155 thousand attendees and two thousand activities are the result of the work carried out in 2023 by the Municipal Theater and the Municipal Cultural Center of Chillán, both spaces directed by the Municipal Cultural Corporation. A record number that grows year after year and places the spaces as starting points for culture and the arts in the city and the region.
The Municipal Theater developed 787 activities attended by 125,000 attendees. The same space carried out 105 guided tours with 2,896 attendees. In addition, he signed 109 contracts that benefited 620 artists in the region. It developed 17 programmatic milestones that started last January with the Ñuble Film Festival and the Para Chillán Theater Meeting, Entepach. These were followed by activities such as the National Folklore Festival, Women’s Month, Dance Month, Theater Month, Heritage Day, Chillán Anniversary, Municipal Theater Anniversary, Children’s Month, 50 years of the coup de state, Circus Day, National Holidays, Music Month (where the recording studio was inaugurated), and Public Month. The year closed with the Christmas Corner.
One of the milestones was the inauguration of the recording studio, a space projected in the original project, but not finished. The administration made an investment of 13 million pesos to make it operational and a call was immediately opened to grant 10 scholarships to the same number of artists.
The artist of the Chalachí band, Ana Herrera, commented: “we are a group of women, and we perform gypsy music. We are very happy to have been selected, and to be able to professionalize our work. We have been there for more than a year, so we really want to show this energy that we like to transmit.”
The artist Leo Mael indicated: “I am very grateful to have been selected and to be able to do this work. I visited the studio and the equipment is tremendous, I am very happy to be able to count on them to carry out my project.”
CCMCh
At the Municipal Cultural Center, 1,125 activities were carried out with 27,000 attendees in total. There was artistic education, creative processes and the development of communities. The CCMCh also had programmatic milestones such as Sounds of the Center, 4 Co-productions, Collective Mural, Experimenta Program, Bird Flight, School Band Workshop, Dance Month, School of Performing Arts, Salsa Casino, Training Workshops, Summer School, Winter School, Musical Experiences with Synergy, Art and Astronomy, Thousand Motives and Dance Corner.
All this was financed with subsidies granted by the Municipality of Chillán with the approval of the Municipal Council, and the projects awarded by the Regional Government of Ñuble and the Ministry of Cultures, Arts and Heritage, in addition to donations from private companies como Iansa.
The mayor and president of the Cultural Corporation, Camilo Benavente Jiménez, told La Discusión Domingo: “we are one of the largest cultural spaces in the south-central area of the country, adding almost 6 thousand m2 in both infrastructures where we have emphasized being a place where local art and artists are created, promoted, produced and disseminated; a space that Chillán needs for its cultural DNA. The results delivered by the 2023 management of the Cultural Corporation reflect the hard work carried out, which also translates into the active participation that our neighbors have had in the various activities, nourishing themselves and obtaining enriching experiences both in the Teatro like in the Cultural Center.”
The executive director of the Municipal Cultural Corporation of Chillán, Virna Veas Flores, expressed that “this 2023, for the first time, the Cultural Corporation, in the seven years of the Theater and the first of the Cultural Center, worked through a programmatic line I am a Protagonist, with the aim of making our audiences and the local cultural ecosystem feel part of the various initiatives developed.” She also highlighted the creation of the Network of Municipal Cultural Centers of which Chillán is a part.
Regarding projects, the Corporation is already thinking about 2024, since it applied with nine initiatives, highlighting training, performing arts, teaching management, itinerant tours, music festival, digital dissemination, among others. This, in order to bring cultural artistic development much closer to citizens.
