The museum infrastructure in Cartagena

The museum's entrance

It must be lack of political will, maybe corruption, and worst, complacency, but since the last 11 years in Cartagena in Colombia, its Museum of Modern Art did not evolve at all. I would have expected fixed walls, a better hanging system, a humidity control environment for the protection of art; new acquisitions, contemporary art, but nada! Rien! Niente! Why? Por qué?

Cartagena de Indias, one of the more known city in Colombia (if not in the world!) with its one million inhabitants, welcomes more than two million people per year, and we do not understand I come the Cartagena’s Museum of Modern Art (MMAC) is such in poor condition. Indeed, the museum infrastructure lacks in this beautiful country, maybe less in Bogotá, but it does on the Northern Coast. There is so much to be accomplished! If walkthearts.com was on its board of directors (if there is one), we would certainly ask for discipline and transparency and we would make sure that the MMAC would have much greater visibility. How come so many visitors in this city bring no money to the museum? The entrance fee is only 5 000 pesos, the equivalent of around 2.50$, which could bring at least between 600 thousands to 1 million dollar per year, if around half the visitors wants to visit the museum; it takes only an average of 30 minutes to visit the two small floors. Cartagena could have posters, banners everywhere to underline the presence of its museum, just like we do in the G20 countries. The vacationers on cruise ships should be immediately brought toward the MMAC on San Pedro square. Why not a QR code? Maybe they have one, but we never saw it.

The political situation is much better now in Colombia since the two last presidencies. Now it is time to invest in the museum infrastructure with ONLY the entrance fee money. It is possible, only if there is a will. Complacency is not good! We are sending this post to the Tiempo.

One of the 5 rooms