Martín highlights "the Port Authority's sensitivity to port-city relations" during the inauguration of the new Port Authority Archive

2 Nov 2022
Martín highlights "the Port Authority's sensitivity towards port-city relations" during the inauguration of the entity's new Archive. The Gamazo warehouses, which housed the old port documentation center, were ceded by the APS to the EnAire Foundation as an exhibition hall. Martín: "our objective is to open port assets located in privileged places to public use, as long as they do not harm the commercial activity of the port". Santander 02-10-22. The president of the Port Authority of Santander (APS), Francisco Martin, has toured today, along with the delegate of the Government, Ainoa Quiñones, the Minister of Industry, Tourism, Innovation, Transport and Trade and vice president of the APS, Javier Lopez Marcano and the Councillor for Education of the City of Santander, Noemi Mendez, the facilities of the new archive of the APS, located in the Barrio Pesquero. The head of the port recalled that the APS had to find an alternative space to the Gamazo warehouses to house the archive of the port after giving this building to the EnAire Foundation as an exhibition hall. Martin stressed that the old location "is more valuable" as a museum than as a documentation center "just as the Tabacalera building would certainly be more valuable as the headquarters of the Port Authority than as an archive," referring to the demand of the APS to occupy this building belonging to the General Administration of the State. The president of the APS has explained that this building is divided into four bays that house the archive, the room for the conservation of works of art and a multipurpose room that will serve "to alleviate the shortage of spaces in the area". Martin has also referred to the quantity and value of the works of art and documents that are in this documentation center "possibly the largest in Cantabria" and that tell the story "not only of the port but also of the city and the Bay". The president of the port has also referred to the 150th anniversary of the institution and has ensured that this event has served "both to recover areas of the port as the shed that houses this file or the Naos Room and to rehabilitate and enhance the value of the artistic port funds and several of the models it has. In this regard, he announced that before the end of the year the port will offer two exhibitions with the aim of being permanent, one on these models in the Maritime Station and another on the large-format artistic works in the Sala Naos. For its part, the delegate of the Government, Ainoa Quiñones, thanked the port for the transfer of the Gamazo warehouses to locate the permanent headquarters of the EnAire Foundation and, at the same time, the creation "of a space accessible to the public" as is the port archive. Also, the Minister of Industry, Tourism, Innovation, Transport and Trade and vice president of the APS, Javier López Marcano, wanted to emphasize that "to the industrial and infrastructure strength that the port is demonstrating, joins the effort to integrate every day more in the city and cut the distances that historically existed between the two. Finally, the Councillor for Education of the City of Santander, Noemí Méndez, congratulated the Port Authority for highlighting the history of the port "which is, at the same time, the history of the city". Documentation Center On October 28, 2017, the APS and the EnAire Foundation signed an agreement for the establishment of an exhibition hall for the EnAire collection in what were known as the Gamazo warehouses, which at that time housed the APS documentary archive. This agreement involved the adaptation of a space for a new archive. Thus, the APS selected an old warehouse located in the Barrio Pesquero of approximately 1,175 m2, which had been used for other purposes, but had none at that time. The works to transform the warehouse were undertaken in two parts involving an investment of 600,000 euros: the refurbishment of the building for the documentary archive and storage of the art collection by Palomera, Obras y Proyectos in 2018 and the fitting out of an exhibition space by Cannor, Obras y Servicios de Cantabria, S.L. in 2022.