Andrea Terrón, Popol Vuh Museum, Guatemala: DIVERSITY IS REALITY, TOLERANCE IS KEY.

Andrea Terrón, Curator, Popol Vuh Museum

I had trouble deciding what to write for this entry. It starts with the feeling of being overwhelmed by the amount of people, the diversity of cultures and languages, and a group of 25 museum specialists that work for the same purpose; to comprehend culture, to protect and preserve for future generations.

We begin our journey with the Directors words and plans for a vision of what this great museum is and where it is going, and with this, understanding that the visitors should leave the museum happy, smarter, and they should have a complete museum experience, to commit to the world.

We continue with departmental presentations and introduction to collections, I was excited to hear about the variety of objects, provenance and context, and getting a glimpse of what a National Museum/Collection can develop with heritage that has been preserved for the world to see.

Under one roof, we get together and learn about conservation policies, security and object handling. We have discovered different points of view about archival procedures and loan policies, and a hands on experience on mounting, conservation reports and packing.

Since we all come from diverse backgrounds, I hope that in the following weeks, we will be able to comprehend practices from our museums and get those concepts and ideas into the context of the BM. It has been a fruitful experience and one may feel insignificant within this immensity  and there are no other words than the world under this roof becomes the expression of tolerance, that will save us from making mistakes.