Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Bogotá, Colombia
About the individual or institution nominating:
1) Name and Surname of the individual submitting the nomination:
Gustavo A. Ortiz Serrano
1.2) Institution submitting the nomination:
Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Bogotá
About the practice, project, or institution nominated:
2) Name of the institution nominated:
Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Bogotá
2.1) Name of the director of the institution nominated:
Gustavo A. Ortiz Serrano
2.2) Name of the institution, practice or project nominated:
Culture with social meaning
3) Argue in one sentence why you think the project you nominate is outstanding and could serve as an example for the entire community of modern and contemporary art museums.
The commitment of the Museum of Contemporary Art of Bogotá with the best museological practices is palpable in his slogan: Culture with social meaning
3) Description of the practice or project. (max. 500 words)
The Museum of Contemporary Art of Bogotá, founded in 1966, has established a series of strategic actions in accordance with its mission of giving social meaning to culture.
We want to highlight the following five initiatives:
Inclusion: since 2012 we have been implementing transformations that allow us to eliminate access barriers for communities with different disabilities with the project “Culture and inclusive contemporary life for disabilities”, as a result of this effort we have sheets in braille and sign language in all rooms in addition to the publication of the manual of good accessibility practices for museums.
- Art at home, this initiative has taken original works from the collection to the homes of the museum's neighbors during an afternoon where they share about art, life experiences and on many occasions we have been accompanied by the artist who authored the work, they have also been held “performance at home” days. Relations with the community have increased as well as the frequency and interaction of visits.
- Barrio Museo, as a consequence of the Arte en Casa program, has been able to go further with the intervention of house facades with urban muralism and graffiti. Now the entire neighborhood is a museum with 32 interventions by national and foreign artists that we hope will continue to expand.
- Thesis Project: since 2004 we have invited Colombian universities that have plastic and visual arts programs to present the best degree theses at the museum; By celebrating its twentieth anniversary, more than 800 new artists have participated and a Thesis bank has been created; Many of the participating works have become part of the permanent collection through the creation incentive program. In 2022 the TESIS project received the UMAC award.
- High-Quality Accreditation: One of our institution's greatest challenges has been obtaining high-quality international accreditation with the American Alliance of Museums. The accreditation process includes strategic planning, the educational program, the collections policy, the management and conservation plan, the code of ethics and financial sustainability. In 2020 we obtained high-quality accreditation for museums for ten years.
Together, all these actions have allowed us to consolidate the vision that we have proposed as a scenario for discussion, reflection, inclusion, equity and tolerance through the construction, appropriation and distribution of the social meaning of contemporary culture and as a laboratory for research, experimentation and management, which contributes with quality to the development of its communities and an equitable society.
4) Images:
5) Provide links to the institution website as relevant support material:
Museum web: www.mac.org.co
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/macbogota/
Issuu: https://issuu.com/macbogota