Centro Leon (Centro Cultural Eduardo Leon Jimenes)
Museum and cultural centre in Santiago with Dominican art, ethnography and archaeology collections.
Centro Leon was built by the Fundacion Eduardo Leon Jimenes to house the family's collection of Dominican visual art and opened in October 2003. The architect Pedro Jose Borrell was commissioned in 1995 and work ran from November 2000 to 2003, producing a low complex of about nine thousand square metres set around a planted Caribbean patio. It stands in the Villa Progreso district of Santiago, the second city of the Dominican Republic, on the avenue named after the February independence date.
There are four exhibition halls. Permanent displays cover the signs of Dominican identity, drawing on ethnography and archaeology, and the visual arts collection built up through the Eduardo Leon Jimenes art competition held since 1964. Temporary shows address Caribbean art and photography. The centre also runs an auditorium, a media library, a map collection, an educational workshop and a reconstructed cigar-rolling area recalling the family's tobacco business, and admission to the exhibitions is open to all on Tuesdays.
Highlights
- Permanent displays on Dominican identity, ethnography and archaeology
- Visual arts collection from the Eduardo Leon Jimenes art competition
- Planted Caribbean patio at the centre of Pedro Borrell's building
- Media library, map collection and cigar-rolling demonstration area
