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Houston International
Festival "Out of Africa” Spotlights Ethiopia
to 500,000 Visitors "Lucy
Legacy: Hidden Treasures of Ethiopia" at the
Houston Museum of Natural
Sciences Visitors
to Lucy's Legacy: The Hidden Treasures of Ethiopia
provided the following comments: "Lucy's
worth more than diamonds. Thank
you!" "We
have come from Santiago, Chile to see the exhibit.
Very well done and an inspiration to go to
Ethiopia." "All
the way up from Argentina to meet Lucy, this is
Alex thanking you for this wonderful
experience." "Please
thank the government of Ethiopia for this
once-in-a-lifetime experience!" "Hey
Lucy! What a joy it was to get to see you in
person!" "This
is a tremendous teaching opportunity for the youth
of Houston." &endash; Jackie "Absolutely
phenomenal! What a pleasure! What an
education!" "Absolutely
phenomenal! I had no idea how much Ethiopia added
to our civilization!" "I
have been truly blessed to have stood and looked at
Lucy." "Lucy
speaks after 3.2 million years. Our story must be
heard." &endash; Faye According
to Ambassador Mohammed Drir, the gains for Ethiopia
comprise primarily: positive image building;
renewed interest in Ethiopia's tourist attractions
and consequent increase in tourist flow from
America to Ethiopia, and funds for capacity
building at Ethiopian museums for heritage
conservation. The touring exhibition will have its
premier opening in Houston, Texas in September
2007, coinciding with the beginning of Ethiopia's
Millennium Year, and travel to other metropolises,
with home coming to Addis Ababa scheduled for may
2013. In
conclusion Ambassador Mohammed said, "Our partners
in this exhibition project, the Houston Museum of
Natural Science, are a world class-museum with a
highly deserved reputation for staging great
exhibitions involving priceless objects from China,
the Vatican, Russia and other
countries." The
President of the Houston Museum of Natural Sciences
of Texas, USA, Mr. Joel A. Bartsch said "On behalf
of the staff and trustees of the museum, I truly
want to say what I am honored is to be here with
you this morning, primarily, in the spirit of
partnership. It is easy, as some people say that
today is signing of this historic exhibition
agreement, is the culmination or the ending of
something. And, in many ways, it is the culmination
of a lot of years of effort." He
further said "Over the past several years, we have
been working with our partners with people of the
Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, the
Ministry of Culture and Tourism, distinguished
members of National Coordinating Committee and our
many colleagues throughout the Ethiopian museum
community to make today's signing a reality.
"However, while this a very important milestone,
what today is really is, it is the formal
acknowledgement of a partnership among friends." He
went to say that it is a partnership that has
developed over several years and one that we
believe will last for many decades to
come. Mr.
Bartsch said that, the Houston Museum has, in
recent years worked with partners around the world
on a wide variety of exhibitions including with the
forbidden city of the Imperial Palace in Beijing,
China, with Dead Sea Scrolls Exhibition with the
Israeli Antiquities Authority, and churches of the
Vatican from Vatican City. Mr.
Bartsch pointed out that "none of these exhibitions
is more important than the Lucy Legacy Exhibition
that we are talking about today." He gave
further explanations to his argument in the
following words: "In a way, that is because,
whether you are looking at the pre-historic period
partly by Lucy and now Selam, stretching back
millions of years. But from the historic period of
Ethiopia, that stretches back thousands of years.
Ethiopia's rich cultural heritage and the vibrant
country that it is today, is one of the best kept
secrets in the world. And it is a story that needs
to be told much more broadly." As
Bartsch put it, Ethiopia truly has a great deal to
share with the world. It has a great deal that it
can learn from Ethiopia. We believe that this
exhibition, in partnership with Ethiopian people,
will go a very long way towards making that goal a
reality, he added. these
objects. These are beyond cash value. In the west,
we are in the mindset of thinking of putting tags
on anything. But we are more concerned on the
historic, spiritual, and the partnership part of
it. But the agreement stipulates that there is an
insurance which is appropriate and full. And the
Houston Museum of Natural Science is a museum that
has an experience of 30 years in dealing with
highly valuable objects. Gezahgen Kebede,
President, Ethio-American Trade & Investment Council |
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