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Spanish version

Investigation Units

Arts and Letters

Museum of the University of Costa Rica (museo+UCR), Vice Rector’s Office of Research, UCR

Imagine a place where you can see, touch, smell, hear, or know insects, bacteria, rocks, pots, works of art, lead sheets, photographs, trees, and orchids.

• While you dream and create those images of that place, there is a team of people - members of the Institutional Commission of Collections - who have been working for more than ten years to make that site a reality, the reality of the University Museum of Costa Rica (museum+UCR).

• However, long time ago, countless professors, researchers and students of the University of Costa Rica began to build this space with the collection and preservation of these heritage assets, which have come to make up more than 70 collections. This hard work has ensured the construction of strong pillars for the museum+UCR. From these on, the bricks that have begun to give a face to that museum have been placed one by one.

The Museum of the University of Costa Rica (museo+UCR) was created by the University Council in session N°. 5457 of June 24th, 2010. However, its work started in 1999 when the Vice Rector for Research formed the Institutional Commission of Collections.

Mission of the museo+UCR

The Museum of the University of Costa Rica (museum+UCR) is a non-profit special research unit of the Vice Rector’s Office for Research. It is at the service of society and its development, and is open to the university community and the public in general. It acquires, preserves, investigates, disseminates, and exhibits the natural and cultural, tangible and intangible heritage of humanity, particularly in the Central American region for educational and entertainment purposes.

The mission of the museo+UCR is to support the University of Costa Rica in its three fundamental functions: teaching, research, and social action, as well as study, reflection, artistic creation and dissemination of knowledge.

The museum of the University of Costa Rica consists of all collections, regional museums, botanical gardens, biological reserves, experimental stations and farms, laboratories, academic units, institutes and research centers with collections, libraries, and archives, as well as other offices of the UCR whose work is the management, protection and conservation of cultural and natural, tangible and intangible heritage.

Vision of the museo+UCR

The vision of the museo+UCR is to become a model university museum at national and Central American level.

Objectives

  • To protect and preserve the natural and cultural, tangible and intangible heritage of the University of Costa Rica.
  • To strengthen research projects, registration, cataloging, conservation, restoration and exhibition of the university and national heritage, tangible and intangible, with a perspective of accessibility and use by the university and national community.
  • To provide and develop the necessary conditions for the preservation of collections.
  • To encourage research related to collections.
  • To disseminate and exhibit the collections and the knowledge generated by them.
  • To develop educational programs for different sectors of Costa Rican society.
  • To promote the continuity of a coordination system among the collections of the University of Costa Rica.
  • To ensure compliance with the institutional policies regarding the collections of the University of Costa Rica.
  • To strengthen the use of collections to generate knowledge and contribute to teaching, research, social action, and continuing and non-formal education.

Main functions

  • To establish policies, procedures, and criteria for the management of collections, museography and museology, in general.
  • To advise and recommend suitable procedures for the conservation of the collections of the University of Costa Rica.
  • To advise and work with curators, people responsible for collections and directors of regional museums, experimental stations, botanical gardens and biological reserves in educational plans and programs.
  • To design, prepare and assemble exhibitions about the collections of the University of Costa Rica.
  • To create and develop the Office of Registration of Collections of the University of Costa Rica.
  • To create and develop the Office of Registration of Collections of the University of Costa Rica.
  • To create and develop the Education Section of the Museum of the University of Costa Rica.