The Art Scene of Loja Ecuador

One corner of a 2016 exhibit VENUE - Museum of Archaeology and Cultura Lojana (Museo de Arqueologia y Lojanidad de la UTPL) The museum offers a combination of permanent and temporary exhibitions. The large front lobby is a gallery space that hosts rotating exhibits of varying subjects, including contemporary art. Dr. Sofía Sanz, director of the Department of Architecture and Arts, main lobby Located on the campus of the Technical University of Loja (just inside the main gate on the left). The museum's mission is to rescue and promote the culture of Ecuador and Loja. Opened to the public in 2004, there is a collection of original tools and utensils of 1600 pieces of Ecuadorian archeology typical of the city and province of Loja. no website Email: gjbeltran@utpl.edu.ec Phone: +593 07 257-0275 Scheduled open hours: Monday to Sunday 9 am to 6 pm (closes for lunch) Address: San Cayetano Alto, Marcelino Chanpagnat street

A portion of the 2007 exhibit titled "The Pictorial World of Mónica Sarmiento" Museum of the Central Bank of Ecuador (Museo del Banco Central del Ecuador) Next to the governor's office at the southern end of Loja's Central Square is the old Central Bank.  The site now houses the Museum of Lojana History and Culture.  Inside the early colonial style building is an omnibus display of subjects, each exhibit gallery with a different theme ranging from archeology, nature, colonial Loja, to notable Lojanos like doctor and politician Matilde Hidalgo de Prócel, artist Eduardo Kingman, journalist and diplomat Benjamín Carrión, Ecuadorian President Isidro Ayora,  and  author Pablo Palacio.   The museum is often a visual art venue with public galleries in the front of the ground floor offering periodic displays of modern and contemporary artists.    Museum is currently closed while undergoing renovation. Located ...

ART VENUE - Museum - Museo de la Música.  The Museo de la Música (Music Museum) of Loja is dedicated to the history of music in the region,  but offers up its open courtyard to host rotating art exhibits, generally changing each month. The museum is the result of a consortium of entities in Loja working together since 2000 to restore the original site of the Bernardo Valdivieso (Colegio) High School: The National University of Loja, the current Bernardo Valdivieso School, The Casa de la Cultura (CCE), The Loja Symphony Orchestra, The Salvador Bustamente Celi Music Conservatory, and the "Edgar Palacios" and "Nature and Culture" foundations.    The restored building complex housing the museum includes preserved buildings of the Casona Universitaria, Teatro Bolívar, and Antiguo Colegio Bernardo Valdivieso.  The museum is located on Valdivieso Street in the home of, and then school named for, Bernardo ...

ART VENUE -  Municipal Cultural Center - Alfredo Mora Reyes .  The Alfredo Mora Reyes Cultural Center is a re-purposed historic colonial building adjacent to the busy cultural and tourism hub of San Sebastian Square and market, and diagonally across the street from the Bolivar Street entrance to the Lourdes Street pedestrian mall.   The public facility describes itself as “A space for the promotion and cultural dissemination of the city of Loja.”  The center is a meeting place for citizens, students, musicians and artists.  Art exhibits there are more often historical rather than contemporary, but worth checking out.  The center is best known for hosting a folk dance troupe monthly, and is an alternative concert venue for the city's two symphony orchestras.  In August 2018, the center became the site of a major art exhibit, Desnudo .  The group show, curated by well known Loja sculptor and designer, Bayardo Cuenca, and sponsored by a l...