Panama City museums explore the natural and social history of the country -the first steps that are worth it if you intend to better understand the fate of Central America.
The museums of Panama City, from the recognition of the contribution of migrant workers to the construction of the canal to the rise of the isthmus itself, cover many interesting topics. They are the best.
Museum of modern art: the best for contemporary art
Panama’s only art museum, the Panama Museum of Modern Art (commonly known as MAC Panamá), houses the largest collection of Panamanian art in the world. Founded as a non-profit non-governmental organization in 1962, the museum received a permanent premises in 1983 after the purchase and renovation of an old Masonic temple in a settlement located in the Ancona Canal zone.
Today, the museum houses about 700 contemporary works by artists from all over Latin America. The media include oil paintings, drawings, lithographs, photographs, sculptures and ceramics.
In addition to organizing permanent and temporary exhibitions, it invites art students to participate in seminars and conferences. Currently, its graphic laboratory trains new and emerging artists in traditional engraving and its library contains catalogs of exhibitions and volumes on Panamanian art.
Biomuseum: the best for ecological history
The isthmus of Panama arose from the ocean about 15 million years ago. First as a chain of volcanic islands, then as a continuous winding land bridge connecting the American continents and separating the seas.
The revolutionary biomuseum, designed by chief architect Frank Gehry, explores the importance of these events. Located by the canal on the Camasada de Amador, the construction of the museum took 15 years, from the concept to its opening in 2014. Gehry’s iconic roof is a multicolored hodgepodge, symbolizing the diversity of the natural world and the multi-tiered canopy of the rainforest.
The territory includes shady landscaped botanical gardens, hiking trails and ponds where one can see one of the 153 species of birds or 291 species of butterflies.
The biomuseum is a gigantic scientific and artistic project that uses creative means to explore topics such as biodiversity, ecological interconnections, evolution, extinction and deep time.
The exhibitions are divided into eight galleries designed by Bruce Mau in consultation with the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and the University of Panama.
His gallery is dedicated to the great biotic exchange, a mass migration event that changed the biogeography of the Americas. It includes 97 life-size sculptures of prehistoric animals that cross the isthmus in the crush: notice a mastodon and a giant ground sloth.
The Weil Art Gallery and the Arteconsult Gallery are among the best art galleries in Panama City
In addition to Macau, numerous galleries and elegant boutiques represent the city’s burgeoning art scene. Some reside in the Old Town, which has recently been ennobled; others are hidden in the shiny area of the banking district. Plan your route carefully and always check the opening hours before you leave.
The Weil Art Gallery in the Bella Vista neighborhood is a lively contemporary gallery run by the Brazilian art dealer Carlos Weil. In Punta Paitilla, the Arteconsult Gallery has been dedicated to contemporary Latin American art for more than three decades.
In Casco Viejo, the Caravan preserves quality works of Indigenous art and crafts. In Marbella, the NG Gallery presents several interesting Cuban artists, including Jorge Otero and William Acosta. In El Crabajo, Tamarindo is a contemporary art house with an impressive selection of works by Panamanian artists. The Cruz family owns the Marion Gallery in the San Francisco area. The family has deep roots in the Panamanian art world.
Afroantigliano Museum in Panama: the best for social history
Located in a wood-paneled chapel built by the Barbados missionaries in 1910, the Afro-Antillano Museum of Panama tells the story of immigrants from the West Indies who arrived in Panama in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
For several decades, tens of thousands of people migrated from the Caribbean to work on United Fruit’s railroad, canal and banana plantations in Bocas del Toro.
The so-called “Panamanian” was an island guy who did good, but the reality of working on the mainland was harsh and relentless. Thousands of workers from the West Indies, mostly Jamaicans, died from France’s disastrous efforts to build the canal, resulting in an epidemic of malaria and yellow fever.
The state of health improved among Americans, but the chain company continued to use the system of racial segregation. The museum honors and preserves the memory of the Afro-West Indians who contributed greatly to the construction and culture of Panama.
Exhibits include artifacts, historical photographs, and models of rooms and kitchens depicting the lives of immigrant workers on the canal.
Panama Interoceanic Canal Museum: the best of the canal’s history
The Panama Interoceanic Canal Museum offers a view of the well-kept gardens of Independence Square, where Panama proclaimed its independence from Colombia in 1903.
The Roosevelt administration supported the rebellion and contributed to its victory by the intervention of the U.S. Navy gunboat USS Nashville to prevent Colombian troops from reaching Panama City.
A few weeks after, the United States acquired the bankrupt French company Channel and all its facilities, as well as a five-mile-wide plot of land across the isthmus, the canal zone, the unincorporated territory of the United States and a de facto state within the state.
Located in the former nineteenth-century grand hotel, which served as the headquarters of the French and American canal companies, the museum traces the historical evolution of Panama as a transit and transit country.
Starting with the transcontinental trains for the Mules of the Spanish Empire, the museum presents visitors with events that turned the isthmus into a link between world trade.
Visitors will learn more about the construction of the Panamanian Railway, France’s attempt to build the canal and the subsequent efforts of the United States that resulted in the cession of the canal in 1999. Most of the exhibits are presented in Spanish, but audio guides in English are available.
La Mola Museum: the best for Gouna art
The small but brilliant La Mola Museum explores the art and symbolism of La Mola, an inverted patterned fabric created by the women of Guna. Traditional designs include psychedelic compositions of geometric shapes and abstract patterns that Guna once applied to the body with Jagua ink tattoos, as Amber and Wunaan still do.
Moderna designs include birds, animals, fish, mythical creatures and totems from Moderna, as well as ships and airplanes. Molas are usually sewn on the front and back of blouses (Mola means “blouse” in the Duleyanga language). They can also be used as decorative pillows or wall patterns.
Molas buying tips
Molas are light, not fragile and easy to pack; they give excellent souvenirs and personal gifts. It consists of up to seven layers of fabric stacked on top of each other, but usually three or four, each seam is cut to expose the design element that is underneath, and the hem is hemmed and sewn.
Milk gradually accumulates layer by layer. They can be machine-made in a few minutes or hand-drawn in a few months. Avoid moles with circles or triangles that have been added to fill the space. Avoid moles whose color is bleached in the sun. Always check the quality of the fabric of all diapers.
The mole should not wrinkle when you pass it with your hand. The seams should be even, close and invisible in front. Expect to pay for a decent but simple 30 x 44 cm (11 x 17 inches) model. The more diapers, the higher the price; the best ones cost hundreds of dollars.
