Richard Holm

MUSAN is an eclectic, interdisciplinary, intergenerational, community-oriented arts space!

• Arts Incubator: An area for artists to experiment with new concepts. A place where new ideas are encouraged and unexpected results are a measure of success!
• Galleries: Main Gallery features major exhibitions with an emphasis on emerging artists. Sala Zulma Santiago features artisan works. Preview Gallery features experimental works by new artists.
• Museums: Museo de los Santos, Ellie Pruess Collection, Oral History Project.

Under one roof, MUSAN preserves the rich traditions and patrimony of Puerto Rican arts – while featuring contemporary artists and providing a laboratory for artistic experimentation.

MUSAN originally began as a new home for Museo de los Santos – a collection of hand-carved ‘santos’ – the traditional folk-art of Puerto Rico.

Founded in 2005, Museo de los Santos became an IRS non-profit corporation in 2018 and was designated by Hacienda de Puerto Rico as a non-profit organization eligible for donations from Law 20/22 and Act 60.

Museo de los Santos Inc purchased a building at 1673 Avenue Ponce de Leon in the Santurce Arts District in 2019 and became a participant in Nuestro Barrio (an initiative of University of Sagrado Corazon to promote the Santurce Cultural District).

During renovation, we met dozens of neighborhood artists.

Based on their feedback, we started to see the project from a new perspective.

Local artists appreciated a new museum, but what they really needed was a space to showcase their work in front of an audience. We spoke to artists, actors, playwrights, dancers, poets, musicians, puppeteers, glass artists, performance artists, comedians, sculptors, makers, designers and more.

Their common plea was ‘please give us space for public exposure, audience feedback and experimentation!’.  

So, we re-thought our idea of a traditional museum and rebranded the project as MUSAN – Museo de los Santos y Arte Nacional.

In our first year we have held several group shows for new artists, individual exhibitions by Kiván Quiñones, Yamileth Flores and Adriana Sybelle plus a major retrospective of the posters of José Rosa.  Workshops have focused on woodcarving, bomba dance, doll-making, musical instruments and crochet as art. For 2024 we will continue to expand our programs and popular Saturday afternoon seminars and book presentation.  

MUSAN has something for everyone to discover and expand their artistic horizons.

Your support will help us expand our opening hours, extend our community outreach, preserve and increase our collection of 'santos' plus encourage young artists, artisans and curators.