The Terry de Tilcara National Museum, located at 2,470 meters above sea level, was selected among more than one hundred museums from 22 Ibero-American countries, to receive an important recognition for the work carried out through the social and educational program “Terry tails”. The project has been developed steadily since the pandemic began, aimed at more than 150 boys and girls from Tilcara, Huacalera, Juella, Huichaira and La Banda.
It is the first time, in the twelve editions of the contest Ibermuseums of Education, that a museum in Argentina is selected in the first category, which offers recognition to projects carried out or in progress. as you mentioned Juan Ignacio Munozdirector of the Museo National Terry, “This recognition represents pride not only for the institution and its workers, but also for Tilcara and Jujuy.”
The educational project “Terrytails”which emerged in the midst of a pandemic, was carried out in a process of comprehensive transformation ofthe Terry National Museum. About the beginnings of the program, Muñoz commented: “We were experiencing a very difficult time as a society. The children were isolated at home and were expected to continue school virtually in a region where there is very little connectivity and where many families do not have electronic devices. So we set out to become a museum for our community, and go out to meet those groups that were suffering the impact of the pandemic to a greater extent.”.
The “Terrycolas” program brings together activities that articulate virtual and face-to-face artistic proposals aimed at children in the Quebrada with which the Museum was able to reach schools, the homes of 150 children and their families, offering them a leading place in the institution. “To the point that the boys and girls themselves came to make programs for public television and be part of exhibitions with their stories and productions”says the director.
The activities are carried out inside and outside the Museum, in public spaces such as the square, the Municipal Market, the chapel, schools and neighborhood centers, while the transmedia activities articulate territorial work with participatory digital proposals on social networks, radio and television. “Terrycolas” has different lines of work, among which are the artistic residency “Terrytails”, the “Other side of the river” project in rural communities, LSA workshops for Deaf children and a transmedia laboratory.
“Receiving an international award for this work is very gratifying, it encourages us to continue working on building a museum committed to its community and to children” concluded Juan Muñoz. In addition, the program promotes the Museum’s interrelationship with other institutions such as rural schools, the Tilcara Hospital, the PakaPaka Canal, the National Theater Institute and civil organizations.
ANDl Ibermuseums Project It is part of the international cooperation program for Ibero-American museums, which aims to promote the strengthening of the more than ten thousand existing institutions in the region. The program is run by a Intergovernmental Council made up of representatives from thirteen countries: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Spain, Mexico, Peru, Portugal and Uruguay, among others.
The Ibermuseums Education Award seeks to recognize and strengthen the social function of museums through the promotion of educational programs and projects. In this twelfth edition, the promotion of face-to-face educational projects was rescued, but also those initiatives that combine face-to-face and virtual activities. Only three museums, including the Terry National MuseumThey were selected.
The artistic residency “Terrytails” It takes place annually and is made up of a group of 16 boys and girls from Tilcara, Juella and Sumaj Pacha who visit the Museum uninterruptedly weekly since 2021 to learn and share experiences through art. The project “Across the river” He leaves the building to inhabit other spaces and share artistic and educational experiences with children from the rural schools of La Banda, Huichaira and Juella. Art workshops, traveling exhibitions, workshops and theatrical performances are held.
On the other hand, the Museum has an Accessibility area with a Deaf advisor and a language interpreter who work with Deaf children in multicultural and bilingual artistic activities, designed in LSA as the native language. In this way, it seeks to create spaces for participation and learning for Deaf and hard of hearing children and, at the same time, disseminate Deaf culture among hearing families.
Lastly, through a transmedia laboratory that articulates territorial work and digital communication platforms, tools and media, the Museum generates proposals that have a situated origin and that are amplified in virtual space. During the isolation period, virtual workshops were developed “Drawing with Terry” and “Drawing with Terry at LSA”that invite to carry out activities inside the house and that were projected in the local rural schools.
Of course, it is not the first educational project of the institution. In 1964, the first director of the museum Felix Pereira I organize an educational proposal with primary school students from Yavi and the Quiaca. The Regional Museum of Painting “José Antonio Terry”, created in 1948, is the only national museum in Jujuy and its educational imprint is still present. There he lived, between 1911 and 1936, the artist Joseph Terry and for this reason the permanent collection of the institution is made up of his works. The artist studied painting in Europe and, upon returning to the country, he settled in Tilcara.
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