V.I. National Park opens Science and Collection Center at Lind Point
By SARA KIRKPATRICK Daily News Staff – May 30, 2024
The Virgin Islands National Park has taken a another step in its mission to preserve the territory’s cultural resources with the grand opening of the Resource Management, Science and Collection Center at Lind Point.
“This facility is an incredible space for science to happen, for people to be engaged with the natural and cultural heritage of the islands,” National Park Superintendent Penelope Del Bene told The Daily News on Saturday at the opening ceremony.
“This was an event really focused on carrying on the culture, and from the feedback and the engagement from the participants in this event, I’m very hopeful that we were able to acknowledge that,” Del Bene said.
The approximately $28 million construction project, which began in December 2021, includes new buildings to house the park’s archives, museum collection, and an archaeology lab.
The Archaeology Lab at the V.I. National Park Resource Management and Collection Center at Lind Point. Daily News photos by SARA KIRKPATRICK
The lab will replace the old Danish Warehouse previously located in Cinnamon Bay, which was destroyed by Hurricane Irma in 2017.
The collection center’s buildings were designed to be resilient against more frequent and stronger storms, by including concrete construction, hurricane rated doors and windows, and improved roof systems.
The structures were also designed to reduce energy consumption by using building site orientation, natural daylighting, limited conditioned spaces, and implementing passive ventilation.
Another sustainability feature includes solar panels installed on the roofs with generator backup.
The exterior of the buildings features native stone material and patterns, as a nod to historic structures throughout the park.
The project also added housing for park staff, with the construction of a two-bedroom and three-bedroom housing unit.
At the opening Bonnie Ciolino, museum curator for the National Park South Florida Collections Management Center, gave public tours of the museum and archive collections.
Bonnie Ciolino, left, is the museum curator for the National Park South Florida Collections Management Center. She led visitors on tours of the new archive and collections facilities Saturday.
Photo by SARA KIRKPATRICK
Over the winter, Ciolino worked with the V.I. National Park and assisted in relocating collection items into the new storage facilities.
She noted that between the archive and museum collections, there are over 500,000 items, and in the new facility there is additional storage in anticipation of future collections.
The archive contains documents, such as historic land records, while the museum collection includes items such as archeological artifacts found in Cinnamon Bay.
In order to preserve documents and objects housed in the center, there are temperature-controlled areas with air conditioning and fire protection that meet national museum collection design standards.
The park superintendent noted that moving forward the collections center will be open by appointment for residents.
“It is a secured space, it’s not an open museum, and so in order for people to enter and access that space, and for us to provide tours, we have to have staffing on hand,” Del Bene explained.
She noted that the park currently does not have archaeologists, historians, or collections staff, but they are in the process of recruiting.
“We are initially going to bring people in. We are working on bringing people in, in a more permanent capacity,” Del Bene said.
She said the park is interested in recruiting locally to fill the positions, and would like to partner with the University of the Virgin Islands on potential internship opportunities that would allow students to work with the collections.
To assist with accessibility, Del Bene said they are also looking for volunteers who would be available to give public tours.
“It’s not just about having employees that are available, but it’s also having folks within the community who have a vested interest in various areas within the collection that want to volunteer,” she said.
The center also features a multi-purpose room that has space for public meetings, special exhibits, or for visits by school groups.
Del Bene sees the potential for cultural educational opportunities for students and residents of all ages.
“This place is for the community, we are happy to be able to open it up,” she said. “This belongs to the community of St. John.”
Guests at the event were treated to entertainment by Yisrael Petersen’s New Generation of Traditional Moko Jumbies, bamboula dancing, and steel pan music by Love City Pan Dragons.
