Panama's Contemporary Art Museum Launches Architecture Competition for New Headquarters

The Museum of Contemporary Art of Panama (MAC Panamá) has announced the launch of an architecture competition for the design of its new headquarters. This is a significant step to continue positioning the museum as a regional cultural benchmark and to strengthen Panama's role in the international conversation that unites art, culture, and territory. "This is a project that was born in 1962 without a physical location, and after six decades of perseverance and commitment, a new project from civil society is born, to place art and culture at the center of urban and civic life," stated María Lucía Alemán, Executive Director of MAC Panamá. The new MAC headquarters aims to be a place where anyone can approach art, learn, meet others, and think about the country from new perspectives. "Panama deserves a cultural platform worthy of its talent and creativity, one that is a tribute to its pluriculturalism and evokes the convergence between art, culture, and territory," the museum said. The competition is open to architects, architecture firms, and multidisciplinary teams from around the world, with a format that will encourage collaboration with local professionals. "Opting for this practice allows us to provide an open, competitive, and transparent process where what is evaluated are the proposals and not the names," explains Ramón Zafrani, an architect advising the MAC. The creation of a new headquarters responds to a strategic vision of institutional expansion, aimed at strengthening its role as a center for creation, education, and critical thinking, and at consolidating its link with the local and international artistic community. The selection process will be overseen by a jury with an outstanding trajectory in the fields of architecture, art, and museography, composed of local and international specialists. This committee will be responsible for rigorously evaluating the proposals submitted, committing to ensure the quality and transparency of the competition. The competition will take place throughout the first half of 2026, under a two-phase scheme: a first stage for the submission of anonymous conceptual proposals between January 13 and March 29, and a second phase of detailed development by the finalist teams, with the selection of the winning project scheduled for May 2026. The complete rules are available at www.concursomacpanama.org, where the registration and inquiry system for interested teams is also enabled.