Museums are not finite organizations. These beloved institutions cannot remain idle with their stories. They must refreshed them to be enjoyed and understood by younger generations.The Inquisition Palace - Cartagena de Indias Historic Museum, housed in a magnificent 17th century old building and at the center of one of the most beautifully restored colonial towns in the world, sadly misses the great opportunity of using history to inspire its visitors and to empower its community.
To be fair, dealing with the thorny subject of the Catholic inquisition in an entertaining and inspiring way is a challenge. Colombia is about 90% Roman Catholic and most museums in the country struggle with the endemic problems of state-sponsored entities dedicated to preserve cultural heritage. I was excited about visiting the museum since I knew that it had gone through a renovation program. This was my third visit, and this time I was showing the museum off to a friend who was traveling with me.
The experience of this museum is a series of unconnected events that begins with people trying to sell their services as tour guides as you enter the building. With no signage to guide me, I discovered that some historic rooms are now use as offices, the outdoor areas are used as a parking lot and galleries on the ground floor display the museum’s collection of torture devices. Furthermore, what I believe were temporary galleries, displayed an exhibition about graphic design and a collection of sculptures by the acclaimed Colombian artist Enrique Grau. My friend and I were confused and disappointed.
The museum renovation I was looking forward to see washed out the museum of its history, reduced the size of its exhibit areas and lost focus to its own mission. I understand how difficult it is to run a museum successfully with little financial resources, but this museum does have other great resources that simply need to be harnessed well. First, how about one single name, but a brand, not just a description of its purpose. I would suggest “Museum of the New World.” A better brand broadens the mission and could make the content of the museum more digestible for visitors from all over interested in the formation of the New World (the Americas).
There should be, of course, a permanent exhibition dedicated to the Spanish Inquisition. After all, that is what happened in this building. During the colonial era, this house served as a tribunal court and tried anyone the church viewed as a heretic. But even if the Spanish Inquisition tortured thousands of people, so to interpret this historic event with a gallery of torture devices is partly inevitable, but if that is all, it misses a more interesting perspective from which local residents and tourists alike can draw a lesson relevant to their lives today such as the influence of peoples’s migrations, the use of religion as a political tool or dogma to masquerade bigotry.
Subjects such as life in the colonies of the New World, the power and splendor of the Spanish empire circa 1500, and its ultimate decline and legacy are themes that will make this museum a real attraction. The exhibition can be designed to give visitors, of diverse ages and backgrounds, a view to Colombian society as it was influenced and transformed by the arrival of Europeans, Africans and later immigrants. Artifacts, replicas, sound, literature, and the latest technologies in visual presentation will be used to trace the stories of men and women who lived, prayed, worked, murder or were murdered within those rooms. The story of the Inquisition certainly does not lack drama, and its museum shouldn’t lack it either. It is precisely drama that visitors expect from a museum today.
Visitors also expect a museum to have extensions that magnify and fortify its mission: a store, a café, a library, a screening room, a reception room, a play room, etc. Each of these environments are conceived with the purpose of expanding the museum’s mission, and by doing so, museums create money-making enterprises beyond entrance fees: films, theater shows, social events, publications, etc. The museum can create and sell spectacles, experiences, and products that truly relate to the public.
As for who will be the avatar of this development campaign, the improved institution could be managed by a non-state, non-profit enterprise that will be responsible for orchestrating and supervising all the different entities that will finance and provide the experiences offered by the museum: film presentations, food services, store, etc. The director will steward the museum’s brand, provide a vision to its partners, give contracting jobs to local creative industries (video producers, graphic artist, etc.) and build a vibrant community around the museum: contractors, employees, volunteers, donors, contributors and visitors.
To provide checks and balances, the museum could be monitored by a diverse board that is ultimately in charge of raising and managing all the funds necessary to make it sustainable. This may be the most difficult obstacle to overcome as trends around the world suggest that state founding for cultural institutions will only decrease in the future. But once the institution demonstrates that it can attract the public, private support or new partners will also want to be part of the museum community.
The Inquisition Museum has great resources: its buildings, its history and its community. The board of directors need to look carefully at these resources to uncover their full potential: the correct use of its historic buildings, a boarder interpretation of their history and engaging a community that ultimately will be the source of its sustainability.
