• SUPPORTING
    MEXICAN FOLK ART

    Photograph of a bright and colorfully painted Mexican folk art wood carving of an armadillo.

Our Mission

The mission of Los Amigos del Arte Popular (LADAP) is to promote an appreciation for Mexican folk art.

LADAP has two primary purposes: To support the continued existence of the folk art of Mexico and to promote these arts by creating and nurturing an appreciative audience interested in learning about and buying exciting and exquisite creations of arte popular.

How we Help Preserve Mexican Folk Art.

Los Amigos del Arte Popular (LADAP) is an international, not for profit 501(c)3 organization comprised of collectors, dealers, aficionados and friends of the folk arts of Mexico.  LADAP began for two primary reasons:

•  To help support the continuing existence of the folk arts in Mexico

•  To promote these arts by fostering an appreciative audience interested in supporting the artists, the artistic communities, encouraging the continuation and development of Mexican folk arts and, of course, buying the fantastic and beautiful creations made by Mexican folk artists.

Mexico is one of the few countries in the world into which the arts, and particularly the folk arts, are hard wired into the cultural DNA of the country and provide part of the foundation for Mexico’s cultural identity. Art does not exist in a vacuum and folk art is no exception. It depends upon the artists’ creative vision of their life and the world around them. Lack of resources, lack of generational training, lack of interest and time often conspire to put the arts at risk for extinction. It is LADAP’s mission to support and promote the folk arts and artists of Mexico so that they and their art can thrive.

Los Amigos provides support through:

•  Membership

•  Custom, members-only travel

•  Grants that promote and preserve Mexican folk arts

Our reasonable membership dues, plus the fees from our custom travel program provide the funds for our grant program. We invite you to become a member of Los Amigos del Arte Popular. Travel with us to meet artisans in their homes and studios, see and buy their work, experience festivals, museums and private art collections in homes and estates. Our trips explore the diverse food, culture and arts of Mexico and highlight artisanal expositions in the United States. Our membership and travel programs support the grant program, but they also bring you the life, color and vibrancy of Mexico and it’s artistic soul.

“It is my belief that while the high level of culture of any country can be found in its fine arts, it is also vital that we should be able to examine and enjoy the proofs of the culture of the great mass of the people, which we call folk art. The former are made by a few for the few, but the latter, made by the many for many, are a truer test. The quality of the life of the people of that country as a whole can best be judged by the folkcrafts.”

THE UNKNOWN CRAFTSMAN – A Japanese Insight into Beauty, Sōetsu Yanagi, Kodansha International, New York, 1989

Who We Are

Los Amigos del Arte Popular is an international 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization. We are a like-minded group of collectors, aficionados, friends, and dealers of Mexican folk art.

LADAP was founded in Southern California in 1996 by a group of friends who all shared a common interest in the folk art of Mexico. In 2003 they joined forces with a group from Houston that was also dedicated to Mexican folk art. Today Los Amigos numbers 350 members who are located in 23 states, Mexico, and the UK.

Image of three small, and colorfully painted, Mexican folk art wood carvings of the Three Wise Men who brought gifts to Jesus after he was born.