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Mexico City is home to hundreds of cultural venues to surprise locals and strangers. Majestic corners captivate visitors through their rooms, programs, and special exhibitions. One of our favorites is the Museum of Popular Art. An imposing Art-Deco-Style building that once served as a fire station and the setting for a Cantinflas movie, today, it is an institution dedicated to promoting and preserving Mexican popular art.
Revaluing popular art in Mexico has not been an easy task. However, thanks to the unconditional effort and support of the board of trustees, its directors, staff, and of course, the folk artists of different sorts, this task has been more than accomplished. And Mexico and its folk art occupy an ever-growing place in the hearts of the entire world.
We invite you to meet Walther Boelsterly Urrutia, the brilliant and creative mind in charge of the direction of the Museum of Popular Art. With more than three decades dedicated to the service of art, today is one of those responsible for making the world fall in love through Alebrijes and Catrinas.
MAP’s best accomplishments so far
There’s a long story behind this. It all comes down to the formation I had at home, where service was part of everyday life, and giving back to others and discipline was part of our core values. Why am I saying this? Because my father was a Doctor, he had a kind of discipline and dedication towards others like none other, and those were the values that led us. There was no other choice than the German/Swiss-style discipline and service dedication towards others.
There are some families where competition is their main engine. There are a few that connect by sports and others where monetary issues call the shots. And in our family, the paramount value was support towards others. Give someone an opportunity if help is within your possibilities.
So, I guess that this began to form in me, a way of understanding life, and by supporting myself in this structure to do the things I did, I dedicated myself to painting. I studied Plastic Arts, and soon I specialized in material techniques, which means every method used for coloring from the paleolithic era until today, and I started teaching in college right after. All this allowed me to become aware of many people’s needs, many times on the other side of the counter, and that many times there’s no dialogue, no communication, and no tool to facilitate it.
Later, I was fortunate enough to work with Gerardo Estrada. He was the Director of the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes (National Institute of Fine Arts) for a long time. And, after having many different positions in several Director charges, he gave me the opportunity to be the Director of the well-acclaimed CENCROPAM, whose name is astoundingly long, is indeed a very cherished institution, and back then was very neglected. So, when Gerardo called me, he said I need your German discipline to get this back in shape. It is a hot mess, and well, it certainly was.
We committed ourselves to the task, and I was fortunate enough to work with a team who started to respond and that we have support on behalf of the authorities, and I stayed there for fifteen years. We received it with negative red numbers and delivered it with highly exceeded black numbers.
I think that from that background and our many accomplishments, there was a meeting among Mr.Estrada and Mrs. Arango, and she requested his advice on who should assume the Direction of the Museum of Folk Art. I was among the candidates. After a series of events and questioning due to my profound appreciation to the conservation center, to its staff, and to the National Institute of Fine Arts – whom I worked with for many years- finally, they convinced me. I came here, and I realized that just as we were aware, back in CENCROPAM, that there were many people we had to help on the other side. Our motto was No is a forbidden word; we are going to be able to do anything. We will help a lot of people, and all we have to do is give them hope and show them that things can be done. And when I came here, I established the same philosophy.
It was a freak, an experiment, a weird thing. Because even though there were these mixtures among patronage and institutions, the patronage was for the first time, under the obligation of covering a third of the museum’s operative expenses. Saying this is no minor task. It is a strong responsibility because other patronages that have previous relations with museums provide collaboration, understanding, and involvement if they could and if they would, etcetera. There was no obligation to the institution. So, this completely changed the scene for the patronage. And they responded amazingly well and began to work constantly in this search of resources to accomplish their goal, a third of the operational budget for the museum. It was such the fascination and enthusiasm of the patronage for the local and federal institution that everyone became excited as well. And the needs found on the cultural field and the human realm of the Folk Art World are so impossibly big that there was no other choice, rather than immerse deep down in this, roll our sleeves, and start to work day by day to try and accomplish something.
MAP’s best accomplishments so far
We have managed to accomplish some goals that have benefitted male and female artisans, folk artists in general. I do not see a barrier between one or the other. I see market management differences, but all of them are creators. Some started throwing accusations like Artisans don’t work serials or create pieces in thousands. But then, I would ask about academic artists that create graphics, all that is a reproduction on itself and a multiplication of certain images. So I would rather consider them as creators with different tools and means. And we should be thankful with the world of popular art; thanks to the crafts they have preserved, their techniques, their traditions, and all the cultural baggage they have received from generation to generation, it provides us with the structure to turn popular art into a culture tank of academic art.
Popular Folk Art, inspiration for great artists
We have cases from across the world. To point out some clear examples, there is this character called Pablo Picasso. He couldn’t have accomplished such an art transformation if he hadn’t worked on African Folk Art, on his famous painting Les demoiselles d’Avignon.
We have the five Russian nationalist musicians who took inspiration from Balcanic’s popular music to accomplish their creations, others like Mussorgsky who can’t be denied. We have Henry Moore, Giacometti, and here in Mexico, we have two of the greatest bastions, Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo. Both took the basis on popular art to become what they are,
what they will be – because this keeps on growing- and in a way to reassess which are the sources in which they inspired to do all these things. So, I believe that rather than dividing, I would like to add, then multiply. Then, realize that if we work in an interdisciplinary manner, folk art, academy art, and many other professions such as biologist, zoologist, engineers, industrial and graphic designers will learn to work in an interdisciplinary way. And they will benefit, but most importantly, a figure that we sadly keep in the abstract of nations, called Mexico. And, that Mexico has provided us with the opportunity of being within these frontiers, with endless publicity in regards to the culture it has given to the world in every sense. And that just a few want to understand that if we work for it, we are working for every Mexican.
Recognizing the artist
It comes in many ways. Sadly, it arises from the sad anonymity behind the creation of many pieces. Where are these green enameled ceramic pieces from? Ahh, they are from Tzintzuntzan. And well, Tzintzuntzan is a population in Michoacán that is populated. And it is occupied by artisans. By folk artists that create these pieces. What are their names? The same happens when we talk about Alebrijes and who do they belong to? Oh, well, there are some Alebrijes originals from Arrrasola in Oaxaca. Or from downtown Mexico City from the Barrio de la Merced hood. Or there are some looms or fabrics from Tenango. Yes, but who makes those looms? Who is behind them? And who are those amazingly talented hands? I believe that is part of the goals the museum had. Relate the author with its creations; this is a job that works on both ends. We have to convince the authors that their work is as important as many others, just as the public that the pieces they are purchasing have an author.
Mexico’s biodiversity and the impact on the artists’ creations
We also took the chance to make a connection I consider essential and that is the base for this museum through a magnificent mural by Covarrubias. It showcases that we are considered the world’s fourth-largest biodiversity. We have three of the largest biodiversities in the country, so, well, let’s link how folk art depends on your resources available as raw materials of the region, how popular art depends on the sources of inspiration of your location. And then we can preserve our natural heritage as well as our cultural heritage. It takes a lot of work, Is not an easy task to make people comprehend. For instance, a very controversial subject is feather art. One of the most considered crafts ever, in terms of tradition and prehispanic heritage. But well, in a way we can not just indiscriminately kill birds everywhere to create feather art. So we have to find a way to preserve the craft while conserving and preserving species of birds that have provided a lot and will keep providing for this wonderful craft. So, we have to make it sustainable. We started by enforcing the people that create feather art to work with molting feathers from the different aviaries there are in Mexico, or from animals that are in a way meant for human consumption, like poultry, and that those feathers were used to be painted and ready for usage in feather craft. This, to avoid several species that were on the board of extinction because of certain traditions some people have of having caged birds in our homes, or because in a way there is a craft that can easily replace its many requirements from other sources.
So, we started to accomplish these kinds of goals and people started to notice. They began to understand that if they have to attend to certain issues to preserve the craft, it could become sustainable. They would have to acquire a certain number of pieces because they were needed to demonstrate that those pieces did belong to an author and that it was necessary to highlight their names and the name of their localities. And that began to resonate among many groups and we began to understand that if we help each other we would be able to accomplish many things.
Interdisciplinary work
These exhibitions made under that vision included institutions like UNAM, its science faculty, biologists, geologists, anthropologists painters and artists peers, architects, designers, and this began to create a community that today understands that, to be able to present an exhibition of the temporary collections the museum presents, has to involve a great many other disciplines, because, first of all, we are not the only ones. Second, most likely we are not the best, and third, many others across the country can help us to make these exhibitions tokens of great quality and that the public can have access to completely different kinds of pieces.
The Museum of Popular Art and its outreach efforts
Another issue on our agenda is an outreach program for the population with disabilities, so we work a lot in the museum but we also work a lot outside of it. We do a lot of work with public hospitals from different government institutions. We are continuously giving workshops, because, first its people with deep concerns, in most cases life-threatening conditions, in some cases beyond hope, and it is our duty to help them because they are Mexicans with the same right to demand culture taken to the places in which they are fighting these conditions. So, we work a lot with communities outside of Mexico City. Even though we are not a national museum, because we are trying to rescue a certain raw material and certain crafts that face extinction and endangerment in different parts of the country. I believe that is a task that we have barely undertaken and there is a lot of work to be done to save them all, but that we are setting the cornerstones to fulfill these goals.
On the other hand, there is this commitment from the museum staff. The way they work, they are, and the way they confront the problems presented from outside the museum. Our job doesn’t end when we come in and outside MAP’s doors; or by checkout. No. Our job is constant. It is ongoing. We are working with them, and they are working from home, creating workshops, making virtual tours, and many other things. And this calamity of the pandemic allowed us – not to reinvent ourselves as many are saying now- I think it has helped us use different tools that we have neglected so far. They have presented proposals within our reach, but that only necessity forced us to implement them; and that suddenly, to me, because of my generation, I am long in the tooth to easily understand these things. About three weeks ago we had an interview from a Spanish magazine, with representatives across the world. They gave us a virtual interview. It lasted about two and a half hours, and when the interview was over, they gave me the results of who was connected. I was first surprised, then scared, and finally in total disbelief because in those two and a half hours, we gathered as many as two million people in that show. It is surprising to realize how many people are interested in popular art, the crafts in the richness of this land. And, thanks to this rich past we have, the world acknowledges Mexico as a land of creators. And, if there is anything that can identify us on a world basis, throughout history is the level of culture we have. Present in many different ways. That doesn’t mean that culture or intellectuals are just people with loads of facts filed in their heads. Culture is something you live on every day, and if you don’t use it to live by every day, you are not a cult person. You are maybe a file. Someone with a prodigious memory, but that does nothing for you.
Popular Art Online
There is a breath-taking number of talented people in this country that can create many things. If we can connect the people that are working these networks, with people like you, with the people who are working and crafting all these pieces, at any scale, and from any corner of our country, we will be able to accomplish awe-inspiring things. When we see a folk artist using a cellphone or a tablet to create a course from his workshop, creating paper maché or cardboard art, or carved paper, and starts reaching so many people, we become surprised by the responses. The love they feel for this country and the appreciation they feel for these crafts.
We recently had an intervention with the Mexican Cultural Center in Denver, Colorado, and with Denver’s Botanical Gardens, as well. We have been working together for a while now. They would tell me, Hey! We exceeded the milestones of people who joined the workshop and the conversation. So, you understand that not only Mexicans abroad have a hunger for the things we do. I mean what we do in Mexico, not just in the museum.
Many Americans and foreigners are living in the United States and want to learn from this country. Their eyes turn wide open when they realize that with a bit of local mud, two or three plants found near them, and a bird that stood by, they can create a vase. And will later be decorated with that image, and that image could eventually be handy for the study of an entomologist or a biologist. And that will allow us to preserve this great richness we have in the cultural and natural, material and non-material heritage, as they are named now. And that is constantly overlooked because we fail to acknowledge the many wealthiness we have in this country.
MAP Today
In-person visits. We are making in-person visits, guided through the museum, with groups of no more than five. Which you can reserve through our website, and there you can make your reservations. We would also like to invite you to our virtual visits, which will start again after summer vacations. Those are impressive. Sometimes we would have about seven hundred virtual visitors. And people from different states of the Republic and people from places like Puerto Rico, Argentina, Brazil, and Colombia. In the case of places like Argentina, teachers would gather and take virtual guided visits. There was specific outreach from the Director of the Popular Art Museum, José Hernández from Buenos Aires, Argentina, to do a live interview on different platforms and to be able to present the network of Popular Art Museums across Latin America. Anyway, the range of opportunities is enormous. Let’s make the most out of them and show the best wealthiness of this country, but mostly that they are now so approachable when you can visit, in person, or online an exhibition that will allow us to discover the human and material treasures and richness we have in this country.
Which is your favorite popular art piece?
It is called Mexico, with its folk artists, its academic artists, who create all sorts of wonders throughout its frontiers, and is a great actor, and we must take care of it. We must take care of it because we are doing stupidities; in many parts of the Republic. We are destroying our natural resources. And this is a call for attention to many, from the authorities to the general population. Because many times we don’t realize what we are doing by destroying this treasure and this natural heritage we have.
What’s next for MAP?
The third exhibition, out of four, is called Mexico Textil, where we presented the first that was an introduction, the second, inspired on the South and South-east regions raw materials and fabrics stemming from them. And now, we are going to present The Center Region, its raw materials, and its textiles. And will have next year to look forward to the North edition and its fabrics. After that, we want to publish a catalog that people can consult to realize that results depend on its raw materials and sources of inspiration of nature of the region and that in itself creates a great universe named Mexico, and that the world of fabrics available in this country is like none other.
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MAP (Museum of Popular Art)