The National Endowment for the Humanities awards Olga Iglesias Project a Preservation Assistance Grant to conduct the first comprehensive assessment of the Olga Iglesias collection, ensuring the preservation of Puerto Rico's operatic heritage.
San Juan, Puerto Rico – The Olga Iglesias Project (OIP) is honored to announce it has been awarded a Preservation Assistance Grant for Smaller Institutions from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). This prestigious grant will fund the organization’s first comprehensive assessment of the Olga Iglesias collection, a treasure trove of materials documenting the legendary soprano’s career and her pivotal role in Puerto Rico’s classical music history.
The grant will enable OIP to hire a specialized preservation consultant who will conduct an in-depth evaluation of the collection’s current condition, preservation needs, and requirements for establishing a permanent institutional home. This assessment represents a crucial step in safeguarding materials that chronicle not only Olga Iglesias’s remarkable career but also her historic collaborations with Pablo Casals and her contributions to Puerto Rico’s cultural legacy.
The Olga Iglesias collection encompasses a rich variety of materials including photographs, performance programs, recordings, correspondence, and personal memorabilia spanning from the 1950s through the 1990s. These irreplaceable items document Iglesias’s pioneering television program on WAPA-TV, her participation in the inaugural Festival Casals, and her approximately 40 international performances of Casals’s oratorio El Pessebre.
Anthony Cheney Guzmán, Founder and Executive Director of OIP, expressed his gratitude: “This NEH grant represents a transformative moment for our organization and for Puerto Rico’s cultural heritage. The professional assessment will provide us with a roadmap to ensure that my grandmother’s legacy—and by extension, a vital chapter of Puerto Rico’s operatic history—is preserved for future generations. We are deeply grateful to the National Endowment for the Humanities for recognizing the importance of this collection.”
The Preservation Assistance Grants for Smaller Institutions program supports small and mid-sized organizations in preserving and managing humanities collections. This federal support underscores the national significance of the Olga Iglesias collection and its value to researchers, musicians, and cultural historians.
The assessment process, which will begin in fall 2024, will evaluate the collection’s storage conditions, conservation needs, cataloging requirements, and digitization priorities. The findings will guide OIP’s efforts to secure a permanent repository for the collection and develop strategies for making these materials accessible to scholars and the public.
This grant aligns perfectly with OIP’s mission to preserve, celebrate, and share Puerto Rico’s classical music heritage while supporting the next generation of Puerto Rican classical singers through its Fellowship Program.
About the National Endowment for the Humanities
The National Endowment for the Humanities is an independent federal agency created in 1965. It is one of the largest funders of humanities programs in the United States, awarding grants to top-rated proposals examined by panels of independent, external reviewers.