News from the Legation
Tangier’s Portuguese-American Connection is Focus of Legation Hosted Event
(May 2005) The Tangier American Legation Museum (TALM) co-hosted a conference and book-signing reception at the Museum with the Director of the Portuguese Cultural Center and Cultural Attaché in Rabat, Mr. Jorge Forjaz. The occasion was the publication of his biography (in Portuguese) of the Colaço Family, established in Morocco since the middle of the XVII century. Mr. Forjaz, a genealogist and historian and member of the Portuguese Academy of History, has published other books about Portuguese families living in India, Macao, Brazil, and Mozambique. The Colaço family produced a remarkable number of artists and writers including the famous pianist Alexandre Rey Colaço, born in Tangier in 1854, whose published memoirs reveal interesting details about Tangier in that era.
Jorge Colaço (see above) was the third Portuguese Consul in Tangier for this family, after signature of the Peace Treaty between Portugal and Morocco in 1774.
- Portuguese Cultural Attache Jorge Forjaz
- and Mme Anne Gabrielle Bonnet
Jaspar Matthews (left) and father, Felix Matthews (right), Consul General, 1870 to 1887
The American connection with the Colaço family was established when Jaspar Mathews, the son of American Consul General Felix Mathews, married into the Colaço family. His father, Felix Mathews, had immigrated to America from Spain, became an American citizen, and rose to the rank of colonel in the American Civil War. Felix Mathews’ great great grand daughter, Anne Gabrielle Bonnet, is the only surviving member of the Mathews-Colaço family still living in Tangier. She gave to the Museum an oil portrait of her mother by the Scottish-American painter James McBey (see below) that is one of the finest works in the Legation collection.
While in Tangier, Mr. Jorge Forjaz visited the Legation Research Library to review a small collection of books and pamphlets in Portuguese dealing with Moroccan-Portuguese relations in the 16th and 17th centuries. He confirmed that it is a superb collection containing several rare documents. Before leaving, he presented the Museum with several useful publications dealing with the Colaço family and Portuguese activities in Morocco.
James McBey’s Oil Portrait of Clemencia Bonnet, great grand daughter of Consul General Felix Mathews
Two Day USAID Workshop Held at Tangier American Legation Museum (TALM) (May 2005) Greta Greathouse, project director for the USAID project, ASMA (Action for Strengthening Microfinance Associations), selected TALM for a two day workshop for participants representing 8 Moroccan micro credit organizations. The workshop, the first held in Northern Morocco, focused on micro credit management challenges. Among the micro credit organizations taking part in the workshop was the Micro credit Foundation for the North (MFN), a Rotary Club initiative.
Both Kuniholm and the officers of the MFN are members of the Rotary Club of Tangier. One of the MFN loan agents operating from TALM, has disbursed over 400 loans to medina women. ASMA Director Greta Greathouse met last month in Tangier with MFN officers to discuss possibilities for future cooperation. She was able to assist them by confirming their status as an approved micro credit organization of Morocco.
TALM Director Introducing USAID official to Tangier MFN officers
MFN official meets USAID development specialist*
ASMA Presentation*
ASMA Director Greta Greathouse (left) at MFN lunch
* photos by Susan Stanton
TALM Hosts Business Luncheon (May 2005) A board of directors delegation of the French-Moroccan firm, Air Liquide, visited Tangier May 21. Following a tour of the new $2 billion dollar port 20 miles from Tangier, they gathered for a catered lunch in the large reception room of the Legation. They were joined by their wives who arrived earlier for a private tour of the Museum galleries conducted by TALM Director Thor Kuniholm.
TALM’s unique conference facilities are available for business, academic, and community activities. Reservations and arrangements can be made by contacting:
Thor Kuniholm, TALM Director talm@wanadoo.net.ma Phone: (from the U.S.) (011 212) 39 93 53 17 Fax: (011 212) 39 93 59 60.
Board Members on the Terrace
Setting for Air Liquide Luncheon
From one gallery to the next
February 2005: Legation Offers Programs for Local Students As part of its commitment to the local community of Tangier, the legation offered art classes for local children and facilitated employment opportunities for local woman during the first two months of 2005. Through such programs the Legation "seeks to make a contribution to the community where we live while at the same time pursuing our museum, research, conservation, and conference agendas," said Museum Director Thor H. Kuniholm. Enrollment in literacy and sewing classes at the Museum has reached 150, and the museum has also begun offering English language classes thanks to three students from the American School of Tangier (two Moroccans and a Tunisian) who have volunteered as instructors.
The museum has played a direct role in enhancing the economic opportunities available to these women, as well. It hosts the Rotary Club small loan program that has reached nearly 500 women in the medina with a repayment record is nearly 100%, and in February of this year the Dutch manager of a local food processing plant was invited to speak to our classes about employment opportunities at his factory, resulting in the employment of several participants in the classes.
In addition to these efforts, the Museum has also reached out to the young people of Tangier, holding art classes for neighborhood children and operating a library center for students that has been in operation since it was established in 1993 by Peace Corps Volunteers.
For several years, now, the Legation has played a significant role in the revitalization of the Tangier Medina, and in February of this year the museum hosted a meeting of medina resident associations with the director of a Spanish company responsible for garbage collection in Tangier. A new collection schedule was discussed and residents had the opportunity to vent their complaints about the service they had been receiving.
Local Children attend Art Classes at the Legation
Literacy and Vocational Classes Create Opportunities or the Women of Tangier
( February 05) The Tangier American Legation Museum is featured in a new book, Building Diplomacy: the Architecture of American Embassies by Elizabeth Gill Lui. The Foreign Service Journal describes it as a “stunning coffee-table book” and “a comprehensive photographic documentary featuring the architecture of U.S. embassies.” Elizabeth Lui and her daughter spent several days in Tangier at TALM at the outset of their project. The book features 44 embassies, residences, and historic properties. With five pages devoted to it, TALM is among nine U.S. government properties classified by the U.S. Department of State as “culturally significant.” The others are Buenos Aires, New Delhi, Tokyo, Seoul, London, Prague, Rome and Paris.
Return to menu
The American virtuoso violinist, Jack Glatzer, gave two concerts at the Museum on February 17, 2005 an afternoon concert for neighborhood women and a well-attended concert in the evening. His program included a slide presentation relating the music to art and architecture.
Jack Glatzer has studied with several of the greatest teachers in the world, including Leonard Posner, Joseph Fuchs, Sandor Vegh and Maxim Jacobsen. In addition to his musical studies at Yale School of Music, and Musik Academie of Basel in Switzerland, he also gained a degree in history summa cum laude, at Yale, and an honors degree in history at Oxford. After leaving Oxford he performed with the great cellist, Pablo Casals, at the Prades Festival that inspired him to choose a musical career. Glatzer regularly makes concert tours around the world. He has performed many times at the Legation.
At his TALM concert this year, he performed a wide variety of music from across the Mediterranean including works by: Isaac Albeniz, Alan Hovhanes, Pietro Locatelli, Paul Ben-Haim, Guiseppi Tartini, Niccolo Paganini, Nemil Bey, Sekai Dede, and Cemil Bey.
December 2004: Activities at the Legation
The weather was unusually chilly this winter in Tangier. However, there are several advantages to the cold—we move faster and get more accomplished and we enjoy a crackling fire in our fireplace.
With Ramadan behind us, we launched our social programs for the coming year. We have enrolled 100 neighborhood women in our literacy and sewing classes. In response to requests from students in the neighborhood who cannot afford language lessons, we are starting English classes utilizing two student volunteers from the American School of Tangier. Two other volunteers from the American School will return again this year to help us with our art classes for neighborhood children.
Ambassador Reed has informed us that he has decided to send the remaining books from his Moroccan collection to the Research Library. We are grateful for this addition as they will enhance still further our excellent holdings on Morocco.
I met with Adil Rais, President of the Tangier Industrial Zone, who has obtained a commitment from the local authorities for publication of an illustrated pamphlet describing the attractions of Tangier. Mr. Rais, showed me the attractive photographic layout for the publication. We hope to distribute this pamphlet at our April Seminar (April 8 and 9) that will be attended by Richard Powers, Director of Marketing for the Port of Baltimore and other Baltimore representatives. Our ultimate goal is to establish a twin city agreement between Tangier and Baltimore.
We have launched a project to catalogue all of the art work in the Museum. We hope this will ultimately lead to a publication about the collection.
November 2004 Activities at the Legation
The Museum was active on both sides of the Atlantic in November. In Tangier we hosted five group tours and welcomed two Maghribi scholars to our library. We provided them with their AIMS grants and assisted them with their research. Our popular sewing classes were held three times a week throughout the month and we received our Middle East Partnership Initiative grant that will fund our literacy program for the coming year.
At the request of the Moroccan delegate of culture, we offered a reception at the Museum for participants in a conference on “Writing Tangier” held at Abdelmalik es Saadi University in Tetouan
In the United States TALM Director Thor Kuniholm accompanied TALMS President, Dr. I. William Zartman and TALMS fellow, Warren Clark, to a meeting at the Port of Baltimore headquarters building for a discussion with Richard E. Powers, Director of Marketing for the Port. He was enthusiastic about pursuing a relationship with the 1 billion dollar port being built near Ksar es Seghir on the Mediterranean coast (30 miles north of Tangier) Powers agreed to participate in our April Seminars (April 8 and 9) that will deal with the impact of the new port on economic development in the North. Also, we hope to advance our goal for a twin city agreement between Baltimore and Tangier, an effort that Warren Clark is spearheading.
Our TALMS logo, designed by graphic arts professor, Frank D’Astalfo, was chosen in juried competitions for inclusion in two prestigious graphic art publications illustrating the best logos for 2004. For graphic artists this is a distinction akin to the Pulitzer Prize for writers.
Community Development Efforts at the Museum
The Tangier American Legation Museum (TALM) helped organize and participate in a community service initiative in Tangier. TALM, along with the officers of the Tangier Medina Foundation (FTAM) who are headquartered at TALM, leaders of a neighborhood association who were organized by FTAM, and the director and professors of the nearby grammar school came together to distribute school bags to a delegation of neighborhood children and foodstuffs to some local women residents and their families. In addition, the American Embassy is providing a grant that will permit the literacy and sewing classes to continue at TALM this year, to allow for further support of and integration into the local community.
TALM Director Mr. Thor Kuniholm with local students receiving their new school bags
FTAM President Ms. Hanae Bakhari with local residents
Happy students in the courtyard
Participants of the project
President of Indiana State University Visits
Lloyd W. Benjamin III, President of Indiana State University, and his wife visited the Tangier American Legation Museum (TALM) October 8, 2004. They were accompanied by the Vice President of Mohammedia University, Abdelmajid Badri, and Hanae Bekkari, President of the Tangier Al Madina Foundation, a Moroccan social action NGO headquartered at TALM.
During his visit to Morocco, Dr. Benjamin met with senior university officials in the country who have been involved in an Indiana State University project on improving academic administration. He also explored with them other areas for future bilateral cooperation including student exchanges. Earlier in the day, Dr. Benjamin met with the governor of Tangier province and other city officials. TALM Director, Thor Kuniholm, presented Dr. Benjamin with a TALM poster publicizing their two international seminars on the bilateral free trade agreement with Morocco. The pair also discussed opportunities for future cooperation between TALM and Indiana State University.
Dr. Lloyd W. Benjamin III and his wife, Dr. Wieke van der Weijden Benjamin, with TALM Director, Thor Kuniholm
American Overseas Research Center Hosts Launch of Moroccan Free Trade Agreement Tour
H.E. Ambassador Thomas T. Riley selected the Tangier American Legation Museum (TALM) to launch the Embassy's six day trade caravan to selected cities in Morocco. The tour is intended to promote the Free Trade Agreement recently approved by an overwhelming majority of the U.S. Congress (The Moroccan Parliament will vote on the agreement in October). In his prepared remarks to a business audience at TALM on September 19, Ambassador Riley stressed the potential for increased Moroccan exports to the U.S. pointing out that 98.8% of bilateral trade will be exempt from duties when the Agreement takes effect. Senior officials from Tangier and nearby Tetouan attended the reception, while Ambassador Riley held several interviews with journalists at TALM. The event was covered on television and widely reported in the press. TALM, part of the American Institute of Maghreb Studies (AIMS), has hosted seminars on The Free Trade Agreement inviting speakers from Morocco and the U.S for the past two years.
Ambassador Thomas T. Riley promoting the Free Trade Agreement at the Tangier American Legation Museum
Return to Contents
© TALMS and/or the writers and photographers reserve the rights to all graphic and textual content within this site.
Except as noted, the photographs in this site are by: TALM, Robbie Lacomb-Roach, Michael Roach, Thor H. Kuniholm or Michael Toler. All Rights Reserved.
