Museum executive director Robert Hunter said they are specifically looking at assistance for the construction of a collection storage and curation facility, and the Navy seems willing to help.
“We are also looking at some possible assistance with funding for curation, whether that will be for a full-time collection’s curator, or the means to curate using private resources on an as-needed basis,” Hunter said.
Everything is still in the negotiation stage, but the Navy, which is overseeing the historic preservation aspect of the military buildup, is serious about the handling and caring of historic materials, he added.
“They are serious and want to see to it that the historic materials found on military-use properties are in place,” Hunter said.
New exhibits
The museum has “rotated” a couple of new exhibits.
Hunter said the first exhibits are high-quality photographs of endangered species of the Marianas, set up to coincide with the Governor’s Coral Reef Task Force Meetings last month, and the second is a small collection of materials, uniforms and other artifacts, from the collection of the warden/officer-in-charge of the Japanese jail.
The museum was one of the offices closed for a week during the government shutdown that started on Oct. 1 due to the lawmakers’ failure to pass a new budget.
The museum maintains an official repository of historical and cultural artifacts pertaining to the heritage of the Northern Marianas.
For more information, visit the museum across from Sugar King Park, call 664-2170 or email [email protected].
