MADMi is an interactive space that aspires to generate ambitious, relevant projects that foster art-making and creativity, and have a positive impact on the community.
The museum —made possible by the generosity of the Eduardo Méndez Bagur Foundation and Titín Foundation— is housed in the Pink House or “Casa Rosada” at 607 Calle Cuevillas in the Miramar community of San Juan.
MADMi inaugural collective exhibitionFlamboyan Arts Fund
Mission / Vision
MADMi’s mission is to inspire through art and design, with a strong belief that invention, innovation, and creativity are driving forces behind our social well-being.
The curatorial focus of MADMi in the decorative arts, design, and the visual arts stems from the furnishings and objects bequeathed by the owner of the house, Eduardo Méndez Bagur, and the role the house played as a residence and studio for distinguished Puerto Rican artists such as Lorenzo Homar, Juan Ramón Velázquez, Ada Bobonis, Aarón Salabarrías, and Guillermo Calzadilla.
MADMi’s intention is to have a meaningful impact on the visitor experience. Understanding that art and culture stimulate social wellbeing and economic growth, we aspire to generate ambitious and relevant projects that will make a beneficial and quantifiable difference in and around our community.
Modernism: The Permanent CollectionFlamboyan Arts Fund
Modernism: The Permanent Collection
Among the utopian and avant-garde ideas espoused by the philosophies of Modernism (c. 1860–1960) was the conviction that utilitarian objects should be not just practical and functional, but also beautiful.
Drawing inspiration from the purity of geometry and the tendency toward stylization and streamlining, and reasoning that the order imposed by good design was essential for transforming society and bringing about positive social change, designers began to produce objects distinguished by the beauty of their design and manufacture.
MADMi’s permanent collection shows examples of the stylization that characterized the Modernist aesthetic, including work by Puerto Rican designers like Duncan del Toro and Lorenzo Homar.
MADMi commissioned a group of contemporary industrial designers to bring to life three of Duncan del Toro’s designsFlamboyan Arts Fund
Temporary Exhibitions
Since its opening in 2018, MADMi has put forth a strong exhibitions program which includes shows that have celebrated the work of individual artists and designers like Lorenzo Homar, Charles Juhasz Alvarado, and Duncan del Toro, among others.
A collective exhibit showcasing Puerto Rican designFlamboyan Arts Fund
Todxs A Todo. Everyone To Everything.
With this inaugural collective exhibit which showcased Puerto Rican design, MADMi paid homage to the hundredth anniversary of the Bauhaus, a landmark educational institution that emphasized the transformative power of art and design.
MADMi’s mission is to inspire through art and designFlamboyan Arts Fund
Over thirty Puerto Rican artists and designers contributed to Todxs a todo/Everyone to Everything, and in their work one can perceive the influence of the Modernist thinkers, who believed that design could permeate every aspect of our daily lives.
The selection of objects represents the various aesthetic schools that have influenced a new generation of local designers and their use of methods, media, and materials, as well as a wide variety of creative processes, from craft-based to the newest technologies.
DUNCAN DEL TORO: Design - Product - Boricua
This exhibit presented a selection of works illustrating the principles that guided the career of Puerto Rican designer Duncan del Toro.
Duncan del Toro's career was guided by a commitment to helping develop an industry of Puerto Rican design, to using local materials in the manufacture of designed goods, and to forging an aesthetic attuned to the values of life in modern Puerto Rico. Del Toro’s designs —many, perhaps, ideas left unrealized— bear witness to his creativity and ambition.
As part of this exhibition, MADMi commissioned a group of contemporary industrial designers to bring to life three of del Toro’s designs. On the 100th anniversary of his birth, MADMi presented the exhibit Design-Product-Boricua with the aim of giving visibility to his work and his aspiration to bring about a social transformation in Puerto Rico through design.
Exhibition of the work of Puerto Rican designer Nono MaldonadoFlamboyan Arts Fund
Nono Maldonado
Continuing with its commitment to research, exhibit, and foster appreciation for good design and its necessary function in our quality of life, MADMi presented an exhibition of the work of Puerto Rican designer Nono Maldonado.
Exhibition of the work of Puerto Rican designer Nono MaldonadoFlamboyan Arts Fund
After having lived in New York City for many years, Maldonado returned to Puerto Rico in the 1970s.
Since then he has distinguished himself by his contributions to design and the fashion industry, his refined aesthetic, his shops, his elegance, and a philosophy of life dedicated to good taste, with which he has influenced several generations.
Exhibition of the work of Puerto Rican designer Nono MaldonadoFlamboyan Arts Fund
The exhibition celebrated his contributions and introduced him to a new generation, so that his legacy may continue spinning out ideas.
Suzi Ferrer
In 2021, MADMi proudly presented the first retrospective exhibition of American artist Suzi Ferrer (née Susan Nudelman, 1940-2006) which studied the work she produced during her years living in Puerto Rico.
After her arrival on the island in 1965, Ferrer joined the local art scene and took an active part in commercial galleries and local cultural institutions. Despite having a prolific career in Puerto Rico (as reviews in local newspapers, reference books, and catalogs of exhibits attest), Ferrer’s work was largely forgotten when she moved to California in the mid-seventies.
The exhibit proposed a critical analysis of this pioneering artist’s work, which early in her career, in the 1960s, showed a marked influence of ArtBrut, or marginal art. In the 1970s, Ferrer produced her most sophisticated work: immersive, multi-sensory installations that embodied the female experience in the public and private spheres and confronted gender roles, sexual liberation, body politics, and the history of art itself.
Education Program
MADMi’s Education Program offers innovative and accessible experiences that are designed to generate in our visitors a sensibility and awareness as to how art and design inherently improve our quality of life.
Community outreach project: Mira El Gandul 2020Flamboyan Arts Fund
Community outreach project: Mira El Gandul 2020
With a commitment to celebrating creativity as a driving force behind social wellbeing, MADMi strives to generate experiences that take into account the needs our surrounding communities.
Creativity as a driving force behind social wellbeingFlamboyan Arts Fund
In 2020, MADMi dedicated it’s efforts to work with the often overlooked community El Gandul in the Santurce.
With the support of the Flamboyán for the Arts Fund, we invited artist and community leader Edgardo Larregui to head the project we called MIRA EL GANDUL 2020 — “LOOK AT GANDUL 2020” — through which, for a full year, we taught members of the community design and horticultural skills that encouraged talent and stimulated the creation of microbusinesses.
