Art Neighborhood

Four large cultural spaces in the Parque Forestal and Lastarria perimeter launch BARRIO ARTE on Thursday, November 30 at 12:00, an alliance that seeks to strengthen the sector as a center of attraction in the capital. These are the Museum of Visual Arts (MAVI), the National Museum of Fine Arts (MNBA), the Museum of Contemporary Art (MAC) and the Gabriela Mistral Cultural Center (GAM), institutions that with this seal will begin joint work to give greater visibility to the territory, strengthen its services and reaffirm the mission they share around protection and enhancement of heritage and art, in its various disciplines.

There are two activities with which ARTE NEIGHBORHOOD was born. The first activity, which will take place on Thursday, November 30 at 12:00 p.m. at the MAVI, will feature an official ceremony in which the directors of these spaces, Roberto Farriol from the MNBA, Francisco Brugnoli from the MAC, Felipe Mella from the GAM and Cecilia Bravo from the MAVI, will sign a joint declaration and participate in a brief conversation so that the community is informed and involved in this new initiative. The meeting will be presented by the journalist and founder of SantiagoAdicto.cl, Rodrigo Guendelman.

The second activity will take place on Thursday, November 30 at 8:30 p.m. The invitation is for citizens to bring their cushions to enjoy a free outdoor visual concert while lying down, in the Plaza Mulato Gil de Castro with the participation of the artist Cristóbal Cea, the musician Diego Noguera, and the light projection of Andrea Gana and Octavio Gana. Both activities are sponsored by the Danish beer Tuborg, a brand that since its birth at the end of the 19th century has been involved with artistic-cultural projects.

Likewise, during the day the Diario Blanco collective will mount the Barrio Arte intervention, consisting of a map with historical images, on which the public will be able to trace their preferred route. 

 
Unpublished alliance

With the conviction that cultural development is achieved through collaborative work, these four centers have set out to create an associative identity and encounter with the community. Thus, based on its contribution to the identity and sense of belonging of the sector; of the need to work together to strengthen it as a cultural hub; and the conviction that this work enhances and complements their joint vocation for the enhancement of heritage and art in their various manifestations, the four spaces will program a joint agenda of initiatives, which will strengthen their efforts and services, with a view to a citizenry that increasingly develops habits of consumption and cultural participation and is empowered and actively enjoys the public spaces that the capital offers.

This strategic and communicational union called ARTE NEIGHBORHOOD, has the support of fundamental entities for its operation, such as the sponsorship of the Municipality of Santiago, the collaboration of Metro Santiago and the participation and support of bookstores, galleries, theaters and cinemas, in addition to gastronomic and tourist entities that inhabit this common territory included in the Parque Forestal - Lastarria perimeter of the commune of Santiago, a true foundational link that links them.

Likewise, this alliance especially considers neighborhood groups in the sector, who maintain constant links with these cultural spaces.

“Our disposition is to strengthen the work in alliance from the cultural institutions that we represent, as well as the generation of belonging and care for the appreciation of the cultural, urban and architectural heritage that sustains us: a work of neighborhood coexistence from what we know how to do and that is expressed in our missions,” says part of the joint declaration that the directors of the four spaces will sign.

The four centers seek to carry out activities to promote the responsible use of public spaces, in a progressive process of dialogue and inclusive actions with the residents of the neighborhoods; the migrant population that has been incorporated into the community; as well as with the tourist entities of the municipal government and the Municipality and private organizations, such as hotels and restaurants in the sector.

Historical identity

The buildings that house the four partner centers of BARRIO ARTE are characterized by being urban and architectural landmarks that have given life and identity to the sector that surrounds them. This is how the Palace of Fine Arts, which houses the MNBA and the MAC, was inaugurated in 1910 within the framework of the celebrations of the Centennial of the Republic and was located in the Forest Park, designed based on the canalization work of the Mapocho River. The MAVI was installed in an old house with colonial reminiscences, located in the Mulato Gil de Castro square, which since the 1980s brought together cafes, bookstores and cultural spaces around it. While the GAM has been located since 2010 to celebrate Chile's bicentennial, in the building that was built especially in 1972 as the headquarters of the Third United Nations World Conference on Trade and Development, UNCTAD III.

This alliance invites you to share the beauty and life of the sector using the hashtag #exploraBarrioArte and browsing www.barrioarte.cl