The Museum of Folk Art
In one of the main arteries of the historical center of the city, Revillagigedo, known as the street where the Teatro Metropólitan is located, and very close to the Alameda is located this interesting museum that houses real treasures of the Mexican popular art.
The program with which was born the Museum of Popular Art, known as MAP, gave a new use and meaning to an Art deco building, the work of Vicente Mendiola and Guillermo Zárraga, built in 1928 as a fire station and police. Traces of its former function, such as the giant fire extinguisher located on the side of the main staircases, are still in its facilities.
The building, considered the second most important of the ART Deco style in Mexico was made in 1996 by the Federal District government, remodeled and adapted with a project by Teodoro González de León with museology by Jorge Agostioni.
The project for its rescue had as premises the conservation of the characteristic elements of the building, like the three arches of the facade that were the accesses of the fire trucks, that in the intervention were adapted like the main access and two large Windows for the shop and cafeteria; or the operating yard that was covered by a steel and glass structure and added to it a glazed volume of elevators that allows access to the rooms.
The main objective of this museum is to promote and dignify popular art, through its recovery, promotion and diffusion inside and outside the museum spaces. Here there are handcrafted manifestations made in a wide variety of materials, such as pottery, basketry, paper and cardboard, mark, bules, wood, silverware, goldsmith, glass, textiles, sculpture, wood carving, metals, tinplate, which together They form collections of great plastic appeal.
It complements its services to the public with a documentation and research centre with library and periodicals. It also has Fonoteca, video library, workshops for the work of artisans and several exhibition halls. Its shop is part of the museum's appeal because it offers an extensive range of popular art, from the most traditional to the most avant-garde trends, from the finest and most select to small souvenirs.
In short, it is an emblematic building of the historical center adapted to the new social necessities, whose use dignifies the space that otherwise would have been forgotten as it happens, unfortunately, with several patrimonial buildings of the twentieth century.
Museum of Popular Art (MAP)
Revillagigedo 11 Esq. Independence
Historic center
CP 06010
Cuauhtémoc, Cuauhtémoc, Mexico City
Tels.: (55) 5510 2201 ext. 102
Open to the public from Tuesday to Sunday from 10:00 to 18:00 hrs.
Wednesday from 10:00 to 21:00 hrs.
General Admission: $60
Sundays: Free Admission