One of the most diverse regions in the United States, South Florida is home to hundreds of thousands of people from the Caribbean and Latin America. While the Spanish history is documented, the same cannot be said of their counterparts from the English-speaking Caribbean.

In late October 2020, the Island SPACE Caribbean Museum was launched at Broward Mall in the city of Plantation. On Saturday, administrators stage a reopening of the museum in a larger outlet at the same location.

David Muir, a co-founder of Island SPACE Caribbean Museum, told OBSERVER ONLINE that the new home reflects enthusiasm for the project.

“This larger space, and the more expansive space we aim to procure in the future, will allow Island SPACE to do and be more in all aspects. Our historical archive has become fuller and more comprehensive in its content, our combined fine art gallery and exhibition space is able to display a lot more from our esteemed guest artistes, and we are able to host almost twice the number of guests we could before for our various community activities and events. Greater capacity will ultimately bring us closer to our desired status as a premier cultural ‘edu-tainment’ destination,” he said.

The museum’s Jamaican segment is largest, with artefacts from entertainment, sports and politics. While donations have come steadily from Trinidad and Tobago and The Bahamas, contributions from Cuba and Haiti, are not as robust.

Those countries have massive populations in Miami, where there has been an influential Cuban presence since the late 1950s when Fidel Castro’s revolution overthrew Fulgencio Batista.

While he and his colleagues would like more historical pieces from Cuba, Haiti and countries from the Eastern Caribbean, Muir said Island SPACE transcends artefacts.

“Island SPACE Caribbean Museum is important because representation is important. Though one in four current South Florida residents were born in the Caribbean region, until now, there was no space that represented people from our collective cultures. Unlike the United States, where you can drive from one state to the next, outside of places like South Florida, Atlanta and New York, there isn’t much opportunity for people from various Caribbean nation states to engage with each other in person,” he stated. “Our facility creates a welcoming space to do that — a place where Caribbean cultures unite. Island SPACE represents the best of the region and the Diaspora in art, culture and community, celebrating our shared histories, traditions and heritage.”

A photographer by profession, Kingston-born Muir is a popular figure in South Florida. Pieces of Jamaica, his second book (with artist Sean Henry) was released last August.