National Fund for the Development of Arts and Crafts

Loom on display at the Palacio de Deportes for the annual FONART craft exhibition

The Fondo Nacional para el Fomento de las Artesanías or National Fund for the Development of Arts and Crafts (best known as FONART) is a dependence of the Secretariat of Social Development (SEDESOL). It was established in 1974 to promote and protect traditional Mexican handcrafts.[1][2] The agency has four main programs including artisan training, retail selling and the sponsoring of craft competitions as the local, regional and national level.[2] FONART directly helped 26,600 artisans in 2006,[3] but the agency has been criticized for being inefficient and not meeting the demands of national transparency laws.[4][5] Currently, it seeks the capacity to authenticate crafts on a national and international level due to competitions from imitations from Asia.[6]

  1. ^ "What is FONART?". Mexico: FONART. Retrieved June 9, 2010.
  2. ^ a b "FONART home page". Mexico: FONART. Retrieved June 9, 2010.
  3. ^ Monica Mateos-Vega (April 16, 2007). "Fonart, CNCA y Sectur unirán fuerzas en pro del sector artesanal" [FONART does sell, and sells well]. La Jornada (in Spanish). Mexico City. Retrieved June 9, 2010.
  4. ^ Gabriela Jiménez Bernal (December 15, 2003). "FONART sí vende y bien" [FONART does sell, and sells well]. El Universal (in Spanish). Mexico City. Archived from the original on June 15, 2011. Retrieved June 9, 2010.
  5. ^ "Fonart, el menos transparente en internet, califica el IFAI" [FONART, the least transparent in the Internet, judges IFAI]. El Informador (in Spanish). Guadalajara, Mexico. April 26, 2010. Retrieved June 9, 2010.
  6. ^ Malú Cruz Núñez (April 21, 2010). "Propone Fonart registro para proteger artesanías oaxaqueñas" [FONART proposes a registry to protect Oaxacan handcrafts]. Diario PM (in Spanish). Oaxaca. Retrieved June 9, 2010.