Record of assistance at first virtual fair of plastic arts
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Panama, 16 June 2020.-Innovation and creativity, coupled with the support of technology, were merged during the first version of the National Virtual Feria of Visual Artists, an event that called 3,622 attendees at an initiative that the Ministry of Culture (MiCultura) organized on Saturday and Sunday June 14 through the National Directorate of the Arts.
The Minister of Culture, Carlos Aguilar, remarked that the idea was to democratize culture outside the conventional frameworks of the traditional market and put it into the modern virtual sphere.
The Coronavirus situation invited the Ministry of Culture to find a different way out with regard to cultural consumption and expressed an interesting interplay between technologies and the arts, Carlos Aguilar added.
By bringing his paintings, photographs and sculptures to all spaces where the digital age reached, his name represented that 120 Panamanian creators had access to share and market his works from the security of his residences and found at the Ministry of Culture an enabling and an ally, stated Daniel Domínguez, National Director of the Arts.
"The goal was to give a renewed and currently focused approach to the concept of visual arts and that national artists see technological means at their disposal as an excellent way to share and promote their art," said Ligia Mendez, responsible for the Juan Manuel Cedeño art gallery at MiCultura.
If the monthly face visits at the Juan Manuel Cedeño Gallery are about 500 people, that means that 3,622 visits in 48 hours amount to 7 months of physical assistance at the Juan Manuel Cedeño Gallery, Daniel Domínguez emphasized.
The fair was attended by teachers and students from MiCultura's schools of artistic education, artists with disabilities, members of the Panamanian Association of Plastic Artists and independent creators.
He had works by artists from the provinces of Panama, West Panama, Veraguas, Chiriquí, Bocas del Toro, Darién, Herrera, Colón, Guna Yala, Coclé and Los Santos.
Luis Rudas, president of the Panamanian Association of Plastic Artists (APAP), a guild that participated actively at the National Virtual Fairy of Visual Artists, emphasized that "the results of this type of activity are not measured in the short term. The experiences at these events leave good results in the long term: contacts, orders, artist's promotion and so forth. It's good that more actions of this kind are undertaken that care about the artist and that we feel included."
Heriberto Torres, former president of APAP, calls upon the National Directorate of the Arts to continue with these virtual sales initiatives. "To participate under the umbrella of the Ministry of Culture is well significant to us artists. We would like more versions of the National Virtual Feria of Visual Artists and to be permanently incorporated as part of the Ministry of Culture."
