The pandemic dealt a severe blow to the cultural sector of Mexico due to the closure and confinements; Given this, experts agree that the economic reactivation that is currently experiencing should be attached to culture with the promotion of activities such as the Night of Museums: “We are not a beach; we are heritage ”.
Alejandro Cañedo, from the Puebla City Council, explained during the Smart City Expo Latam Congress that during 2018, thanks to the implementation of the Museum Night in the entity, it was possible to generate the participation of 25 thousand people who generated an economic income of 2 million pesos per night, thanks to the participation of 35 museums that adapted to the new format.
“Culture was as important as vaccines in the economic reactivation, they can do something different from what we had: we can make Mexico and the world reach the levels of 2018,” added Cañedo.
In addition, he highlighted that although digitization helped communicate and make the leap to hybrid work, in cultural and experience issues these will return to the physical plane after the end of the pandemic.
“There are things that cannot be understood through digitization. I hope that when culture is open to greater opportunities, people will want to use digital to communicate what is essential and the whole experience will be physical, which is what it is going to do. cause the economy to pick up. There is nothing like being in a museum, “he said.
The Museum Nights are an initiative of the Secretariat of Culture of Mexico City launched in 2009 and in which up to 40 museums participate each month to transform the exhibition rooms into artistic settings, which represents una great opportunity in the second city with the most museums in the world, after London.
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On the other hand, Abraham Guerrero Escobar, director of Heritage of the Ministry of Culture and the Arts in Yucatan, stressed that it is essential to promote the three areas around heritage: research, affective safeguarding and cultural dissemination.
“What we want is to develop strategies, tools in which we can combine the different factors that intervene in the heritage issue; be it communities, academia, different levels of government and citizenship. In this sense, we are developing digital strategies to include young people and communities in the state of Yucatán that allows us to know the heritage and that the communities recognize what is part of their identity and that can help us to trigger experiences that generate economic benefits and well-being ”, he said.
Among the lessons that the pandemic left to the cultural sector, the official highlighted the possibility of using digitization for daily work or to invite citizens to cultural activities, however, he assured that technology does not replace experiences.
“Many people in the culture sector have taken the opportunity to rethink projects and this is the moment to execute them and generate new paths. I do predict a kind of boom in the cultural sector to meet again and be together to generate social ties that we are having on the digital side, but they are not enough, “said Guerrero Escobar.
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