Belmopan Museum

The Belmopan Museum is a long-planned national museum in Belmopan, the capital of Belize. The originally planned building was to be an ambitious state-of-the-art center for displaying information about the environment and society of Belize, including an exhibit of Mayan archaeology. The project was cancelled, but recently there have been plans to revive it. The Institute of Archaeology's library and collection of Mayan artifacts has been sporadically open to the public in the Archaeology Museum and Research Centre, Belmopan since the late 1990s.

Belmopan has officially been capital of the country since 1970 after Belize City was wrecked by a hurricane.^[1] However, Belize City was quickly restored, and most of the government departments remained there.^[2] The Catalan-born Joan Duran raised the question of building a national museum in Belmopan with the minister of education a week after Belize gained independence in 1981. He was encouraged by the People's United Party government to develop the concept with Mexican and Cuban colleagues. The museum was to be primarily devoted to audio-visual displays while a separate building would house the collection. The project was abandoned in 1984 when the People's United Party lost the election.^[3]

During the administration of the United Democratic Party from 1984 to 1989 the task of planning for a national museum and botanical garden was given to a British consulting firm. A Creole archaeologist was trained in London to be the museum's future director, and was made head of the department of museums. The People's United Party regained office in the 1989 election, and Duran was again placed in charge of planning for the new Museum of Belize, while Duran's wife was put in charge of the state's archaeological collection.^[3]

The museum building for the new Museum of Belize in Belmopan, designed by Mexican architects, was to have covered 4,500 metres (14,800 ft) in a 50 acres (20 ha) park. It was to have been a 2-story building around a glass-roofed patio, connected to an outdoor amphitheatre with 600 seats.^[3] The museum would have two main exhibit spaces on the ground floor, called "lungs", one about society and the other about the environment. Under the dome it would hold the most traditional exhibit, the Ancient Maya Gallery, planned by specialists from the Royal Ontario Museum. The exhibit would have a glass floor over a reconstruction of a half-excavated Mayan tomb.^[4] In June 1993 the plans for the museum were settled and construction of the museum building had begun. It was to be the largest building in the country, equipped with the latest technology to showcase Belize. A national election defeated the government and the plans were abandoned.^[5]

The Belize Department of Archaeology was created in 1957 with a staff of one person.^[6] As of 1996 the Belmopan Vault in the Department of Archaeology held some of the archaeological remains of the country. Most of the display consisted of ceramic vessels from across Belize. They were packed tightly and did not have labels. A group of 24 vases salvaged in 1973 from the Hokeb Ha cave in Toledo, southern Belize, was the most interesting part of the collection.^[7] At that time the vault was open in the afternoon on Monday, Wednesday and Friday by prior appointment.^[8] A 1997 guide said that the Archaeology Vault in Belmopan, which had been open for visitors to see a large collection of Mayan artifacts, had been closed for lack of funding. The Department of Archaeology had absorbed the Department of Museums, and plans to replace the Archaeology Vault with a National Museum of Belize were uncertain. The guide noted rumors that some of the valuable artifacts might have been sold abroad, and their absence from the collection would be embarrassing.^[9]

En agosto de 2003 se creó el Instituto Nacional de Cultura e Historia (NICH), y el antiguo Departamento de Arqueología se convirtió en el Instituto de Arqueología dentro del NICH. El Instituto de Arqueología gestiona todos los recursos arqueológicos y culturales de Belice. ^{[ 6 ]} Está ubicado en el Museo de Arqueología y Centro de Investigación, Culvert Road, Belmopan. ^{[ 10 ]} A partir de 2004, el Instituto de Arqueología ofrecía visitas guiadas a su colección en Belmopan. El instituto también contaba con una impresionante biblioteca de investigación. ^{[ 11 ]} El Museo de Arqueología contiene una selección de artefactos y reliquias del pasado. La mayor parte del edificio se utiliza para la investigación y el almacenamiento de las colecciones de la biblioteca, en lugar de para la exhibición de objetos. Sin embargo, el museo presenta una interesante colección de cerámica y herramientas. ^{[ 12 ]}

Una guía de 2006 decía que la colección arqueológica del Museo de Belmopán era interesante, pero el museo estaba cerrado por reformas. Su reapertura estaba prevista para enero de 2007. El Departamento de Arqueología podía proporcionar folletos y trípticos sobre el museo. ^{[ 13 ]} El terreno para el nuevo museo se vendió justo antes de las elecciones de 2008. ^{[ 14 ]} En noviembre de 2014, la Red Empresarial de Belmopán manifestó su interés en reactivar el Museo de Belmopán. ^{[ 15 ]} A finales de 2014 se firmó un contrato para construir un nuevo Museo de Belice en Belmopán, en sustitución del museo inaugurado en 2002 en la Ciudad de Belice. El nuevo museo iba a ser el centro de la red de sitios culturales y patrimoniales del Instituto Nacional de Cultura e Historia (NICH). ^{[ 16 ]}