Museo de Arte Moderno de Cartagena (MAMC), a collection with 63 years of history

Abstract

Museums are important generators of culture that contribute to the local tourism offer, which can have significant implications for local economies. These spaces and institutions tend to suffer financial problems in developing countries due to the little importance assigned to them by the public and private sectors. The benefits that investment in museums brings to the local and regional economy are forgotten, since they can attract new investments by those who seek places with amenities for their executives in a globalized world. They can also contribute to creating a tourist offer that attracts travelers with greater purchasing power, which facilitates preservation in cities with cultural heritage. Cartagena is no stranger to this trend of scarce institutional support for museums and has not managed to consolidate a solid cultural offer, despite having an important historical and cultural heritage. In the city, one of the museums with the longest tradition is the Museo de Arte Moderno de Cartagena (MAMC), which has a valuable art collection that could contribute to generating the required cultural tourism offer. This document describes the current collection of the MAMC to inform the public about its evolution and the importance of these works from a chronological point of view. The background and evolution of the collection are presented, emphasizing the main artists whose works are exhibited in the museum and the cultural context of Cartagena in the 1970s and 1980s, years in which the largest collection of the MAMC was consolidated.