Museo Nacional de la Cultura Peruana, National museum of Peruvian culture in Lima, Peru.
The Museo Nacional de la Cultura Peruana is a museum in Lima focused on traditional crafts, ceramics, textiles, and ethnographic objects. The collection comes from various parts of the country and shows the working methods and art forms that developed there.
The museum opened on 30 March 1946, founded by the historian, anthropologist and indigenist Luis E. Valcárcel. Its forerunner was the Instituto de Arte Peruano, created in 1931 by decree law no. 7084 as an annex to the anthropology department of the Museo Nacional to study pre-Hispanic art and popular arts. The painter José Sabogal directed it, with Camilo Blas in charge of drawn research and collaborators including Julia Codesido, Alicia Bustamante and photographer Abraham Guillén. The building was designed in neo-Inca style by architect Ricardo de Jaxa Malachowski.
The museum displays works by artisans and craftspeople from various Peruvian regions, particularly from the Amazon area. You can observe how different communities developed their own techniques and styles.
The museum is located in a central area of Lima and opens most days of the week, making it straightforward to plan a visit. Since there are many exhibits, you should plan several hours to look around at a comfortable pace.
The museum's five exhibition rooms are named by theme: popular art antecedents, popular art by region, popular art functions, Amazonian arts and cultures, and a rotating temporary exhibition room. The Amazonian room is the fourth, not the whole collection, which centres on Cusco imagery, Huanta mates and Ayacucho retablos.
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