Museo de la Patagonia "Francisco P. Moreno"

The Civic Centre possesses particular Architectonic characteristics, marked by a style inspired by the mountainous and wooded regions of Europe and the United States.   From its commencement, the destiny of the building was to concentrate there the civic and social activity of the town that was being initiated:Town Council, Post Office, Provincial Police, Customs, Library, Theatre, Regional Museum and Justice of the Peace.
 

The first director of the Museum was Enrique Amadeo Artayeta, from whom the Administration of National Parks acquired the first anthropological collection that was exhibited.   Today the museum reunites an extense ethnographical and historical collection that has been growing in the course of time thanks to donations, legacies, and as a result of the investigations.   For some years now, it has been the intention of the museum to present in a different way, the function which has traditionaly made uniform museums in general...by modernizing the display space and the investigation; by bringing up to date the preventive conservation techniques in order to take better care of the objects in its collections and broadening its pedagogical character as a transmitter of culture.   And also by developing activities that
awaken in visitors and residents a new interest in the region, its history, customs and expressions.

In 1992, a project for the remodelling of the Museum of the Patagonia, was selected by the "Fundacion Antorchas" (Torches Foundation) to receive subsidies for the realization of the same.  (National Subsidy "Concurso" for Museums).   Thanks to this subsidy, to which was added the contributions from the "Friends of the Museum Association" and the Administration of National Parks, the museum was able to finish the first part of the project.   After the listing and evaluation of the museum in general, it was decided to draw up a "walk round" tour of the museum in ascending chronological order.*

Given its characteristics as a regional museum, it was organized so as to offer information associated with the Patagonian environment, the prehistoric and the aboriiginal population, the history of the conquest  of the territories, the colonization and the contemporary cultural expressions, in the following way:
 

Permanent exhibition halls.

Natural Science hall.
"Recognizing the earth".  Projected.

Prehistoria hall:
What do we call prehistoria?   Diorama of a prehistoric habitat. Stratigraphy of a bed of geological deposits.  Description of cultures and industries:  centre, coast, Tierra del Fuego and its canals. Projected.

Aboriginal History Hall:
Description of the principal native cultures of the Patagonia:  Yamana and Selk'nam of Tierra del Fuego; Tehuelche, northern and southern Patagonia;  Mapuche, north Patagonia.  References to their habitat.
economy, society and cosmovision.   Inter-ethnics and economic history.

Regional History halls :.
Introduction, general historical picture  ( XV1 to X1X century ). Expansion of the white frontier on the Patagonia,  "Conquest of the Desert": the Rio de la Plata, Juan Manuel de Rosas, Calfucura, Adolfo
Alsina, Julio A. Roca, Chieftans of the resistance.   "Destiny of the Desert":  Land distribution.   Travellers and explorers.   The Argentine-Chilean limits question.  San Carlos de Bariloche ( 1885 -1950 ):  First settlers, immigrants, the town, Ramos Mexia and the industrial city, Emilio Frey, Primo Capraro. National Parks:  First projects, the urbanization of the town, development of tourism.Moreno Hall:  Presentation of the expert (perito) Francisco P. Moreno. Donation of land for the first National Park, historical references.

Library and document archives:
Reunites a large bibliographic and documentary collection of a regional character at the disposal of investigators and students.

Museum shop:
Sells regional crafts articles, diffusion material, books, videos and cassettes.   Administrated by the Friends of the Museum Association.

Offices:
Space devoted to the fields of graphic design and museum graphics, applied investigation, educative programming and diffusion.Administration.

Workshop:
Mounting and maintenance of permanent and temporary exhibitions.
Preventive conservation.

Storage:.
Space prepared for the conservation of the reserve of materials.

Museum of the Patagonia personnel:
Sr. Eduardo Perez, assistant in the mounting of exhibitions and the stabilization of collections.
Sra. Alicia Vera de Contreras, assistant in the stabilization of collections.

Attending the public:
Sr. Americo Perez.
Sr. Jorge Yagode.
Sr. Eduardo Bassera.
Sr. Eduardo Abad.

With the collaboration of:
Sr. Cladio Tam Muro.  Remodeling project.  Curator, designer of exhibitions and preventive conservation.  Internet.  1986/2000.
Sra. Helena Aizen, Lic. in Anthropology.   Investigation and preparation of scripts for the History and Ethnography
halls.1992/1995.
Sr. Alejandro Calvo. Computor technician. 1998.
Mr. John Dee, Translations. 2004