Medellin’s Planetarium Reopens With Colombia’s First Fully Accessible Exhibit

Medellin Planetarium reopened on Aug. 20 after completing a renovation worth close to US$973,500, unveiling three fully renewed floors that now cover 835 square meters and hold 51 different experiences weaving together astronomy, literature, art, history, and general science.

Medellin built this transformation as part of a broader strategy to connect its residents with culture, science, and technology, according to Santiago Silva Jaramillo, the city’s Secretary of Citizen Culture, who described the project as “a complete renovation of the Planetarium’s collection.” That renovation launches alongside Medellin Estelar, a five-month program packed with more than 250 activities, ranging from formative encounters and screenings to open spaces designed for the general public, and city officials have set a target of reaching at least 68,000 citizens through this combined effort.

Parque Explora, the science center that operates the Planetarium on Medellin’s behalf, centered the reopening around a new exhibition called El universo que somos (The Universe We Are), which the organization describes as a pioneering experience nationwide specifically because of how thoroughly it embraces accessibility. Andres Roldan, Parque Explora’s director, framed the effort as part of a larger, citywide vision, explaining that Medellin wants “to irradiate and be irradiated by an expansion of ideas” through a Planetarium that reaches far beyond its own walls into neighborhoods across the city.

Medellin planetarium opens a fully accessible exhibition

Colombia’s science communication scene has rarely, if ever, produced an exhibition built this deliberately around accessibility, and that distinction becomes clear the moment visitors experience how Medellin designed each interactive element. Deaf community members participated directly in developing 48 astronomical concepts translated into Colombian Sign Language (LSC), ensuring the exhibition explains complex ideas about the universe in a format deaf visitors can follow without depending on written text or spoken narration alone.

Blind and visually impaired visitors move through the space using a podotactile line (a textured strip embedded in the floor that guides movement through touch under the feet), paired with a haptic map, a tactile representation that lets visitors feel the layout of the exhibition with their hands, and braille integrated directly into the self-guided audio tours.

Medellin extended that same collaborative approach to the exhibition’s cultural dimension, since members of the Murui Muina, Wayuu, and Embera Chami indigenous communities worked alongside amateur astronomers to help build the 51 interactive experiences visitors now encounter throughout the space. That combination turns the Planetarium into more than a science museum, transforming it into a genuine space for dialogue between different communities and ways of understanding the cosmos, exactly the kind of cross-cultural exchange Medellin hoped this renovation would produce, and a model other Colombian cultural institutions may eventually look to replicate.