El Taller (The Workshop) at the Finca Vigía

The Finca Vigía Foundation (www.fincafoundation.org) has received permission to begin shipping materials from the U.S. to Cuba in order to start construction on a climate-controlled conservation laboratory known as El Taller (The Workshop) for the purposes of restoring and preserving documents at the Hemingway home and museum.  El Taller will be one of the first construction projects based in Cuba and built with U.S. materials since the embargo.  Recently, the first shipment of materials arrived on the island.  Mary-Jo Adams, the executive director of the foundation, and Bob Vila, the co-chairman for the foundation’s board of directors, will help facilitate the collaborative project between the two countries.  The project has also been supported by donations from American Express, AT&T, Caterpillar, and Ford Foundation.