The Colombian Ministry of Culture announced the opening of the National Center for the Arts, an imposing architectural work with three halls and nearly 17,000 square meters of space in Bogotá.

This work, located two blocks from the Plaza de Bolívar, in the heart of Bogotá, whose historic center is a National Cultural Heritage Site, is the most important cultural infrastructure development in Colombia in recent years. With an investment of over 130 billion pesos, the Centro Nacional de las Artes-Teatro Colón consists of three halls, equipped with the best technology for the staging of symphony, theater and cultural projects of international stature.

"These are works that remain for the citizens and for Colombia, and that allow this area to become the most important Orange Development Area in the country. Here we will not only have the Teatro Colón, the National Arts Center, but also the restored Casa Liévano building, the Luis Ángel Arango Library, galleries, cultural centers, and this will become one of the places with the highest number of tourist visits not only in Colombia but in Latin America," said President Iván Duque at the launch event.

In 1975, the Colon Theater was declared Cultural Heritage of the Nation. Now, its new National Arts Center also integrates an asset of cultural and heritage interest: the Casa Liévano. It is a building built in the colonial period and remodeled in the late nineteenth century along the lines of neoclassical architecture, a predominant stylistic inspiration of the time.

"This is the most important and largest cultural infrastructure work developed by the Ministry of Culture in its 25 years of existence, which will consolidate this place as a space for the dissemination of national talent, especially in the performing arts," said the Culture Minister Angélica Mayolo.

The National Center for the Arts will become a meeting place and cultural center where 1,500 artists will perform large shows that will be viewed by more than 50,000 spectators a year.

To allow for multiple functions, the proscenium area has a motorized orchestra pit, which is used to place and distribute the musicians during opera and ballet productions. This also allows the stage to be enlarged or audience seating to be increased. It has capacity for 511 seats, audio, video and lighting equipment for the creation, production and programming of large-scale shows.

The opening to the public and announcement of the program will take place in June and will include the Colombian dance company Sankofa, with the Colombian premiere of its show La mentira complaciente; the Boquilla Music School and Tambores de Cabildo; singer-songwriter Martha Gómez: the National Symphony Orchestra of Colombia with seasonal concerts and the premiere of its production, Espíritu de pájaro, by Colombian composer Diego Vega with the Cartagena company El colegio del cuerpo and under the direction of Álvaro Restrepo.