National Gallery of Art

The Honduran National Gallery of Art (Spanish: Galeria Nacional de Arte, GNA) is an art museum in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. It serves as the repository for the national artistic heritage, with a mission to strengthen national identity and citizenship through the revaluation of artistic and patrimonial works. The institution is open to the public and recorded 40,000 monthly visitors as of 2019.

The Foundation for Arts and Culture (Spanish: Fundacion Pro Arte y Cultura, also called Fundarte) established the gallery, which first opened to the public on 31 July 1996. In 2012, the institution underwent a renovation with the support of the IHAH and the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Honduras, reopening in 2013. The gallery has experienced multiple relocations. It originally opened in the Convento La Merced in Tegucigalpa, then moved to Comayagua in June 2013, occupying the historic Caxa Real building. The Comayagua location closed in March 2015, and the gallery returned to Tegucigalpa, ultimately settling in the Correo Nacional de Honduras building in 2017. A branch in San Pedro Sula opened on 16 July 2015. Additionally, a space named Tres Salas Tres Generaciones opened in Tegucigalpa on 26 November 2016.

The collection encompasses a broad historical span of Honduran artistic creation. It stores, preserves, and displays rock art, pre-Columbian sculpture and ceramics, colonial art, and contemporary works. The museum is organized into several distinct spaces. These include a sculpture room, the Maestro Ruiz Matute room, a room exhibiting silver coins, a portrait room, and temporary exhibition rooms. Additionally, the institution maintains a pinacoteca, a dedicated space where paintings are preserved when not on public display.

A prominent feature of the museum is its sculpture garden, named Jardin Escultorico de mi Pais, which opened on 26 October 2017. This outdoor space displays works by 25 national sculptors, representing a significant dedicated holding of Honduran sculptural art within the institution.

The museum has occupied several historically significant buildings. From June 2013 to March 2015, it was housed in the colonial Caxa Real building in Comayagua. Built between 1739 and 1741 by Baltazar Maradiaga under the governance of Don Pedro de Rivera Villalon, the building features an inscription documenting its original construction as a royal treasury. The structure suffered severe earthquake damage in 1809 and a destructive fire in 1840, subsequently serving as the Casa de Gobierno before being reconstructed in 2013 to house the gallery. Its current site is the Edificio del Correo Nacional de Honduras in Tegucigalpa, which the museum moved to in 2017.

The gallery is located in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, and operates a branch in San Pedro Sula. It is open to the general public and allocates its budget toward sponsorship programs that allow children from low-income and high social risk backgrounds to visit. In 2013, the museum recorded 20,000 visits, 5,000 of which were sponsored through these programs, supported by private enterprise and committed citizens. Further information is available on the institution's website.