Externadistas: Winners of Support Scholarships for the Professionalisation of Artists of the Bogota Department of Culture, Recreation and Sport

Juan David Sarmiento, Mariacamila Vanegas and Cristián Sánchez, who are students in the Cultural Heritage Studies Faculties, received financial support for the development of projects of appropriation, valuation, and significance of Cultural Heritage.

The Support Scholarship for the Professionalisation of Artists organised by the Department of Culture, Recreation and Sport has granted incentives since 2019. It helps students of arts, and cultural and patrimonial heritage management, at mid-way point in their higher education studies, to finance their projects to strengthen the culture of the city and the country.

In the latest call for applications, our three representatives were selected from more than one hundred (100) candidates. This was thanks to the originality, relevance, and impact of their proposals for the promotion and strengthening of the relations between diverse types of patrimony and the communities that interact with them.

Juan David Sarmiento will take forward the project entitled ‘Atlas of Knowledge: Wayúu construction work and traditional navigation in the lower and medium Colombian Guajira [region].’ Through this, he seeks to consolidate the first atlas of the knowledge that has been historically generated in the region. For Juan David, it is ‘a financial and academic opportunity to fortify and consolidate better products to incentivise co-participatory investigation processes with and for the communities.’

For her part, Mariacamila Vanegas proposes the design and implementation of a web page that contains 3D construction of the Heroes Monument (Monumento Héroes) and its transformation in the context of the social outburst in 2021. This is in addition to a series of interviews with artists that intervened in the monument during the protests: ‘My aim is for the memory of the monument not to be lost, since it is common for the disappearance of these objects and places to generate their deletion and oblivion. I want people to freely access this content, so they can understand the social dynamics surrounding the Heroes Monument and its importance in the country’s history,’ affirmed Mariacamila.

Finally, Cristián Sánchez is seeking to generate appropriation, enhancement and dissemination processes of the diverse rock art places located in the Serranía de la Lindosa. Through these, he is looking to involve the regional community in a participatory manner. ‘This scholarship not only supports me financially but also achieves greater reach and dissemination for all Colombian people to learn about and recognise our patrimonial heritage,’ said Cristián.

Universidad Externado de Colombia and its Faculty of Cultural Heritage Studies are enormously proud of these students’ achievement. We are convinced that their projects will contribute to the knowledge building of our cultural and patrimonial wealth.

Written by Carlos Serrano