Centro Nacional de Arte y Cultura
El Centro Nacional de Arte y Cultura, or National Center of Art and Culture, of San Jose, is located on Calle 15, between Parque Espana and Parque Nacional. This building used to be the old Costa Rican liquor factory, otherwise known as la Antigua FANAL. Today this one block large building has been transformed into a large performing arts campus featuring the finest local dance, art, and theatre. Here you will find the Ministry of Culture as well as the MADC, or Contemporary Art and Design Museum. Be sure to save plenty of time to see all that this museum has to offer, typically taking around two hours to fully tour.
Inside you will see several rotating exhibits by various celebrated Costa Rican artists, attracting many locals and tourists alike daily. There are many daily theatre performances within this complex, though most if not all of the performances shown here are strictly presented in Spanish. See samples of national and international plastic in the contemporary art museum, dance rituals in Fanal theater, and various cultural and artistic local events within the outside plaza and amphitheater. Be sure to invest some time into learning more about the building itself, first created in 1853 as the 14,000 square meter factory mentioned before and today holding its weight as a celebrated colonial style design. The simplicity of lines and distribution of internal spaces make this place special, as do the internal artifacts and local educational opportunities found within.
