionals will take place between April and July 2021 and seek to meet the need to update the players in the sector in the face of constant changes in the music industry, the use of new technologies and the search for new business models. They are part of the “Music FFWD Costa Rica” project, implemented by UNESCO together with the Ministry of Culture and Youth within the cooperation program of the European Union and UNESCO framework for the strengthening of cultural governance and the promotion of South-South cooperation.