Yanireth Israde/Reform Agency
Monday, February 13, 2023 | 06:44
Mexico City.- The National Fund for the Promotion of Handicrafts (Fonart) does not have its own collection, a condition that the agency plans to compensate through a mechanism, still in process, for the acquisition of traditional art, said Emma Yanes Rizo, head of the institution. .
In an interview, the official explained that Fonart, a public trust fund of the Federal Government sectored in the Ministry of Culture (SC), has been working on the aforementioned scheme since last year, from which it would have a specific budget item for this purpose.
“We are already starting the procedures to be able to do it. The very nature of the trust does not have that power, so to speak, so the pertinent procedure must be carried out so that we can have a collection.
“We have a small collection, but it is part of the same thing that is in the store,” said the art historian.
As the governing body of the activity in the sector, Fonart accompanies the artisans of the Country, from the production to the commercialization of their work, in addition to organizing or collaborating in contests -national, state and municipal-, from which arise pieces that make up recognized collections, recalled Yanes Rizo.
“Many of those who acquire the pieces from the contests organized by Fonart are collectors, for example the Banamex Foundation.
“In general, I believe that little has been purchased in public museums. And I believe that these public museums would have to have a larger budget to acquire traditional works of art. It is a subject that we would like to reinforce,” explained the specialist in viceroyalty ceramics and in Talavera from Puebla.
What it is about is reflecting the prolific craft creation in Mexico, not so present, however, in the country’s public museums, contrasted the also researcher, interviewed by REFORMA in the framework of the Identity Mirror exhibition, at the Museum Nacional de Culturas Populares, which brings together some 300 works, several of them utilitarian.
This sample, to mention a case, is an example of such diversity.
A collection sponsored by Fonart would result in greater visibility and mobility for the country’s traditional art, pondered Yanes Rizo.
“If we are, at the Federal level, the instance of support for the artisanal sector, and we are the ones who generate the national contests -hand in hand with Fomento Cultural Banamex-, it would be very enriching to have the collection as a reflection of that same effort, and it would allow us, with other instances of the Federal Government, make common exhibitions or lend the work, among other activities.
“It is a task that we have pending, because the collections that already exist at the level of government instances in the different states, and in particular in Anthropology (INAH), in the INPI (National Institute of Indigenous Peoples) and in (the Directorate General of) Popular Cultures (Indigenous and Urban of the SC), are extraordinary,” he acknowledged.
They ‘get on’ the Mayan Train
Among other projects, this year Fonart will continue with the projection of artisan corridors on the Mayan Train route, said Yanes Rizo.
The Mexican southeast, highlighted the director of the Fund, is one of the regions with the greatest artisan diversity due to the multiplicity of indigenous communities and original peoples that it congregates, and the variety of raw materials for the elaboration of artisan objects.
In addition to stores in the different railway stations and corridors focused on the sector, Fonart has proposed that part of the inputs of the stations themselves and of the train itself be provided by artisans from the region, for example benches, tiles and mirrors.
A growing sector
According to INEGI data, in 2016, the artisan community of the Country contributed 17.8 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the Culture sector and 0.6 percent of the National GDP, a percentage that increased in 2018 to 18.6 and 3.2, respectively.
More than a store
The work of Fonart is not limited to supporting the marketing of artisan products and offering points of sale, but also develops other tasks, expressed in eight programs or aspects:
– Collection of handicrafts
– Craft runners
– Popular art contests
– Comprehensive training
– Strategic craft projects
– Occupational health
– Craft promotion at fairs
– Impossed production
