The Museo Nacional de la Estampa, belong to the network of museums of the National Institute of Fine Arts, is located in Mexico City and its address is established at number 39 of Hidalgo Avenue, Colonia Centro, in the Cuauhtémoc delegation. It is one of the four buildings of great architectural value that are located on the perimeter of the emblematic Plaza de la Santa Veracruz, next to the Franz Mayer Museum, the San Juan de Dios tempo and the parish of Santa Veracruz.
The Museo Nacional de la Estampa celebrated in December of 2016 thirty years of its inauguration and establishment in the building to which it was destined since its origin, in 1986. Its creation was carried out with foundation in the presidential decree and agreement published on 17 December 1986 in the Official Gazette of the Federation and signed by the then holder of the Executive Power, Lic. Miguel de la Madrid Hurtado. It was on that same date that the National Museum of the Estampa opened its doors to the public as a dependency of the National Institute of Fine Arts and Literature, founded with the object of "gathering, conserving, documenting and disseminating, among the population in general, the graphic work of Mexican or foreign artists "
It stands out among the considerations raised in that presidential decree, the convenience of creating this enclosure "for being the genre of the stamp a means of expression that in our country has a defined tradition and great popular acceptance". Since then, the institutional development of the National Museum of the Estampa confirms the validity of its institutional vocation and commitment dedicated to the dissemination and conservation of the patrimonial heritage inscribed in that artistic discipline. A little more than three decades after its foundation, with more than 320 temporary exhibitions held in its exhibition halls and with a collection that integrates more than 12,000 works, this Museum has established itself as a reference space between those national and international institutions that share his vocation dedicated to graphic art.
As part of its museological development, the National Museum of the Estampa has outlined, expanded and put into value, for the enjoyment of the public, different projects and exhibition programs, both temporary and itinerant, according to a wide variety of curatorial axes related to the characteristics and historical and aesthetic guidelines inherent to graphic art: revisions of the Museum's artistic heritage; retrospective presentations of individual and collective artistic careers; promotion of those emerging manifestations that are propositively inscribed in current art trends; linking graphic art with other systems of cultural creation; dissemination of graphic collections belonging to public and private collections; presentation of historical and artistic referents highlighted in the international graphic, among others.
Similarly, other types of platforms have been created or strengthened in its cultural offerings, such as workshops, artistic meetings, concerts, editorial presentations, academic activities and guided visits, actions that have allowed the Museum to increase its activities and strengthen the ties of collaboration with different agents and creators dedicated to graphics.
The vocation of this museum space is dedicated to the collection, preservation, research and dissemination of heritage heritage, national and international, registered in the artistic disciplines of engraving and printing.
The mission of the Museum adheres strictly to that of the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes, in terms of "preserving and disseminating the national heritage, disseminating and promoting the creation of the arts, and promoting artistic education and research, with the participation of the three levels of government and society to improve the quality of life of Mexicans. " In this sense, the institutional mission of this National Museum of the Estampa, since its foundation, maintains its fundamental principles in terms of disseminating the graphic production of Mexican and foreign artists, inside and outside the country, as well as gathering, conserving, investigate and document the work inscribed in this genre of visual arts.
Consolidate and position a referential space in the museum field, nationally and internationally, dedicated to the artistic discipline that gives rise to its vocation, based on the following principles: a) the full recognition that historically holds the Mexican artistic tradition that concerns to the disciplines of engraving and printing; b) the continuous specialization and expansion of public and museum, critical, academic, educational and artistic circuits associated with graphic art; c) technological innovation and the insertion of digital platforms that have marked the diversification of artistic, museum and interpretive strategies; d) the expansion and hybridization of the processes, techniques and creative manifestations that encompasses the development of the graphic at present; and e) the link of the Estampa, as a discipline, with other forms of production, artistic and cultural.
