The Centro Cultural Gabriela Mistral (GAM) (formerly known as the

Diego Portales Diego José Pedro Víctor Portales y Palazuelos (; June 16, 1793 – June 6, 1837) was a Chilean statesman and entrepreneur. As a minister of president José Joaquín Prieto's government, he played a pivotal role in shaping the state and po ...

Building) is a

cultural center A cultural center or cultural centre is an organization, building or complex that promotes culture and arts. Cultural centers can be neighborhood community arts organizations, private facilities, government-sponsored, or activist-run. Asia * Cen ...

located on 227 Av. Libertador Bernardo O'Higgins, in

Santiago de Chile Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated region, the Santiago Metropolitan Region, whose ...

. The complex was originally built to serve as the headquarters for the third

UNCTAD The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) is an intergovernmental organization within the United Nations Secretariat that promotes the interests of developing countries in world trade. It was established in 1964 by the ...

conference, which was held in Santiago in 1972, and consisted of a convention center and an adjoining 22-stories building. The building was finished in only 275 days in a significant effort supported by several thousand volunteers. This effort was part of a major propaganda initiative performed by the socialist government of

Salvador Allende Salvador Guillermo Allende Gossens (, , ; 26 June 1908 – 11 September 1973) was a Chilean physician and socialist politician who served as the 28th president of Chile from 3 November 1970 until his death on 11 September 1973. He was the fir ...

, in power between the end of 1970 and September 1973 .After the conference, the building was used as a cultural center until the

1973 Chilean coup d'état The 1973 Chilean coup d'état Enciclopedia Virtual > Historia > Historia de Chile > Del gobierno militar a la democracia" on LaTercera.cl. Retrieved 22 September 2006. In October 1972, Chile suffered the first of many strikes. Among the par ...

. After the end of the

Pinochet regime Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte (, , , ; 25 November 1915 – 10 December 2006) was a Chilean general who ruled Chile from 1973 to 1990, first as the leader of the Military Junta of Chile from 1973 to 1981, being declared President of ...

, it hosted a number of conventions and the adjacent tower became the main building for the

Ministry of National Defense {{unsourced, date=February 2021 A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is an often-used name for the part of a government responsible for matters of defence, found in states ...

. In early 2006, a fire destroyed parts of the building, which led the government of Michelle Bachelet to rethink the original sense of the building and return it into a cultural center, open to the public. Adapting the structure of its urban environment, the building takes on the concept of transparency and many artworks from the original design. The second phase that contains an auditorium with space for more than 2000 is going to start soon. The Centro Cultural Gabriela Mistral was inaugurated in September 2010 and is named after Chilean poet-diplomat, educator and humanist

Gabriela Mistral Lucila Godoy Alcayaga (; 7 April 1889 – 10 January 1957), known by her pseudonym Gabriela Mistral (), was a Chilean poet-diplomat, educator and humanist. In 1945 she became the first Latin American author to receive a Nobel Prize in Li ...

. Today it's a cultural centre devoted to disseminate and promote performing arts and music. Among many other activities, it offers contemporary drama and dance, as well as classic and popular music, a space to continuous development and experimentation. Furthermore, with an emphasis on contemporary photography and popular arts, the GAM houses a range for visual arts. Due to its high demands for transparency, variety and quality, it is orientated to generate direct encounters between artists and diverse audiences.

References

Buildings and structures in Santiago Cultural centers Tourist attractions in Santiago, Chile Modernist architecture in Chile {{Chile-struct-stub