Baja California Sur Community-Based Opportunities and Needs: Arts and Culture

ARTS AND CULTURE - Key Findings

Museums/Cultural Centers

With a total of ten museums, Baja California Sur is considered one of the states in Mexico with the least number of museums, together with Quintana Roo (11) and Campeche (5).[1] However, the national mean of inhabitants per museum is 92,139 while in Baja California Sur it is 42,404[2] inhabitants per museum. Using the criteria of population per facility, Baja California Sur appears to be relatively well off. Thirty out of the thirty-two state capital cities in Mexico have four or more museums;[3] La Paz has six, plus it enjoys more museums than all other cities in the state.

One of the main challenges for museums in Baja California Sur is a lack of financial resources for the conservation, restoration, and acquisition of collections and individual pieces. Hurricanes have caused severe damage to buildings, as well as to collections. In addition, access to museums is difficult for those in rural areas; extension services and traveling exhibits would be welcome for these audiences.[4]

In addition to museums, Mexico has close to 1,600 cultural houses and cultural centers, managed and funded by both public and private institutions. These institutions are dedicated to cultural dissemination, informal art education, cultural promoter training, and art workshops for students of all levels.[5] Activities include regular and summer workshops, festivals, “Thursdays for Children” book readings, tele-classroom courses, concerts, and shows. At the state Culture House in Baja California Sur, over 15,000 people took advantage of these programs during 2003.[6]

Figure 9: List of Museums in Baja California Sur

Museum	Location	What’s in it?
Regional Museum of Anthropology and History (INAH)	La Paz	History of the state from pre-Columbian times to the first decades of the 20^th Century.
Natural History Museum (UABCS)	La Paz	Geology, paleo-botany local wildlife, plus an exhibit on paleo-anthropology containing replicas of skulls of hominids.
Regional Museum of Telecommunications	La Paz	Communication, radio and television devices from 1929 to the present day.
Music Museum	El Triunfo	History of music in Baja California Sur. Housed in a renovated 19^th century building with musical objects and instruments that belonged to famous musicians.
Community Whale Museum	La Paz	57 works of art; also contains the conserved skeletons of a gray whale and a fin-back whale, the only one in Mexico.
Museum of Jesuit Missions (INAH)	Loreto	History of Jesuit-built missions in Californian territory in the 17^th and 18^th centuries.
Unit of INAH services	Mulegé	Mining history of Santa Rosalía located in the former Boleo mining headquarters.
Museum on cave painting (INAH)	San Francisco de la Sierra	Samples of cave art of the Sierra de San Francisco and information about the sierra region.
Museum of the Californias	Cabo San Lucas	History of pre-Columbian and mission times, with artifacts from the Cape region.
Community Museum	Todos Santos	History of pre-Columbian, mission, and revolution eras for Todos Santos.

Baja California Sur has 18 cultural houses and is considered one of the best-equipped states in Mexico. The municipal distribution is as follows: La Paz (6), Los Cabos (4), Loreto (1), Mulegé (5), and Comondú (2). Despite the fact that there are adequate facilities, most of them do not have sufficient financial resources to provide quality cultural services. Increases in wages and training might provide incentives for qualified artists to bring their talents to the staff.

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[1] Atlas de Infraestructura Cultural, Op. Cit. p, 137

[2] This figure was calculated from the total population figures for Baja California Sur for 2000. Anuario Estadístico, Edición 2003, Baja California Sur, INEGI-Gob. del Estado de Baja California Sur. México, 2003, p. 43.

[3] Atlas de Infraestructura Cultural, CONACULTA, Mexico, 2003, p. 137.

[4] Gob. Del Estado de BCS, Programa Estratégico de Ordenamiento Territorial [Strategic Program of Territorial Management] (PEOT), preliminary digital version, p.90.

[5] Atlas de Infraestructura Cultural, Op. Cit,, p. 131.

[6] Instituto Sudcaliforniano de Cultura.