Carlos Aguilar was designated as Director of the National Institute of Culture to promote our identity and the historic legacy that defines us as Panamanians through our culture. A government institution that soon will change as the new Ministry of Culture in 2020, following the plans of President Laurentino Cortizo.
Our special guest is a very enthusiastic filmmaker, that is also define itself as a man of numbers, since his first job was as an economist. His main task when he takes the lead of the coming Ministry is for art to reach everybody.
How the transition process from institution to ministry is being managed?
“We started working with the finest group of people. The directors are the best in each of their areas. We have am expert in organization, methodoly and structure, Also an expert in creating all the procedures from the ethical and transparency point of view. We want to start working as a Ministry from the first day in January of next year. We are also focus on getting an International Certification ISO 37001, which gives recognition to public institutions that work with transparent processes open to people. Our greatest challenge is to motivate people, make them feel that finally they will see a change in society through culture”.
What are your objectives as cultural promoter?
“Create new infraestructure. We will make a lot of emphasis on research, something that Reyna Torres de Arauz used to work on. We are going to make people part of the development, we are going to have a department to manage Cultural Rights and Citizens, where people will tell us how they want to express themselves and what they expect from culture. This will help us create our Culture Plan for the next 20 years. Where we have to work more is on the change of mentality of other areas historically not related to culture in our country. Have them understand that culture is transversal in everything humans do, and that is part of the solution to security, education, health and many more. We want to sensibilize people, have all the people in the country side feel part of this new cultural era with events and investing on the strengths of each region. It is the best tool to understand each other better and to recognize ouselves as we are. This way we can even understand everything that comes from off shore, we will know where we are coming from and where we are heading to”.
How the Institute of Culture participates in the Tourism Cabinet?
“We are opening an office where culture will be handle as a tourist product. The idea is that when we start to bring back to life museums, historic monuments or folkloric expressions we work them together. We want to create and give tourists packages to Panama Tourism Authority in order for them to promote it locally and internationally. We have organized events like Corpus Christis in Casco Antiguo and the Artisans Festival at Old Panama. We will also have a directorate on creative industries, where gastronomy, artisans, fashion and others will be converted into product. Cultural tourism creates postive experiences for tourists, bringing them back for more. Also, culture is always changing, if a tourist comes next year it might find a brand new experience”.
As a filmmaker, how you visualize the promotion of Panama and its cultural image?
“We are producing videos of all activities that we are having in order for people to be informed, but we also have been receiving videos from private cultural associates. Every Wednesday our cultural agenda is uploaded in our social media profiles, but soon we will have an app available. There is a software already worked by a professor at the Technological University and even a server for us to use at the City of Knowledge. With this app people will be able to find all activities in general, or if wants to know about a theater play, a list will be shown. We want for our calendar of events to become the general calendar of cultural activities in the country.
The project law 11 that creates the Ministry of Culture has been debating at the National Assembly with the objective to give 1% of the countries general budget to strengthen culture and our identity.
