Description: The Museum of Spanish Colonial Art is located on museum hill, along with the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture, the Museum of International Folk Art, and the Wheelwright Museum. If you don't have a car there is an M bus that offers transportation from the plaza to Museum hill. Admission to the museum is $6 for out of state or $3 for instate. You can also pay $18 to get a pass for all four museums. The museum was founded by the Spanish Colonial Arts Society and has over 300,000 pieces in their collection.
The exhibition that I was able to see was titled Relicarios: Devotional Miniatures from the Americas. This exhibition featured small transportable reliquaries which were used for devotion and often contained either hair or bones from saints. There was also a new acquisition of Mexican comic books from the 1970s. The variety of work in a smaller museum setting was really quite remarkable. The staff was very friendly and the gift shop had a lot of great local artwork. The museum also does a lot of work with the Spanish Markets held in town. The Spanish Market offers some of the best in traditional handcrafted artwork from local Hispanic artists, live music, art demonstrations, and regional foods. Admission to the market is free and that is a great deal to see the oldest and largest exhibition and sale of Spanish colonial artwork within the United States. For more information about the museum their website is helpful at www.spanishcolonial.org.
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