Natalia Ramírez

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Arte Nómada: Art gallery-meets-festival for emerging artists in Latin America

Emerging artists in Panamá have historically had limited opportunities to showcase their work, find mentorship, and grow into mid-career trajectories. Galleries are typically reserved for career artists, often international, and our national museums have a long way to go. 

Arte Nómada is our vision to support cultural development in Panamá by being a bridge between emerging artists and the art world. From 2016–2020 we transformed abandoned spaces—two houses, one bar, one prison—into temporary and nomadic galleries for visual arts in all its forms: painting, photography, street art, film, installation, intermedia, and so on. Live music, food and drinks made it so that people came for the art and stayed for the party. 

2016–2020
Co-Founder and Creative Director
with Mana Pinto (Artist + Curator), Val Schnack (Photographer + Producer) and Gabriel Trius (Urban Artist + Community Liaison)
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Arte Nómada is an art festival for emerging art in Panama. For three years, we turned abandoned spaces in Panama City into temporary, nomadic galleries to showcase local upcoming work. 

El Cuartel: Before & After of an abandoned-prison-turned-cultural-space during the 3rd Edition of Arte Nómada in 2018

Urban and street art are commonly practiced among young artists, and their participation always played a big role in our initiatives. Throughout our 4 years of events and activations, we were often contacted to participate with our artists in commissioned murals for private and public city projects.

Arte Nómada helped bring emerging art into the cultural conversation in Panama, and brought life to an ecosystem of young artists looking for community and mutual support.

Our Impact

Shortly after our first edition, more and more independent art platforms started to pop up, artists that first exhibited with us were invited to participate in other group shows, and local media were covering more cultural initiatives. By the third year, our events felt like festivals, hosting over 5,000 people that came together in much-needed support of a burgeoning art scene.

Over four years, we exhibited over 70 Latin American visual artists, designers, musicians and producers, many of which were showing their work publicly for the first time. We worked with artists from Panama, Costa Rica, Colombia and Mexico. In every edition, we sold over 85% of the work on the walls. Not only were our artists guaranteed to be seen by a large audience, they were also likely to sell most of their work. There was a powerful significance in this in a country where purchasing art is not a common cultural practice.






Educational Platform

In support of public educational initiatives, our program was complemented by workshops and talks given by established artists, curators and cultural managers. 

Community Platform

Beyond the gallery, Arte Nómada was a place where people came together around live music, food and drinks, all of which contributed to the feeling of community that we were known for. The bands that performed during the festival were all local emerging bands, our food trucks made up of small businesses like local breweries. In every sense, Arte Nómada was a space that showcased what was happening in Panama during a specific period of time, and a magnifying glass peeking into our local culture. 







Before and after of our first abandoned house in 2016

By nature, Arte Nómada and the works it exhibited existed within a particular time and space, but its impact was uncontained and its significance remains atemporal.

More Projects

Currently (re)reading: Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Guidara