Let’s go to the Center: the cultural project that seeks to create an identity between the youngest and the Historic Center of Lima

Diversity is the key word to describe our Lima, which has just celebrated its 487th anniversary. And if there is a place that concentrates history, art, music, dance, commerce and counterculture, it is the Historic Center. This is how a group of professionals from various specialties understood it when they presented “Vamos al Centro” as the final project of the Cultural Management Program of the Lima Art Museum (MALI).

For Vamos al Centro, heritage gains value when the citizen makes use of and enjoys it, whether it is a mansion, street, square or museum. For this reason, they seek to promote the exercise of cultural rights and the development of citizenship through social networks where the vast majority of young people interact.

In March 2021, they began their activities through their Instagram account and later opened one on TikTok. With its publications, Vamos al Centro not only allows us to know the history behind many places we have passed through at some time; rather, you are creating a community that shares your experiences at the CHL.

We spoke with the team of Vamos al Centro (VAC) about how the project has evolved and what its future prospects are.

– Who make up VAC?

VAC: We are eight professionals from various disciplines: the architect Daniel Martinez, the art historian Alessandra Lambarri, the audiovisual communicator Rodrigo Pérez, the photographer Lucía Seminario, the audiovisual producer Karla Renjifo, the social manager and musician Marco Salas, the philosophy teacher and social sciences Cecilia Negreiros and the publicist Diego Hernández.

– When they were developing the project, they carried out a study that showed that young people recognized the historical importance of the Historic Center of Lima (CHL), but they did not feel identified.

VAC: In the summer of 2019, we carried out a first territorial study on the relationship of young people with the CHL where we discovered that 88.9% of those surveyed, young adults between the ages of 18 and 25, affirm that they do feel that the CHL is part important part of the identity and culture of our city. However, 38.60% of the sample feel that the CHL does not represent them as Peruvians, showing that there is a weak identity connection with our Historic Center, since despite considering it important, they have given it a low symbolic value.

– Why is this happening?

VAC: There are several reasons. Our authorities and institutions distance the citizen from his heritage by placing bars; the deficient educational proposal of the MINEDU on the historical and social value of our CHL, declared in 1991 as cultural heritage of humanity by UNESCO; the belief that this space is exclusively for wholesale trade; and the low communication about existing cultural proposals, added to a communicational tone that does not impact young people.

– What is the cultural strategy of Vamos al Centro to approach young people?

VAC: The project proposes a public mediation and training strategy to encourage interest in the CHL. Our platform promotes the appropriation of space and the exercise of the cultural rights of people in this place. Our call to action encourages participation and proposes to generate an emotional bond through digital means with the CHL, and in this way transform the digital experience into a positive face-to-face experience.

Our approach is not exclusive to immovable heritage, but we include those cultural manifestations that are born from citizen exercise. For example, the same respect that we give to the Paseo de Héroes Navales, we give to the innumerable dance groups that give life to that space. All the cultural manifestations and spaces of the CHL receive the same treatment, importance and validation on our platform.

We research, analyze and keep an eye on what is being done in the CHL before creating the content and we share it in a simple and daily way on our digital platforms.

– What has been the response of young people?

VAC: Despite our short life we ​​have been well received, especially on TikTok. We are happy when they comment that they are going to do the cultural activities that we share, when they invite their own friends and recommend new places to visit. Thanks to these comments we have been able to meet many new people and places in the CHL. It makes us feel that our work is paying off and an active community is being consolidated.

– What new projects does VAC have for 2022? They are also part of an initiative of the Ministry of Culture.

VAC: We want to consolidate ourselves as a benchmark platform within the cultural life of the city. We are focused on establishing alliances and invigorating the cultural ecosystem of the CHL to consolidate the sustainability of the project.

Thanks to the invitation from the Ministry of Culture to participate in the Heritage Defenders strategy, we have carried out campaigns to disseminate heritage spaces, where we proposed our online cultural mediation strategy. We look forward to continuing to share this type of information with our community throughout the year.

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