Young students from a school in Silves will reopen, on May 18, for one day, the Cork Museum of Fábrica do Inglês, in an action to raise awareness about the state of its historical and cultural heritage.
The initiative belongs to the 6th F students (Study of the Environment) of the Dr. Garcia Domingues Group, from Silves, whose teacher is Manuel Castelo Ramos, still director in title of the Cork Museum, which closed three years ago due to the problems at the Fábrica do English. The third anniversary of the closing of this Museum is ironically marked May 18, International Museum Day.
«For this, we have prepared a street action, which goes through the city towards the Museum, displaying posters with phrases alluding to the problem, and by offering postcards to the population with images of the cork heritage, which will continue with the visit to the Museum and its symbolic cleaning (internal and external)», explains Manuel Castelo Ramos.
During the period when students, between 12 and 15 years old, and the interested population are there, between 9:30 am and 12:30 pm on Friday, the museum will be open to free visits from those who want to visit and support the action. of these young people.
Participants will also pick oranges from the trees inside the Fábrica do Inglês, to deliver them to the care of the parish priest of Silves, Father Carlos Aquino, and the charities he chooses.
It will be, according to that professor and former director of the Cork Museum, «a different way of marking with these students the International Day of Museums, which will probably have a few more good surprises».
Manuel Ramos adds that the objectives of this symbolic action are to «sensitize the local community, but not only, to the importance of expressing their will in the defense and reopening of that cultural space, so important in our collective memory, exercising their right to demonstrate and indignation».
The professor reveals that «very soon (May/June) the insolvency of Fábrica do Inglês will be decreed and the historical heritage will be increasingly at risk. Part of the building is already under pledge of finances. Cork machines unique in the world, and a documental archive that dates back to the century. XIX may, at any time, also be the object of attachment».
"It seems unbelievable, but it is the cruelest of realities," he laments.
«We are all too few so that this issue does not fall by the wayside or become vulgar. I, my students and others are not resigned because this is, for sure, the heritage of a country that claims to be a cork producer, heritage of public interest, a unique historical value to be preserved!».
Manuel Castelo Ramos admits that this action is only “symbolic”, but “considered the enthusiasm and will shown by these young people, very significant, coming from this youth that is our future”.
The Cork Museum is considered the main exhibition on the existing cork industry in Portugal, and it even won the Micheletti Prize Best Industrial Museum in Europe in 2001, the year in which it received more than 100 visitors.
The Cork Museum, in addition to machines and other equipment from the old factory that remain in the same place, brings together an important documentary collection that dates back to the XNUMXth century, when the cork industry was thriving in Silves.
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