Since June 25, 2019 the cultural activity of Banco de la República in Armenia has been carrying out activities in its new provisional office, Banco de la República's building in the city center (Carrera 16 No. 21-14), while the renovation of the Quimbaya Gold Museum is completed.
The new offices have been adapted to comfortably accommodate all audiences and provide the regular services of the Regional Documentation Center, Children's Room, and the Gold Museum, since it will be the site of the exhibition Landscape, People, and Gold in Pre-Hispanic Colombia (El paisaje, la gente y el oro en la Colombia prehispánica), a temporary exhibition with original gold, ceramic, and stone pieces crafted by people from Colombia’s pre-Hispanic societies, with an emphasis on the groups that inhabited the lands that today constitute the Eje Cafetero, Colombia’s coffee region.
Learn more about Banco de la República’s new provisional Cultural Center in Armenia»
History
The Banco de la República’s Cultural Center in Armenia is a place for exploration and encounters with knowledge around the cultural landscape of Colombia’s coffee region, the Eje Cafetero.
One of its spaces is the Quimbaya Gold Museum, which has been operating since 1986 as an important cultural and anthropological research epicenter in the region and is currently undergoing a process of renovation. Learn more about the renovation of the Quimbaya Gold Museum in Armenia »
The Cultural Center also has a library and a Regional Documentation Center, whose documentary collection on the cultural heritage of Quindío contains various printed and audiovisual materials that complement the Banco de la República’s Library Network catalogue, also available for consultation by the general public.
The Regional Documentation Center is currently housed in the Banco de la República building (Carrera 16 No. 21-14) while renovation on the Quimbaya Gold Museum is completed. The center provides researchers and the general public with cubicles, access to the internet, computer workstations, a reading table where local daily newspapers are available for reference, as well as a scanner which users can use to digitize reference material, according to the regulations of the Colombian Center of Reprographic Rights.
The Quimbaya Gold Museum, library, and Regional Documentation Center offer services for all types of audiences. There are activities for children in the reading room; activities held in the open-air theater, including a varied program of concerts, seminars, and talks; and art exhibitions in the multipurpose room. Visitors can also enjoy the gardens and lakes and take delight in the architectural features of the building designed by Rogelio Salmona, one of Colombia’s most noted architects.
This temple of culture, history, architecture, and education was inaugurated in Armenia in July 1986, by then-president of Colombia Belisario Betancur. The building, designed by the architect Rogelio Salmona and built by the Fajardo Molina firm, is located in the north of the city, at the intersection of Avenida Bolivar and Avenida 19 de Enero.
The museum materialized gradually. The Quimbaya Gold Museum was conceived as a proposal to preserve and make the art of the ancient inhabitants of the region available. These ancient inhabitants produced universal art through their skill in goldsmithing and ceramics. In 1997, Banco de la República began a museographic process of renewing its archaeological collection. This process was set to be completed in 1999 with the reopening of its gold and ceramics halls, conceived under a new concept, richer in pieces, materials, and design. However, the tragedy that took place in the city forced Banco de la República to establish a waiting period as the building became the offices of Armenia’s City Hall and bank offices.
In 2003, the Gold Museum’s scientific and technical team undertook the process of designing, producing, and assembling the new halls for the gold and ceramic pieces, which reopened on December 5. In 2006, 20 years of cultural activity at the Cultural Center in Armenia was commemorated. The building was declared to be of national cultural interest in June, as part of a group of nine buildings by Salmona selected by the Ministry of Culture as Colombian heritage. Between October and December, the museum's archaeological collection was expanded, display cases were renovated, and the installation was updated.
The Cultural Center in Armenia has received multiple awards for its architectural, museographic, and community work: the National Architecture Biennial Award 1986-1987; the Medal for Artistic and Cultural Merit from the department of Quindío in 1988; the Fundalectura Award for Best Work in Promoting Reading in 1996; and its being declared a site of national cultural interest. Its work has made a contribution to the development of a region that is a national and an international tourist attraction for its natural beauty and the kindness of its people.
