MAAC — Museum of Anthropology and Contemporary Art

The Museo Antropológico y de Arte Contemporáneo (MAAC) stands on the Malecón near the northern end, a modern building with a long museum strip facing the river. It holds one of Ecuador's most important collections of pre-Columbian artifacts — ceramics, gold work, and stone carvings from the coastal cultures that preceded European contact — alongside a regularly changing programme of contemporary Ecuadorian and Latin American art.

The pre-Columbian collection is the highlight: the coastal cultures of Ecuador — Valdivia, Machalilla, Chorrera, and others — produced remarkable ceramics over thousands of years, and the MAAC has an impressive selection. Allow two hours for both collections. Entry is free or very low-cost.

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The MAAC building, opened in 2005 on the Malecón, was designed to do two things at once: house Ecuador's national collections of pre-Columbian art and provide a major venue for contemporary art exhibitions. The combination is unusual — most countries keep archaeology and contemporary art in separate institutions — but it works, because the juxtaposition of ancient ceramics and modern painting makes you think about the continuities in Ecuadorian visual culture.

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