museo del barro - Guyana

https://www.museodelbarro.org/

Mud Museum
Currently the heritage of the Mud Museum consists of more than 4,000 pieces corresponding to mestizo productions from the 17th century onwards. These works include wood carvings, fabrics, lace, ceramics and goldsmiths. The museum also includes a collection of 300 pieces of pre-Columbian pottery from all over the Americas. 

The collection is constituted on the basis of pieces acquired by Carlos Colombino over twenty-five years. On this basis, the collection grew with the contribution of works donated by Osvaldo Salerno and other individuals and institutions and pieces acquired later with the funds of the Foundation, legal platform of the CAV / MdB.

Originally, the curatorial idea of ​​this collection was aimed at gathering pieces produced exclusively by mestizo folk artists from the 19th century. But, subsequently, under various circumstances, incorporate, in addition, works that make up the antecedents of the popular carvings: those produced by indigenous people in the Jesuit and Franciscan missions and in the so-called Táva, the "peoples of Indians" subject to civil power (centuries XVII to XIX). 

Among the collections that make up its collection, the masks of the Kamba Ra'anga stand out, made between the 19th and 20th centuries, belonging to the festivities of San Baltazar and the Nativity of the Virgin, in the town of Tobatí, and San Pedro and San Pablo, in the town of Altos.

It also highlights the lace cabinet composed of pieces of ñandutí, made with silk and cotton threads, from the 18th century to the present day. 

Among the religious carvings, it is worth mentioning the image of San Andrés (0.80 m high), made of wood. This sculpture, made in the first half of the 18th century, is representative of the work of the Jesuit missionary masters. 

In the religious imagery collection stands out a domestic oratory (2.50 m. X 1.45 m. X 0.50 m.), From the Franciscan workshops of Caazapá of the 18th century.

Since 2008, the Religious Imaginary collection is available to researchers and interested in a reasoned catalog of free access in digital format. Likewise, much of this catalog has been reproduced in paper format, which is free of charge for libraries, institutions and researchers that require it.