Jorge Melguizo, former Secretary of Culture of the Colombian city of Medellín, participated in the First Congress of Art Education Vivarte and said that art and culture are the answer to reverse violence.

Thanks to art and culture, the city of Medellín, once the most violent city in Colombia, has been able to change its social environment with integrated strategies for intervention in the poorest and most marginalized neighborhoods, said Jorge Melguizo.

Melguizo is now an international consultant in Culture and Public Policy and previously was the Secretary of Culture of Medellín. He stated that art and culture is the answer for transformation and social cohesion in Latin America.

During the keynote panel ‘Recovery of public space through art and culture’, he said that like a violated person, a violated city needs support, hugs and attention.

Therefore, he said, Medellín now "is thinking and building from and with culture," because if you do not invest in culture it is difficult to break free from violence, and therefore it is important to not only support public initiatives but also community initiatives that offer other aesthetic and new ways of dealing with culture.

In this sense, Jorge Melguizo noted that the Development Plan of Medellín includes culture as a right, as it is a factor of inclusion and equity, which contributes to healthy co-living and makes us to look at ourselves differently and generates new types of citizenship. So it is an "object" of ongoing reflection and review.

Just 10 years ago, Medellin had 17 percent of its population unemployed and has since made significant achievements such as raising the culture budget from 0.64 percent to 5 percent.

These resources help to carry out various initiatives such as the creation of library-parks and the recovery of ‘street life’ as streets are the main public space and meeting place.

The plan includes to support community projects in the poorest neighborhoods of the city such as the Cultural Center Nuestra Gente (‘Our people’) located in a building that was once a brothel, where the entrance to theater performances is through a barter of good and hip-hop, graffiti and break dancing schools that offer alternatives to children and young people, and where teachers are young people from the same community.

There are also the "ciclopintadas" where young people go by bike to paint a wall and even a "grafitour" showing the most emblematic graffiti of Medellin.

Jorge Melguizo considered that such initiatives should be used by educational institutions, which can experiment with new pedagogies such as putting an artist, whether it’s a dancer, musician or painter, next to a math or Spanish teacher, in order use creative methods in learning. 

http://www.conaculta.gob.mx/detalle-nota/?id=35250#.U-GKlU3hyih