MACAY Museum

The Contemporary Art Museum Ateneo of Yucatán, better known as MACAY, is the only museum dedicated to the promotion and diffusion of modern and contemporary art in the entire Yucatán peninsula.

Annually it receives an average of 72,000 visitors. And if anything sets it apart, it is its profound educational commitment, attending to more than 22,000 children per year through its special programs, courses, workshops, and guided tours.

MACAY’s mission is to promote the diffusion and knowledge of national and international modern and contemporary art. For that reason, every three months, they renew their 15 temporary exhibit rooms at the same time, presenting around 45 annual exhibits, with an artwork movement of almost 2000 pieces each time.

The reflective line of its temporary exhibits aims to expose and document the artistic expressions produced since the beginning of the XX century until the vanguard and new means of exopression.

The building contains 15 rooms for temporary exhibits, two galleries, and four rooms for permanent exhibits, where the works of three great figures of Yucatecan visual arts are displayed: Fernando Castro Pacheco, Fernando García Ponce and Gabriel Ramírez Aznar.

The total area of MACAY is 3500 sq. meters (almost 38,000 sq. feet), including the two interior spaces: the Jardín de las Tinajas (Garden of the Pitchers) and the Expoforo. This last area allows for exhibits of works of large format, thanks to its large size (capacity for 500 people seated), in accordance with the latest trends and artistic productions.

MACAY is also the only museum to have two original productions: the radio program “Arte Conexión” and the TV program “La Hora Cultura MACAY”. They also publish a quarterly cultural bulletin, with distribution on five continents.

The museum also has a cafeteria, store, and library specializing in art, whose titles are specialized in painting, sculpture, architecture, photography, and ceramics. Also worth special mention is the newspaper archive, specializing in art and culture with 1945 topics of archaeology, architecture, artisans, artists, cinematography, design, ecology, photography, and museums, etc.

Museo MACAY
Calle 60, Next to Cathedral on Plaza Grande.
Tel. (999) 928 3258 & 928 3236.

Open: Every day except Tuesday 10:00 - 18:00 hrs.
Admission: Free
www.macay.org

Recommended reading:
- Museums in Merida
- Art Galleries in Merida
- 15 Years at the MACAY Museum
- New Exhibits at MACAY: July-September 2011