Support for Culture

Folk Art Collection

Corn, the very essence of GRUMA, is closely linked to all that is profoundly Mexican, to Mexican culture and its varied manifestations, including the popular handicrafts that reflect a synthesis of our deepest roots. In support of Mexican handicrafts, from 2001 to 2003 GRUMA financed the Grand Prize of Folk Art organized by the National Folk Art Fund (Fondo Nacional para el Fomento de las Artesanías, or FONART), through the acquisition of the award-winning works.

The works acquired have been assembled in a folk art collection of some 300 pieces, all of them of excellent workmanship and representing the most outstanding expressions of textile art (using both hand and pedal looms), ceramic ware (some examples tracing their origin to pre-Hispanic times), and other techniques that arrived in Mexico through European colonization or that have originated in modern times.

There are also pieces in the collection that exemplify the three kinds of lacquer produced in Mexico: gilt, incrusted, and lined. Metalwork objects include examples of hammered copper and silver. There also examples of tempera painting and works made with feathers, straw, and inlaid wood.

The GRUMA Folk Art Collection allows visitors to appreciate how Mexico's traditional peoples have addressed their clothing and personal adornment needs and how they have made tools for use in the kitchen and the fields, as well as objects for ritual and festive use. Fundación GRUMA has been responsible for safeguarding the collection since its creation.