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Monday, August 27, 2001

Cuban gallery at Daytona museum to reopen with new look

By CLAUDIA MOSCOSO | News-Journal Staff Writer

DAYTONA BEACH — Before leaving home for his volunteer job at the Museum of Arts and Sciences, Juan Junco of Port Orange gives his wife, Hilda, a goodbye kiss.

Although Junco tells her: "I'm going to Cuba," he always returns home a few hours later.

Junco said he is probably the only Cuban in the United States who can say that without lying.

Here's why.

A museum tour guide for the Cuban gallery, Junco explains that Daytona Beach isn't just the home of NASCAR races or Spring Break but that his workplace features "the largest and finest collection of Cuban art outside of Cuba."

Starting Tuesday, museum officials will have something else to be proud of. The Cuban gallery will reopen after undergoing a metamorphosis of sorts.

Gary R. Libby, the museum's executive director, said that in the past the collection has been "very rich in fine art (but) it was very light in history."

With its new additions, Libby said, the museum is trying "not to step so lightly on the relationship between Daytona Beach, Florida, and Cuba" because "we wanted to revisit it in the 21st century."

At the heart of the gallery's existence is the special relationship between Daytona Beach and Fulgencio Batista, the former Cuban leader ousted by Fidel Castro's revolution in 1959.

The Batistas, Fulgencio and his second wife, Marta, once Daytona Beach residents, donated artwork to the city, giving birth to the collection currently featured at the gallery.

The Cuban Foundation, which the Batistas established, oversees the Cuban gallery of the Museum of Arts and Sciences.

The collection with its new components of the "Cuba and Florida History Connection Exhibition," opens Tuesday to the public. It will feature text panels explaining various aspects of Cuban-American relations and state-of-the-art equipment to convey that information.

"I think North Americans don't fully appreciate the culture of our closest neighbors, and we hope this reinstallation stimulates curiosity and interest in Hispanic things," Libby said.

As part of the transformation, the gallery was equipped with an interactive computer exhibit that has the ability to speak Spanish with a Cuban accent. Junco, on duty most Tuesdays, also gives tours in Spanish upon request.

The enhanced repertoire also features bilingual text panels and a restored scale model of a sugar mill. A museum volunteer spent nearly a year giving the sugar mill a facelift. The artifact had been stored in need of repair for nearly a decade.

In order to effect the gallery's transformation, the museum used $35,000 from a state matching grant and put up the matching equivalent. In addition, museum officials hired two consultants, both professors at Florida International University, to provide assistance.

The additions complement artwork that has given the museum a reputation worldwide, including paintings such as Jose Nicolas de la Escalera's "Coronation of the Virgin by the Trinity," and Vicente Escobar's "Portrait of Don Tomas Mateo Cervantes." These two were the first recorded paintings in Cuban history, Junco said.

A grand opening celebration for the exhibit has been scheduled for Oct. 27, coinciding with the 509th anniversary of Christopher Columbus' visit to the island now known as Cuba.

The museum is at 1040 Museum Blvd. in Daytona Beach. Admission is $5 for adults and $1 for children and students. The museum opens Tuesday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday from noon to 5 p.m. Admission is free for Volusia County residents after noon on Tuesdays.

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