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                                                                                                           local Tuesday 25 april 2023


















            Aruba Monument funds Foundation and the Aruban


            government to restore Cas Veneranda


            (Oranjestad)—For  more  than  sev-  of  the  Arends  Family—owners  of  building.  The  moment  that  SMFA
            en  years,  the  Aruba  Monument  the building, the agreement for the  concludes  the  purchase  of  the
            Fund (SMFA) had been looking for  purchase, restoration and the rent-   building, there will e petition made
            a  partner  interest  in  restoring  the  ing of the Cas Veneranda building.  to the Bureau of Monuments for its
            building  situated  at  Wilhelmina  SMFA can now continue its plan for  protection and official recognition
            Street  #7.  This  is  a  building  has  a  the restoration.            as an Aruban monument.
            tremendous historical value, and is
            build with a unique style of archi-  The Restoration                    Financing
            tecture, traditional for Aruba. Now  The next phase includes conduct-   The project of restoration will be fi-  Veneranda,  was  infatuated  with.
            SMFA  can  happily  announce  to  ing the necessary investigations on  nanced by the Dutch National Res-    Afterwards he came back to Aru-
            the public that the house building  the state of the building, appoint-  toration Fund (NRF) and the Aruba  ba  to  build  the  building  we  now
            of  Cas  Veneranda  has  been  ac-  ing  the  right  architect,  designing  General Pension Fund in the form of  know  as  Cas  Veneranda.  At  that
            quired and will soon be undergo-    the project, preparing for the proj-  a loan with low taxes to SMFA. Dur-  time,  this  was  one  of  the  biggest
            ing restoration.                    ect and finally the actual restora-  ing a recent visit to Aruba, the NRF  houses built on Aruba, with a Latin
                                                tion process. It has been calculat-  visited the location and confirmed  American Neo-baroque style.
            This is all with the cooperation of the  ed that the restoration will take ap-  their interest to finance this project.
            Aruban government, after Minister  proximately  two  years  to  finish.  In  In order to make this project possi-  Apart  from  being  a  home,  the
            Geoffrey Wever expressed his inter-  the mean time, the community of  ble, Minister Geoffrey Wever made  building was also home to a flow-
            est to house some of his ministerial  Aruba can count on a fully-restored  sure  to  acquire  a  contribution  of  er shop, an ice cream parlor and
            department in this historic building  Cas Veneranda by 2025. This build-  690 thousand florins in the form of  the consulate for Spain. During the
            located in the down town Oranjes-   ing will have a space available for  a subsidy to buy the building.     1990s,  the  building  became  the
            tad. After much discussion, a mu-   a small restaurant/café as to make                                      Papiamento  Restaurant.  After  the
            tual agreement has been reached  this  monument  accessible  to  the  History of Cas Veneranda              restaurant moved out the building,
            that Cas Veneranda would be the  public too, instead of just function-  This impactful building in Wilhelmi-  this was left empty. In 2014, a big
            ideal office building for the Depart-  ing as a government office.      na Street was constructed in 1936  fire destroyed a big part of the in-
            ment of Economic Affairs (DEACI).                                       by  Frederico  Maximiliaan  (Ma-    terior. For safety reasons, this build-
                                                Protection                          chi) Arends, who was a consul for  ing was later closed down.
            The Agreement                       Up  until  now,  the  monument  did  Spain.
            On April 20th, the minister of econ-  not have the necessary protection  The architect at the time was the  In  good  cooperation  with  the  Ar-
            omy,  Mr.  Geoffrey  Wever,  along  it  needed,  which  posed  a  great  renowned  Dada  Picus,  who  went  ends Family, Minister Wever, SMFA,
            with  the  director  of  SMFA  and  in  threat  of  losing  the  building  to  in-  all the way to Cartagena, Colom-  NRF  and  APFA,  we  can  preserve
            the  presence  of  the  foundation’s  vestors  who  may  not  care  about  bia  to  find  an  inspiration  from  a  Cas  Veneranda  and  his  valuable
            board,  APFA  and  representatives  the  historical  value  behind  this  building  that  Machi’s  wife,  Maria  history for future generations. q


            The 15th edition of “Arte di Palabra Aruba” poetry competition


            showcases a new group of talented young artists


            (Oranjestad)—On  Sunday,                                                               dy Montoya, so they could  latest  winner  of  the  Gang
            April  16th,  the  15th  edition                                                       work on their presentation,  di  Arte  2022  competition,
            of  the  poetry  competition                                                           articulation,   expression  another     multidisciplinary
            “Arte  di  Palabra  Aruba”                                                             and  voice  dominance  on  project  for  young  people
            (AdP) took place at the Cas                                                            stage.                       organized by DCA.
            di Cultura theater house in                                                            Secondary  schools  that  After  the  dance  perfor-
            down town Oranjestad. AdP                                                              were    represented   dur-   mance,  members  of  the
            is organized every year by                                                             ing  the  competition  are  judge panel turned in their
            the  Department  of  Culture                                                           as  follows:  Abraham  de  decision  and  MC  Rafael
            Aruba  (DCA)  and  funded    the first time that there has  lowed to choose the topic   Veer  School,  Ceque  Col-  Garcia—winner    of   AdP
            by the Papiamento Correc-    been  a  “Rap”  category,  of  slavery  in  frame  of  the   lege, San Antonio College,  Aruba  multiple  times—an-
            tor Foundation (FCP).        which only had one contes-   commemoration  of  160       Colegio  Nigel  Matthew,  nounced  the  runner-ups
                                         tant  from  EPB  high  school  years  since  the  abolition   Colegio  San  Augistin,  EPI,  and winner.
            During  this  competition,   in  the  running.  Sergio  Gar-  of  slavery  throughout  the   EPB  San  Nicolas  and  John  This  coming  July  14th,  win-
            29  students  from  different   cia presented his beautiful  Dutch  Kingdom  this  com-  Wesley  College.  After  the  ners  of  AdP  will  be  repre-
            secondary  schools  around   original  composition  titled  ing  June.  Before  the  com-  competition, the audience  senting Aruba in the interis-
            the island participated with   “Slave to my Freedom.”     petition,  participants  were   was able to enjoy a dance  lander competition of Aru-
            either  a  poem  or  a  short   It  should  be  noted  that  given three work shop ses-  performance by No Image  ba,  Bonaire  and  Curacao
            story. This year was the also   the  participants  were  al-  sions taught by John Fred-  Dance Group, who are the  (ABC).q
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