Things to do / Travel Guide
Address:1230 5th Ave.
New York, New York
Tel:
(212) 831-7272
For over thirty years, El Museo del Barrio has served as New York City's only Latino museum dedicated to Puerto Rican, Caribbean, and Latin American art and culture.
The museum holds some 8,000 varied pieces ranging from pre-Columbian vessels to contemporary art pieces. 2,000 domestic and ceremonial objects from the pre-Columbian tribes Igneris, Caribs and Taíno are on display as well as 900 traditional art pieces. Both secular and religious, the collection includes musical instruments, dolls, miniature houses, masks, and includes 360 santos (hand-carved wooden figures of saints).
Also on display at the El Museo del Barrio are 500 works of art by leading artists over the last century as well as abstract wood sculptures and some 400 photographs depicting how life was during the Depression in Puerto Rico.Temporary exhibitions include "The (S) Files", or "the selected files". The Museum's artist archive has been carefully gone through their collection and selected 51 artists' works for display. Browse works done in traditional mediums such as drawing, painting, photography, as well as experimental lprojects incorporating ight, sound, mobile sculptures, and more.
The museum's shop features gifts and artifacts from Latin America and the Caribbean. Jewelry, handcrafts, books, posters, and music from the region are all available.
Take Subway 6 to 103rd St. station and walk one block north and two blocks west, or take the 2 or 3 rains to 110th St. and Lennox Ave. and walk one block east and then south to 104th St. You can also take the M1, M3, or M4 northbound busses on Madison Ave.
Come explore this one of a kind glimpse into Latin American and Caribbean art, an exotic treat, surely not to be missed.
From El Museo del Barrio:
Heralded by The New York Times as "an institution in its ascendancy", El Museo del Barrio was founded in 1969 by a group of Puerto Rican educators, artists, parents and community activists in East Harlem's Spanish-speaking El Barrio. Since then, El Museo del Barrio has evolved into New York's leading Latino cultural institution, having expanded its mission to represent the diversity of art and culture in all of the Caribbean and Latin America.