History

Academia de Artes

Located in a late XVIII century building, the Academia de Artes was founded in 1966.

Opening of the Academia de Artes in 1966. In the presidium: Pedro Ramírez Vázquez, Carlos ChávezDavid Alfaro Siqueiros Agustín Yanez, Gustavo Díaz Ordaz, Mauricio Magdaleno, Jose Luis Martínez, Luis Cano Vázquez and Justino Fernández (General Archive of the Nation. 288 Photographic Collection of the Presidency of the Republic, photo 145/1).

La Academia de Artes, created by presidential decree on December 12, 1966, has the mission of bringing together in a collegiate body the most distinguished personalities in the field of artistic creation, theory, history and art criticism, in order to honor their merits and promote individual and joint work at the service of Mexican culture.

On June 12, 1968, Gustavo Díaz Ordaz, President of the Republic, ordered that the Academia de Artes and the National Museum of San Carlos were installed in a neoclassical building designed by the renowned architect Manuel Tolsá.

Made up of up to 35 full academics, the Academy is currently distributed in the following sections: Architecture, Performing Arts, Sculpture, Graphics, Music, Painting and History and Art Criticism.

The decree of creation of the Academia de Artes establishes that the fundamental purposes of this collegiate body are the support and dissemination of the arts, the safeguarding of the artistic heritage of the Nation, the organization of public and private cultural events, advice on matters of a cultural nature, as well as the commission and acquisition of works, both from its members and from other prestigious Mexican artists.

After having been a country house, a county palace, the residence of renowned figures, offices and, finally, a school, the property that currently houses the Academia de Artes and the National Museum of San Carlos was the subject of a restoration process under the supervision of the Construction and Sanitary Engineering Commission of the Ministry of Health and Assistance. By Joaquín Álvarez Ordóñez and, assisted by Hilario Galguera, Manuel de la Sierra and Samuel Ruiz, with Alicia Grobet as History advisor and the well-known restaurateur Jorge L. Medellín as advisor, the property restoration project allowed the facility to be enabled to accommodate two of the most important cultural institutions in Mexico.