An Itinerant Institution: Cuba’s Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes

• In Event: Negotiating Identity: The Art Museum in Latin America

Abstract

After its founding in 1913, Havana’s National Museum displayed a variety of historical, archaeological, ethnographic, fine arts and craft materials in one old family residence, and then another. Then, in 1955, this wandering institution moved into a purpose-built museum exclusively for the fine arts. My paper considers how this transition occurred, focusing on the debates in the 1940s when the campaign for a permanent home intensified. These debates demonstrate that the museum benefited from the shift towards history as a linchpin in national identity, as well as the development of cultural tourism, phenomena that emerged in the 1920s-1940s when Cubans’ interest in the colonial past soared. Such attitudes continue to benefit the national museum today: the building was extensively remodeled from 1996-2001 under the supervision of the City Historian’s Office, which, together with the government tourist agency, has also supervised the renovation of Havana’s colonial core since 1982.

Author

• Ingrid W Elliott, Independent Scholar & Curator