Merida, Yucatan — A photography exhibit celebrating the Palacio Canton‘s 60 years as a museum is miles away from the famed Paseo de Montejo mansion.
The show, “Heritage and Memories,” is in the contemporary art gallery on the Merida International Airport’s top floor.
The exhibition consists of 61 images that were compiled by Gliserio Castañeda García, an INAH photographer; Miguel Duran, who was a photographer and art director at the museum; visual artist Claudia Vera and Alejandra Tah Medina and Itzel Andrade Diaz, communications specialists; Michael Covián Benites, the museum’s current photographer and art director; and Blanca González Rodríguez, a local INAH researcher.
Airport manager Hector Navarrete Munoz said that museums are “catalysts of tourism, deserving of attention and direct connection with travelers because they are emblematic sites and signs of city identity.”
The Palacio Canton has been featured in the airport gallery numerous times over the last 15 years.
The museum opened in 1959 in the former home of General Francisco Canton Rosado, a former state governor, who built the palace in 1911. The building has also served as a school and library.
First delving into archaeology, the museum later expanded into a regional anthropology museum, and today maintains a schedule of programs to keep the public engaged.
“Today we are a space that has evolved over time, which seeks to be a museum for all,” said the museum’s director, Bernardo Sarvide Primo.
