Founded in 1984, the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Puerto Rico (MAC) was born out of the will of Puerto Rican artists and cultural workers who recognized the urgency to create an alternate model for exhibiting contemporary art and its issues. The MAC is the only institution in the island expressly dedicated to the study, collection, preservation, exhibition and promotion of art produced since the mid-20th century in Puerto Rico, the Caribbean, Latin America, and its diasporas. It fosters an open view of contemporary art within the Puerto Rican context by encouraging a constant dialogue between artists and audiences, and among art practice, theory and criticism, through innovative curatorial strategies that make the Museum’s cultural diversity, its exhibitions, activities, and its historical building, available to all types of audiences.

The Permanent Collection, comprised of approximately 1,200 artworks, is one of the institution's main resources for educating the community about contemporary culture. The Museum has a rich temporary exhibition program, which is benefitted by both off site and on site commissions of new work through its programs MAC en el Barrio and Taller Vivo, respectively. MAC conceives itself as a hybrid institution: a space of production and creation as well as of research and conservation. These programs have provided professional development opportunities for artists and produced important visual arts, performance, dance, sound art, theatre, music and literature projects, broadening the Museum’s reach as an observatory and catalyst of new and interdisciplinary aesthetics.

In every instance of the Museum’s work toward fulfilling its mission, we are proud to recognize and reinforce the bonds of culture between and among the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean basin, as well as the Latinx communities and the Puerto Rican diaspora in the United States. The MAC is unique among local cultural institutions in its commitment to cultural equity and its firm belief in the power of arts and culture as tools for social and urban transformation. We are pleased to fill this particular space, and that this contextualization furthers the understanding and appreciation of contemporary art from a multiplicity of perspectives that converge in Puerto Rico.