Museo de Artes e Industrias Populares, Pátzcuaro

The museum occupies the former Colegio de San Nicolás Obispo, founded by Vasco de Quiroga as part of his 16th-century program to organize education and craft production among the Purépecha communities of the Lake Pátzcuaro basin, making the building itself a direct artifact of the craft-distribution system the museum's collection documents. Quiroga is credited with assigning specific craft specializations to individual villages around the lake, a system whose legacy still shapes the region's economy, and the museum's galleries trace this heritage through lacquerware, copperwork, ceramics, woodwork, textiles and feather work, presenting both historical pieces and examples of techniques still practiced today. The collection is organized thematically by craft type rather than strictly chronologically, allowing visitors to follow a single tradition, such as maque lacquerware or feather mosaic work, from its colonial-era origins through to contemporary production. A Purépecha troje, a traditional wooden granary-house structure, has been reassembled in the museum's courtyard, giving visitors a full-scale example of vernacular Purépecha architecture alongside the crafts displayed indoors. The former school building's colonial architecture, including its courtyard and surrounding rooms, has been adapted for museum use with attention to preserving original structural elements rather than fully modernizing the interior, meaning the display environment retains a sense of the building's original function. Conservation priorities include the reassembled troje, an organic wood structure requiring ongoing maintenance against weathering, and the museum continues to work with regional artisan cooperatives to acquire contemporary pieces that extend its historical craft narrative into the present.