JNHT receives support from Spanish-Jamaican Foundation for Seville exhibition

June 7, 2012

New Seville, June 1, 2012 - The Jamaica National Heritage Trust has received funding support in the amount of US$60,000 from the Spanish-Jamaican Foundation to design and mount an exhibition focusing on Jamaican heritage at the Seville Heritage Park in St Ann.

The Minister of Youth and Culture, the Honourable Lisa Hanna, MP received the cheque yesterday (Thursday), on behalf of the JNHT, from Her Excellency Celsa Nuño, Spanish Ambassador to Jamaica and the President of the Spanish-Jamaican Foundation. Minister Hanna thanked the Ambassador and commended the partnership between the JNHT and the Spanish-Jamaican Foundation in the mounting of the exhibition.

The exhibition, according to Consultant Curator to the JNHT Dr. Jonathan Greenland, will be the only one of its kind in the region.

The exhibition is part of a larger project to restore the Great House and to facilitate the development of Seville Heritage Park into an interpretive site which will highlight the various periods of Jamaica's history.

According to Executive Director of the JNHT, Laleta Davis Mattis, the project provides a notable example of the opportunities for partnership with public and private sector interests. This, she said, against the background of the project being funded by the JNHT, the Tourism Enhancement Fund and the Spanish-Jamaican Foundation.

The Tourism Enhancement Fund has contributed in excess of J$20M to the entire restoration project while the JNHT collapsed its own preservation fund with a total of J$27M.

Mrs Davis Mattis said the exhibition would highlight Seville's importance to Jamaica:

"We like to say at the JNHT that Seville was the site of encounter of the four worlds - the Tainos, Spanish, British and the Africans. So Seville is the place that signifies the beginning of our Nation and a motto that perhaps unknown to its intellectual framers had its genesis here: Out of Many One People."

The restoration of the great house and the installation of the exhibition is expected to be completed by the end of the month.

For more contact:
Oliver Watt, Director of Communications
Jamaica National Heritage Trust
Mobile: 564-9198 | oliver.watt.jm@gmail.com