Leaving Centro Cultural de Santo Domingo [1], step across Alcalá, a few doors uphill, into the rust-colored old building now tastefully restored as the museum of the Instituto de Artes Gráficos de Oaxaca (tel. 951/516-6980, 10 a.m.–8 p.m. daily except Tues.). Inside, displays exhibit mostly contemporary etchings, wood-block prints, and paintings by artists of both national and international renown. Exhibits change approximately monthly.
Head west one block (along the Plazuela del Carmen, off Alcalá across from the museum) to the Casa de Juárez museum (609 Garcia Vigil, tel. 951/516-1860, 10 a.m.–7 p.m., closed Mon.). The modest but beautifully restored house was the home of Juárez’s benefactor, priest, and bookbinder Father Antonio Salanueva. Rooms decorated with homey mid-19th-century furnishings realistically illustrate the life and times of a man as revered in Mexico as his contemporary, Abraham Lincoln, north of the border.
Later, if you have time, return to the Santo Domingo church plaza [1] and continue east past the church along Constitución to the new Museo Philatelica de Oaxaca (Reforma 504, just uphill from the corner of Constitución, tel. 951/514-2366, 10 a.m.–8 p.m. daily except Mon.). Inside, showcases display the noted collection of José Cosino y Cosio—a library of international postal paraphernalia. Planners project that the museum’s collection, of mostly Mexican and Oaxacan postage stamps, will grow steadily during succeeding decades.
Return a block and a half down Reforma and turn right at Abasolo, which, past Alcalá, becomes M. Bravo. Continue a block to the Centro de Fotografía Manuel Alvarez Bravo (M. Bravo 116, corner of Garcia Vigil, tel. 951/516-9800, 9 a.m.–3 p.m., 5–8 p.m. daily except Tues.). Here, galleries display the work of both locally prominent and internationally acclaimed photographers, while instructors in classrooms conduct photography classes for children, adult beginners, and professionals.
Back downhill, at the north edge of the zócalo, [2] at the corner of Independencia and Garcia Vigil, stands a regally restored colonial-era house, formerly the Oaxaca state tourism headquarters, now home to the Museo de los Pintores Oaxaqueños (Museum of Oaxacan Painters, tel. 951/516-5645, 10 a.m.–8 p.m. daily except Mon.). It houses an eclectic, revolving collection of modern art, sometimes primitive, sometimes erotic, and mostly abstract, on two floors around a central patio.
The house itself, built in 1695, has gone through several transformations: first a girl’s school, then, in succession, the Manuel Fiallo family home, a regional museum, city hall, and finally the Oaxaca Turismo (Tourism Secretariat) for several years before its 2004–2005 restoration to its austerely noble present incarnation. Presently Turismo maintains a tourist information desk, to the left as you enter the museum.
Links:
[1] http://www.moon.com/destinations/oaxaca/oaxaca-city/sights/andador-de-macedonio-alcala/centro-cultural-de-santo-domingo
[2] http://www.moon.com/destinations/oaxaca/oaxaca-city/sights/andador-de-macedonio-alcala