Mérida’s Macay museum closure announced after 28 years of service

Mérida, Yucatán, (July 29, 2021).- On a sad morning for culture in Yucatán, Rafael Alfonso Pérez, director of the Macay Museum, announced the closure of the museum facilities in the state capital.

This museum was an important cultural venue for all Yucatecans because, in addition to presenting renowned works, it provided workshops and spaces for artistic communities and children’s groups interested in art.

In a brief press conference, the director of Macay announced that the closure is due to a lack of resources and non-compliance of the government with basic support for the artistic community.

The museum, which provides services for free, before the government of Mauricio Vila used to have a budget of 16 million pesos per year but when the current government took office, they cut the budget to 9 million.

In 2020 the budget was cut even more to only 4 million pesos a year, and finally last Tuesday, July 26, they received a call from the current secretariat of culture, which has had changes in its directive, in the call they were informed that there was absolutely no budget for the Macay Museum, so it had to be shut down indefinitely.

Rafael Alonso Pérez said that he receives a lot of support from artistic associations and benefactors, but it is not enough to attend to a property as representative as the one in the historic center.

“Today we close, we thank you, the entire artistic community, and we must know what the strategy will be, given the lack of resources, we will remain closed.”

He indicated that they were trying to generate strategies to be able to solve the problems themselves, however, the lack of budget has forced them to fire personnel who had provided services for years.

In fact, before the coronavirus pandemic, personnel had to be cut at the beginning of 2020, which had to be terminated with the support of a private foundation because the government did not provide the resources to liquidate the personnel either.

Although they hope to have support from the artistic community to demand that the government comply with the agreement, as the museum’s administration they know that they cannot demand too much from the public.

“You cannot demand from citizens when the government in power does not comply with its agreement,” Alfonso Pérez said.

However, there is still hope that the closure of the Macay museum may not be final, as it is expected to reopen once the necessary resources are obtained for its operation.

The Yucatan Times Newsroom