Museo Universitario de Artes Populares María Teresa Pomar

The Museo Universitario de Artes Populares María Teresa Pomar is a museum in the city of Colima, Mexico, dedicated to Mexican handcrafts and folk art, known as artesanía. It is part of the University of Colima and contains one of the most important collections of its kind in Mexico, covering traditions from across the country as well as the artesanía and traditions of the state of Colima. The museum was founded by María Teresa Pomar, a collector and promoter of Mexican folk art, and was subsequently named in her honor.

María Teresa Pomar founded the museum as part of a lifelong career dedicated to the promotion of Mexican artesanía. She began as a collector, gathering pieces from many traditions that filled her home, and she encouraged people to appreciate the traditions behind the objects. She donated items to museums in Mexico and to the Museo de Arte Popular in São Paulo, Brazil. She was one of the founders of the Fondo Nacional para el Fomento de las Artesanías and of POPULART, AC, the organization behind the creation of the Museo de Arte Popular in Mexico City. In 2006, she received the Premio Estatal de Artes Diego Rivera from the state of Colima. Pomar died at the age of 90 in Mexico City in January 2010. The museum has since added her name to its official title. The institution's museographers have included María Teresa Pomar, Imelda de León, Socorro Sánchez Murguía, and José Antonio Enciso Núñez, the current director.

The museum holds one of Mexico's most important collections of handicrafts and folk art. Its holdings include utensils, religious and ceremonial items, and decorative objects. All the major branches of Mexican artesanía are represented: woodworking, textiles and other weaving, leatherworking, paper crafts, ceramics, metalworking, traditional toys, and jewelry making. There are also spaces dedicated to folk paintings, especially those related to Mexico's indigenous groups. The collection covers traditions from all regions of Mexico while also promoting the artesanía and regional traditions of the state of Colima. The handcrafts of Colima were shaped by Spanish colonialism and by crafts from other regions, such as the Talavera pottery tradition of Puebla and the barro negro pottery tradition of Oaxaca, resulting in a wide variety of local products.

The museum's collection is organized into several thematic rooms. The Sala Colima contains costumes, masks, and musical instruments used in dances and processions practiced in the state, including a representation of a traditional wedding from the north of the state and mojigangas used during charreada and bullfight events in Villa de Álvarez. The Sala de la Laca is dedicated to lacquerware, displaying furniture, chests, gourds, and other containers painted with lacquer to protect them from humidity, a tradition extending from Michoacán and Guerrero into Colima, Oaxaca, and Chiapas; it also includes non-lacquered wood items demonstrating the woodworking traditions of the Seris, Tarahumaras, and Nahuas. The Textile Room features rebozo shawls from Santa María del Río in San Luis Potosí, made on backstrap and European pedal looms, many colored with natural dyes and elaborately embroidered. The Sala de Fibras Vegetales focuses on basketry and other objects such as mats and hats made from materials ranging from stiff branches to soft reeds. The largest room displays leatherwork, amate paper, folk art, ceramics from San Bartolo Coyotepec, Metepec, Tonalá, Tlaxcala, Veracruz Veracruz, Guanajuato, Michoacán and other places, traditional toys including Judas figures from the State of Mexico, dolls, miniatures, and metalwork. Works by notable artisans on display include pieces by Guillermo Ríos, Emilio Pinto, Pancho Muñoz, and the Terríquez and Morfín families.

The museum is located north of the historic center of the city of Colima, within a complex called the IUBA, which also houses the Pablo Silva García forum and the Explanada del Artesano at the corner of Gabino Barreda and Manuel Gallardo Zamora streets in the La Atrevida neighborhood. The building was designed by architect Joaquín Vázquez Agraz and modeled after the traditional houses of the city. It is two stories, centered on an open courtyard surrounded by corridors supported by arches, behind which are rooms. The museum's collection is housed in these rooms and corridors, while the courtyard area is furnished with chairs and tables for visitors. On the upper floor, rooms are dedicated to temporary exhibitions of works by artisans, many themed according to the time of year. In 2011, the museum sponsored an exhibit dedicated to marionettes, which have a place in Mexico's tradition of oral storytelling.

The museum is part of the University of Colima and is open to the public. Visiting hours are Tuesday to Sunday from 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. The museum offers a library with books and video related to handcrafts and the traditions of Colima, educational programs, guided tours, and a workshop to make bruñido pottery. There is a gift shop. The museum sponsors events to promote local artisans and works with the university to provide cultural activities in which students can participate for credit, including workshops such as those for producing ceramics given by Guillermo Ríos.