Fomento Cultural Banamex
Grandes Maestros del Arte Popular
Fomento Cultural Banamex is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting investment in cultural development, as well as preserving and disseminating Mexican culture. It fosters research to deepen the knowledge of Mexico’s history and artistic heritage.
Popular Art Support Program
This program was established in 1996 to promote and strengthen artisan creation in Mexico.
Its objectives have been consolidated through the delivery of economic recognitions, the creation of workshops of different specialties, the presentation of exhibitions, the publication of books, and the broader commercialization of handicraft production.
This program is a milestone in its field and is currently considered a national and international benchmark for supporting popular art. With a long-range objective, it has impacted several rural communities and benefits more than 1,800 families of popular artists from 9 different branches, covering the 45 most important specialties in the Mexican Republic.
The program has a select group of artisans, from whom some of their pieces have been acquired and are now part of the Fomento Cultural Banamex collection. It has also contributed to the improvement of their workshops' operations, thereby strengthening and enhancing the quality of life and ensuring the transmission of knowledge and craft traditions between generations.
The Great Masters of Folk Art Project has been a success in the country because it raised awareness about the importance of addressing the issue and emphasized the notion of art, without prefixes or suffixes. It gave names and surnames to the Great Masters and encouraged the generation of new development schemes.
The Great Masters are distinguished by the mastery of their art, which enhances their originality and gives value to each piece. The solidity of their tradition, far from detracting from their character, enlivens a process that never changes or abandons its aesthetic sense. Popular art endures, and these creators are the owners of art in motion, of a mastery that flows and is passed on to the next generations.
