The National Hispanic Cultural Center (NHCC) is devoted to the preservation, promotion and advancement of Hispanic culture, arts and humanities, and the NHCC Foundation is devoted to raising funds in support of the NHCC. The NHCC is a division of the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA) and NHCCF is a 501(c)(3) non-profit. The NHCC achieves its mission through the presentation of visual arts, performing arts, and history and literary arts programming in its Art Museum, three theatres, a library, an educational facility, and the outdoor spaces on its 20-acre campus. In total, the NHCC serves over 280,000 people, primarily through its exhibits and 730 events each year. These exhibits include visual arts exhibitions of all mediums, history exhibitions, and community exhibitions. The events range from musical, dance, and theatre performances to book readings, lectures, films, workshops, community gatherings and outdoor festivals. Opened in October 2000, the NHCC is the only institution of its kind nationally – given the breadth of the cultures it includes within its mission, the disciplines through which it explores cultural heritage, the physical footprint of its campus, and the funding sources it draws from. The NHCC has also very recently become the most visited New Mexico State museum and is very likely also the most visited Museum/Cultural Center dedicated to Hispanic art in the nation (by way of comparison to the NHCC’s 280,000 visitors a year, Chicago’s National Museum of Mexican Art attracts approximately 160,000 visitors and New York City’s Museo del Barrio attracts approximately 200,000 visitors).
