The House of Art in Ciudad Victoria, Tamaulipas, Mexico
This beautiful cultural precinct offers workshops for children, youth, adults, seniors and people with disabilities, in the disciplines of visual arts, dance, music, literature and theater.
The Normal and Preparatory School was housed in a stunning brick building to the east of the Museum of Archaeology, Anthropology, and State History that was constructed at the turn of the century. This institution enjoyed solid prestige, served as the forerunner of higher education in Tamaulipas, and produced many notable men and women.
The thick "T"-shaped building, which has neoclassical influences, has a portico with four columns and a tiny central frontispiece that serves as a finial and is embellished with a medallion in bas-relief on its main façade.
Inside, the building is distributed around a large courtyard with wide corridors on each side, supported by embroidered brick columns and with finials. Its ceilings are made of concave, corrugated iron soffits, fashionable at the time, from which opaque spherical lamps hang.
Governor Treviño Zapata, who was one of Tamaulipas' most famous politicians in the latter part of the 20th century and one of its most charismatic governors, spearheaded the construction of the building, which now serves as the city's emblem and the headquarters of the Casa del Arte - House of Art.
