Culture Holds Consultative Forum “Rethinking the National Biennial of Visual Arts”

Culture Holds Consultative Forum “Rethinking the National Biennial of Visual Arts”
Santo Domingo, September 25, 2014

The Ministry of Culture (MINC), in coordination with the Museum of Modern Art (MAM), held the consultative forum “Rethinking the National Biennial of Visual Arts”. Representatives of various sectors of national life, such as artists, art critics, curators, cultural managers and communicators participated in the event.
The activity was led by the Minister of Culture José Antonio Rodríguez. The opening remarks were delivered by the Director of the Museum of Modern Art, María Elena Ditrén and the Cabinet Director of the Ministry of Culture, Carlos Salcedo.
For his part, Minister Rodríguez stressed the importance of putting the Biennial up for discussion by various personalities linked to the world of the visual arts of our country, who, with their proposals, will have the opportunity to strengthen the spirit of this great event.

The consultative forum, which was held in the premises of the MAM, from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm, emphasized the desire of various sectors of the Dominican visual arts, to seek a participatory, reflective, critical and especially objective event. The activity seeks to improve the organizational structure, review the criteria, the selection and award jury, and the lines, criteria, or evaluation policies of the awards, among other issues of interest.

The panel “Legal incidence of Article 64 of the Constitution and the art competitions organized by public institutions” was led by Cristóbal Rodríguez, J.D. and Guillermo Sterling, J.D.

At the debate tables that took place afterwards, representatives from all areas of the Dominican visual arts worked on the strengths and weaknesses of the event. They addressed the subject with a critical and evaluative approach, and worked with information previously submitted by representatives of the various participating entities.

By late afternoon, a spokesman was asked to submit to the plenary the results of the analysis and the proposals presented by the working tables. A remarkable consensus was achieved on the outstanding issues in order to improve the 28th edition of the National Biennial of Visual Arts, which will take place in August of 2015, at the Museum of Modern Art.