Museo La Tertulia

The name comes from the Spanish word tertulia, a social gathering in which people talk about art or literature. According to Wikipedia, cultural life in Cali declined during the dictatorship of General Gustavo Rojas Pinilla: the Municipal Theatre was reduced to a cinema and the Institute of Fine Arts was used for state propaganda. Because of this shortage of venues, houses began to be improvised as cultural centres.

Clara Ines Suarez, together with her husband, an ambassador in several countries, persuaded artists to visit Cali. She and Maritza Uribe de Urdinola, who ran another cultural gathering in her own home, established a cultural group in the city. La Tertulia was founded on 9 March 1956 in a house rented by the journalist Alfonso Bonilla Aragon in the San Antonio neighbourhood. For twelve years the house served as its headquarters, with a private school in the mornings and exhibitions of local and foreign artists in the afternoons, which gradually built up the collection.

As the collection and the audience grew, the museum needed an exhibition hall. The Foundational Building was constructed in the late 1960s (one source says 1967) on the banks of the Cali River at a place known as El Charco del Burro. According to a regional source, the river had been diverted in the late 1950s for the Avenida Colombia, leaving a vacant plot where the museum was built. Published heritage records name the architects Manuel Lago and Benjamin Barney Caldas for the complex, though sources differ on exact construction dates.

Wikipedia describes the museum as three buildings. The main gallery shows around 300 works by national and international artists and includes an art workshop for children. The Cinemateca is an arthouse cinema that frequently hosts film festivals such as EuroCine. A third building contains printing and restoration workshops.

The collection includes a representative sample of the arts of the American continent from the mid-twentieth century to contemporary times, with more than 1,500 works acquired or donated. An outdoor sculpture path in the grounds includes works by Edgar Negret and others, according to one report. The museum has long been one of the main cultural institutions in Cali.

The museum sits near the Cali River boulevard, the Gato del Rio sculpture and the San Antonio neighbourhood, so a visit combines easily with a walk to those places. Exhibitions change, so the programme should be checked with the museum before travel. A private guide can explain the Colombian art scene and the city's cultural history, and a driver can link the museum with other Cali landmarks.