June 9, 2019 – At the request of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Emigrants, H.E. Minister of Foreign Affairs, Gebran Bassil, and in-line with the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) currently signed between Notre Dame University-Louaize (NDU) and the Ministry, the Lebanese Research Center for Migration and Diaspora Studies (LERC) at the Faculty of Law and Political Science (FLPS) was solicited in order to exhibit its original archival and art collections at the inauguration of the newly established Diaspora Museum in Batroun on the final day of the Lebanese Diaspora Energy (LDE) event.
LERC founded its Lebanon and Migration Museum (LMM) on NDU’s Main Campus in 2005, where it has since exhibited its original art and archival collections. As the first of its kind in Lebanon and the world, the museum has since been visited by thousands of scholars, researchers, tours, schools and universities from Lebanon and abroad.
Following a meeting between the LERC team and LDE delegation headed by Assistant to the Minister, Pascal Dahrouj, as well as multiple collaborations between LERC and LDE in the past, LERC exhibited material from: The Lebanese Aboard the Titanic Collection, The Diplomatic Collection, The World Lebanese Cultural Union Collection, other private collections donated by descendants of Lebanese from Colombia, the United States, Togo, Argentina, Brazil, Australia, as well as original pieces of art by local and international artists and sculptors valued at over USD 300,000.
Dr. Guita Hourani, Researcher at LERC, participated in the inauguration in Batroun with H.E. Minister Bassil in the presence of the LERC team, LERC's Liaison Officers from Canada, Togo, and Japan, LERC Research Associates and Affiliates, Lebanese Diplomats and guests, as well as a crowd of over 2,000 people.
In his opening speech, Minister Bassil thanked NDU for its "invaluable contributions to the success and inauguration of the Diaspora Museum," and also went on to thank Dr. Hourani and her team personally for their efforts in making this opening possible.
As part of the MoU signed between NDU and the Ministry, LERC will act as the Ministry's main port of call for generating original research, digitizing, archiving, indexing and preserving the Ministry's various collections on/from the Lebanese Diaspora – including collections attained from Lebanese Consulates and Embassies all over the world – and will also be a permanent partner in its Diaspora Museum.
At the conclusion of the event, multiple guests expressed interest in enriching LERC's collections, and discussed the possibility of donating an original collection to the center's archive. The event was followed by a celebration at the Batroun Mina to thank all the partners and attendees who made the event possible.