This document is important due to its status as the first activities report issued by the Museo de Arte Moderno of Bogotá (MAM). It provides pertinent information on the creation and consolidation of the first autonomous museum in the capital of Colombia geared specifically to modern art. Since the early sixties, this museum has brought together a community of individuals and institutions (artists, [cultural] managers, other museums, critics, universities, and sponsors) concerned with modern art from Colombia and the region.
The period covered by this document (November 1962 to August 1963) was critical to the growth of the museum, which had been established in 1955. In November 1962, the museum was refounded with the intention of becoming a dynamic center of the Bogotá art scene. At that time, Argentine art critic Marta Traba (1923–1983) was elected president of the museum board of directors, setting the course for its activities.
According to the report, by the second half of 1963 the museum had the institutional structure necessary for its operation as an independent body active in the local and the broader Latin American modern art scene. Its dynamic and serious administration attracted sponsors and contributors from an array of origins.
This first annual report of activity of the Museo de Arte Moderno of Bogotá (MAM) presents among other things, a detailed schedule of exhibitions of Colombian and international art, educational programs, participation in international events like the Paris Biennale, and an incipient collection owing to artists’ donations.
