Centro Cultural Gabriela Mistral (GAM)

The GAM is one of Santiago's most exciting new cultural centers, and it acts as a default meeting point for tourists and locals due to its central location on the Alameda, in Barrio Lastarria. Opened in 2010 in a strikingly renovated behemoth of a building (originally built by President Salvador Allende in 1972 for the international trade summit UNCTAD), the building now bears the name of Chile’s most celebrated female poet, Gabriela Mistral, the first and only woman to win a Nobel Prize in Literature to date. Permanent exhibits include an in-depth collection of pre-Colombian crafts and artifacts, and visiting exhibits often feature contemporary artists with ties to underground urban movements. The GAM also has an excellent wine shop, a bookstore specializing in Chilean art, design and film, a café and a restaurant open for lunch and dinner.