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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