Museum of Popular Arts of Paraíba

The Museu de Arte Popular da Paraíba collects and displays the folk art traditions of the Northeast — leather work, embroidery, wooden sculptures, clay figurines, and the famous painted ceramics of the Borborema region. The collection is well-organised and gives a genuine sense of the breadth of northeastern craft traditions, from the finely detailed clay animals and figures to the rough-hewn wooden santos and the intricately patterned hammocks.

The ceramic workshop area sometimes demonstrates traditional techniques, and the gift shop sells genuine pieces at fair prices — far better value and more authentic than tourist markets. The museum is a few minutes' walk from the historic centre and is worth a couple of hours.

things to do museum
A story
The pottery of the Borborema region is technically remarkable — the figurines of Mestre Vitalino from nearby Caruaru, depicting scenes of northeastern rural life with unsettling precision, are now collected internationally. The museum traces this tradition back to its roots in the clay-rich soils of the agreste region, where making figures from clay was a domestic craft long before it became art.