The Director General of the Teatro Mayor Julio Mario Santo Domingo and second Vice President of Ópera Latinoamérica OLA, received the recognition during the launch of the new National Programme of Concerted Circus Rooms and Tents.

For the work that he has been carrying out without interruption in favor of theatre and the performing arts of Colombia and the world, the Ministry of Culture of Colombia awarded Ramiro Osorio Fonseca, General Director of the Julio Mario Santo Domingo Theatre and second vice president of Ópera Latinoamérica, the Medal of Cultural Merit.

The recognition, which also highlights the contribution that Osorio has made to the development of Colombian theatre and performing arts, was delivered within the framework of the launch of the new 2021 Concerted Rooms and Tents Programme, which the Ministry of Culture carried out at the headquarters of the Centro del Centro del Free Theater in Bogotá.

“You have been a great manager of culture and you have been the inspiration for many of us who have wanted to delve into the study of cultural materials with development implications,” said President Iván Duque in a message addressed to Osorio for his recognition.

The President added that, in addition to being the country’s prime minister of culture, the director of the Teatro Mayor left a great mark and has also served as an incubator for talent that “continues to promote many Colombians to continue making cultural management a form to unite our heritage and our ancestral wealth with that voracity that the world has to know the mystical, the parodoxical and the structural of our country ”.

On his part, the Minister of Culture, Felipe Buitrago, affirmed that the culture of this country owes a lot to Osorio. “You have been a tireless fighter for the arts, for culture, for theater, for all forms of expression; you have led public policy processes such as the creation of the Ministry of Culture; You have accompanied, I believe, all of us who have had the enormous privilege and the enormous responsibility of leading this portfolio with your advice; you have accompanied countless numbers of people who, without a doubt, have received your support, your advice, but above all your inspiration. Today we are all inspired by your work and I believe that this tribute is nothing more than a very small recognition in front of that titanic work that you have advanced, the whole country is grateful for it ”, added Buitrago.

In 1991, Osorio assumed the direction of the Colombian Institute of Culture (Colcultura) and there he carried out the National Plan of Culture, thanks to which the National Program of Concerted Rooms and the National Program of Concertation were born.

After serving as Colombian Ambassador to Mexico, in 1995 President Ernesto Samper appointed him presidential advisor for the processing of the General Law of Culture in the National Congress, thanks to whose approval the Ministry of Culture was created. Later, Osorio was appointed the first Minister of Culture of Colombia, a position he held between 1997 and 1998.

In addition to his career as an actor and as a director, Osorio obtained a Master’s degree in Spanish Letters from the University of Guanajuato, in Mexico. In that country, he began his facet as a cultural manager, working in entities such as the National Institute of Fine Arts, the National Theater Show, the National Autonomous University and the International Cervantino Festival.

Together with Fanny Mikey, he created the Ibero-American Theater Festival of Bogotá, which held its first edition in 1988 under the slogan “An act of faith.” Later, he designed and directed the International Theater Festival of San José for Peace in Costa Rica, which would later become the International Festival of the Arts, and founded and directed the Great Festival of Mexico City.

After his time at the Ministry of Culture, Osorio was director of the Quintana Roo International Caribbean Festival and the Cervantino International Festival, both in Mexico; the International Festival of Seville, Spain. In addition, he was Director of Culture of the Ibero-American General Secretariat, where he promoted the Iberescena, Youth Iberorquestas and Ibermuseums programs, and was General Director of Arteria Multiespacios of the SGAE in Spain.

Osorio assumed the general direction of the Julio Mario Santo Domingo Theater in 2010, at the invitation of the Bogotá Mayor’s Office and the Santo Domingo family, a position he has held since the opening of the theater.