Fifteen Silves students, aged between 12 and 15, participated in cleanup activities at the city’s virtually abandoned Cork Museum.
Closed for the past three years, the museum reopened last Friday for the students who, equipped with brooms and gardening tools, cleared rubbish and weeds from the exterior pavements.
The initiative was spearheaded by local teacher Manuel Ramos, also the museum director, who hopes the financial difficulties affecting the Fábrica do Inglês, where the museum is located, can be overcome.
Alicoop, which was recently acquired by the Nogueira Group, holds 28% of the Fábrica’s shares, however group owner José Nogueira told Correio da Manhã that he was not aware of this and added that he did not have a “money making machine” nor was he interested in “this type of actitivity” (running a museum).
The Nogueira Group is now in the process of reopening more than 50 Alisuper supermarkets across the region (see Algarve Resident April 6 edition).
Manuel Ramos hopes an agreement can be reached between the creditors and Silves Câmara in order to see the museum reopen to the public and safeguard the largest collection of documents relating to the cork industry in the world.
