In the past few weeks there have been some very exciting developments for GPMP…..

First off, three weeks ago GPMP was granted funding from LAMP (Latin American Microform Project) for digitization of The Guantanamo Bay Gazette. Old editions of the Gazette are now being digitized and uploaded to GPMP’s online GTMO archive, hosted by Dloc (The Digital Library of the Caribbean). The Guantanamo Bay Gazette is GTMO’s weekly newspaper. While the name of the newspaper has changed many times it has been in circulation since 1948, covering a wide variety of topics such as major events in the history of GTMO, Cuba, US-Cuba relations, U.S. military involvement in the Caribbean, Haitian refugees, migrant laborers on the base and many more. Digitization of The Guantanamo Bay Gazette will help provide more information on the history of GTMO enhancing public debate on the base’s future.

In other exciting news, GPMP will be back on the road, making a stop at the University of South Carolina. From September 17 to December 17, 2015 the exhibit will be on display at the McKissick Museum, located on the University of South Carolina’s campus. In addition to the standard GPMP exhibit there are going to be three smaller exhibitions on related topics. These three exhibitions have been curated by students from the University’s Public History Program, they each are very fascinating but explore different topics. One of the exhibits, “Creating Culture: From Cuba to the Palmetto State,” deals with the migration experience of Cuban immigrants from Cuba to South Carolina. Another one, “Caught in the Crosshairs: Guantanamo Bay at the Height of the Cold War,” analyzes the experiences of Americans and Cubans living in Guantanamo in the 1960s. The third exhibit, “Adapting GTMO: The Environment and Sustainability on an Isolated Navy Base,” looks at how GTMO has started to turn to sustainable energy practices and environmental policies in an attempt to adapt to the challenging political circumstances in which the base finds itself. These student curators had the opportunity to travel to GTMO, brining back a unique perspective to these exhibits.

Lastly, GPMP was recently cited by Dr. Louise Purbrick in an online article for Discover Society, a United Kingdom based website that publishes academic work on sociology and social policy. The article, “Curating/Creating, Art/Activism:The Place of Collective Participation” used GPMP to illustrate what “activist art” is. Dr. Purbrick is an activist and a Principal Lecturer in the department of History of Art and Design at the University of Brighton. She played an essential role in helping to make GPMP’s trip, last summer to the University of Brighton a huge success. It is an honor to have GPMP be used as an example of the intersection of politics and the arts, this is at the core of GPMP’s mission.