Romina Muñoz Procel (born 1984) is an

Ecuadorian Ecuadorians () are people identified with the South American country of Ecuador. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Ecuadorians, several (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source o ...

former museum boss who became the Minister of Culture in Ecuador in 2023.

Life

Muñoz was born in 1984 in

Guayaquil Guayaquil (), officially Santiago de Guayaquil, is the largest city in Ecuador and also the nation's economic capital and main port. The city is the capital (political), capital of Guayas Province and the seat of Guayaquil Canton. The city is ...

. She was educated in the Visual Arts at the

Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador The Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador (PUCE) (English: ''Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador'') is a Pontifical Catholic university founded in 1946 in Quito, Ecuador. History The university opened in the fall of 1946, with Carlo ...

. She also has a master's degree in neotropical archaeology from the

Escuela Superior Politécnica del Litoral The Escuela Superior Politécnica del Litoral (ESPOL) is a public university located in Guayaquil, Guayas Province in Ecuador. ESPOL has five faculties or schools, fifteen research centers, and several associated centers providing twenty-six un ...

. Muñoz led the (MuNa) starting in June 2021. She created an exhibition titled 'Polyfonia' featuring the work of the artist,

Alba Calderón Alba Calderón de Gil (July 27, 1908 – 1992) was an Ecuadorian social realist painter, leftist activist, and feminist. She founded the movement for the recognition of women's rights in Ecuador. Alba Calderón was born in Esmeraldas, Ecuador, ...

, within the ''

Casa de la Cultura Ecuatoriana La Casa de la Cultura Ecuatoriana (''The House of Ecuadorian Culture'') is a cultural organization founded by Benjamín Carrión on August 9, 1944, during the presidency of Dr Jose Maria Velasco Ibarra. It was created to stimulate, to direct a ...

'' in Quito when she was the head of the national museum from 2021 to 2023. She pointed out that MuNa was serving the government more than the people and it did not have its own building in September 2023 and that ended her job at the museum. She spoke out while opening another exhibition she had created for the artist

Judith Gutiérrez Judith Gutiérrez Moscoso (22 December 1927 – 1 March 2003) was an Ecuadorian painter who lived and worked in Ecuador and Mexico. Along with other female artists, she formed part of the Guayaquil School for Contemporary Plastic Arts (Escuel ...

. She also complained that the museum's staff were not permanent employees. She said that she was sacked the next day. The existing museum is run by the Ministry of Culture which had existed for sixteen years but the relationship was in her opinion confused and the existing location in the

was inappropriate for an enterprising national museum. She became the Minister of Culture in Ecuador in 2023 when

Daniel Noboa Daniel Roy Gilchrist Noboa Azín ( ; ; born30 November 1987) is an Ecuadorian politician and businessman serving as the 48th and current president of Ecuador since 2023. Having first taken office at the age of 35, he is the second-youngest pr ...

was elected president. Fellow ministers in the new government included

Ivonne Núñez Ivonne Núñez Figueroa is an Ecuadorian lawyer by profession, with diplomas in international and Ecuadorian economics. She holds master’s degrees in international business and foreign trade, as well as in constitutional law. She practiced law ...

, Arianna Tanca, Monica Palencia and

Gabriela Sommerfeld María Gabriela Sommerfeld Rosero became the Ecuadorian foreign minister in 2023. She led tourism for Quito, and had been the CEO of multiple airlines and a leading hotel. Life Sommerfeld was educated at the Universidad San Francisco de Quito an ...

. One of her first priorities was the Museo Antropologico y de Arte Contemporaneo (MAAC) in Guayaquil. She also found funds to send staff to learn techniques at other institutions: five people were being sent to France, one to a Spanish museum and another to a museum in Mexico. The previous administration's idea of creating a Teatro del Barrio was making slow progress and her project of finding a new building for the national museum was also being planned in 2024.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Muñoz, Romina 1984 births Living people People from Guayaquil Government ministers of Ecuador Museum directors