Santiago is experiencing something of a renaissance after years in the cultural wilderness. Many leading artistic lights fled Chile (a few, such as legendary folk singer Victor Jara, were even killed) when the Pinochet dictatorship stamped its iron fist down on the city. Following the return to democracy in 1990, the country's artistic community was slow to come back but is once again flourishing today. There are quirky plays, films, music and authors coming out of Chile and the country is certainly punching its weight culturally despite its relative geographic isolation.

A good source of information for what's on in the city are the entertainment listings found in the Tiempo Libre supplement of the El Mercurio newspaper (website: www.emol.com) and the Cultura section of La Tercera (website: www.tercera.cl). It is also worth reading the Santiago Times (website: www.santiagotimes.cl) for an idea on what is going on.

Information on shows and performances can be picked up at cultural centres, such as the Instituto Cultural de Providencia, 11 de Septiembre 1995 (tel: (02) 784 8600; website: www.proviarte.cl), or the Centro Cultural Estación Mapocho, Plaza de la Cultura (tel: (02) 787 0000; website: www.estacionmapocho.cl). Tickets can be purchased at the individual box offices, or visitors can use ticket agency Ticketmaster (tel: (02) 690 2000; website: www.ticketmaster.cl). Otherwise, the music store Feria del Disco (tel: (02) 592 85 00; website: www.feriadeldisco.cl) sells tickets for many of the sporting and cultural events going on around the city.

Music and Dance: Perhaps the best time to be in Santiago to witness, hear and even participate in its traditional music and dance is around the time of the fiestas patrias national holiday (18 September) when renditions of the handkerchief-waving dance La Cueca take place all over the country. There is something harmonious going on all year round however, from folk music riffs drifting out of various Bellavista haunts, to the tango and salsa schools dotted around the city. There is even a thriving indie music scene including bands such as Los Bunkers, La Ley and the long-established Los Prisioneros.

If your tastes are more classical, the best place to investigate is the Teatro Municipal, Calle Agustinas 794 (tel: (02) 463 8888; website: www.municipal.cl), an ornate 19th-century theatre built in a European style by Frenchman Charles Garnier, architect of the casino in Monte Carlo. The Santiago Ballet and the Santiago Philharmonic Orchestra both perform here, often together, and it has been the scene of some world-class tango performances.

Theatre: Chile has a thriving theatrical tradition and performances catering to most tastes can be found across Santiago - there are more than 20 established theatres around the city. The grandest performances are held at the Teatro Municipal (see Music and Dance above), but the Teatro Nacional, Calle Morandé 25 (tel: (02) 696 1200), is also highly reputable and puts on more contemporary productions. More experimental theatre can also be found, especially around Bellavista and Barrio Brasil - check the newspaper culture sections for the latest.

Film: Once noted for its experimental cinema, Chile produced almost no films of note during the dictatorship years (1973-1990). More recently, however, several pieces of Chilean film-making have gained audiences beyond the country's borders, perhaps most spectacularly with Andrés Wood's Machuca (2004), a beautifully moving story of two boys' friendship at the time of the 1973 military coup. Boris Quercia's Sexo Con Amor (2003), a light-hearted look at the country's attitudes toward sex, is another film that gained an international audience. Other directors to look out for include Silvio Caiozzi, Miguel Littin, Pablo Perelman, Ricardo Larraín and Gonzalo Justiniano.

The most famous films about Chile include Costa Gavras' 1982 work Missing, starring Jack Lemmon. This documents an American's search for his 'disappeared' son, against a backdrop of US complicity in the violence. US-based Chilean writer Ariel Dorfman's play Death and the Maiden was adapted for film in 1994 by director Roman Polanski. Starring Sigourney Weaver and Ben Kingsley, it tells the story of a victim of the coup forced to confront her former torturer after a chance meeting.

Chileans do not always dub foreign films, so Hollywood blockbusters are often shown in English with Spanish subtitles. Santiago's largest, multiplex-style cinemas are Cinemark, various venues (tel: 600 586 0058, in Chile only; www.cinemark.cl) and Cine Hoyts, Paseo Huérfanos 735 and Moneda 835 (tel: 600 500 0400, in Chile only; website: www.cinehoyts.cl). Santiago's best art-house cinemas are Cine Arte Alameda, Alameda 139 (tel: (02) 664 8842; website: www.centroartealameda.cl), and Cine El Biógrafo, Lastarria 181 (tel: (02) 633 4435; website: www.transeuropafilms.cl/biografo), both in the centre of town.

Literary Notes: Few countries so small can boast two winners of the Nobel Prize for Literature. Poet and diplomat Gabriela Mistral was the first Latin American to receive the Nobel Prize in 1945. She was an obsessive loner, heartbroken by the suicide of a lover. Her personal tragedy is reflected in her poetry, which first came to prominence in 1914, when she won a Chilean prize for Sonetos de la Muerte (Sonnets of Death). Chile's other Nobel Laureate, the poet Pablo Neruda, was also employed as a diplomat. He was a well-known Communist influenced by the Republican cause in the Spanish Civil War, who regarded his work as a message of solidarity directed at ordinary people. He achieved international fame in 1923 with Crepusculario (a collection of his poems) and died in 1973, shortly after the military coup.

Chile's most internationally renowned contemporary writer is Isabel Allende, niece of former Socialist president Salvador. After the military coup and death of her uncle, she fled to the United States where she worked as a journalist. Much of her work has a Chilean theme, with many references to Santiago. Her most famous books include The House of the Spirits (1985), also made into a film, Of Love and Shadows (1987) and City of the Beasts (2002). Her book My Invented Country (2003) is a memoir of her upbringing in Chile and her exile after the military coup that claimed her uncle's life.