Voces del Prado

Getting started

Alicia Quintana Martínez, Head of the Education Service, 1983-2007

I remember I went to see my director at the Villanueva building because they had sent me to the Casón del Buen Retiro, which is where there was an office available, and I asked him what I was supposed to do. Pérez Sánchez, always quick and drastic, told me: "Get the students lined up and show their teachers, via courses, what the Prado Museum is, so that they can explain it to their students."
I came to the Casón and started working with a typewriter I had brought in from my home. I even had to ask a secretary for a pencil and eraser because they didn’t even have that. I started figuring out what could be done for the students and what could be done for the teachers. Those were the two areas I worked on, being pretty much at home in the effort. The difference was that I didn’t have 42 kids in class but instead I was working for them, and if I got tired I could put own my pen and say to myself, "I’m off to have a coffee," something I couldn’t do when I was teaching.
This activity was a magnificent compensation because everything had to be done. I worked a lot, alone at first and then assisted by a secretary. Today there are 15 or 16 people in the Education Department but at the time we were just two. It was a beautiful period. Once we were complaining about our economy and a manager told us: "What are you two complaining about? Working at the Prado Museum is well worth it."Yes, but getting well paid is also worth it. Yes, even getting paid is worth it.