Teresa Morales

Teresa Morales has been a professor and researcher at the National Institute of Anthropology (Mexico) since 1981 and also works as consultant of the Union of Community Museums of Oaxaca, the National Union of Community Museums and Ecomuseums of Mexico and the Network of Community Museums of America. Morales studied Anthropology at Dartmouth College, (USA) and Mexican History at the Autonomous National University of Mexico. Her main interest is development and clarification of the concept and practice of community museums, and the expansion of networks between community-based organizations. Recently and thanks to her innovative work at Museums in Mexico, she received the Prize of the Hans Manneby Memorial Fund 2010. In the same year she was a guest speaker for the panel discussion Cultural Heritage and Shared Knowledge, realized in cooperation with Framer Framed, Arts Collaboratory and Reinwardt Academy.

Since 1985 Teresa Morales and Cuauhtemoc Camarena, her husband, have been actively supporting rural indigenous communities of the southern state of Oaxaca, Mexico, in the creation and development of community museums. Throughout the years, fourteen museums in Mixteco, Zapoteco, Chocholteco, and Mestizo communities have opened their doors to the public. The state association of community museums de Oaxaca, has developed a training center, a cooperative for community tourism, and a dynamic exchange program with other community museums throughout Mexico and tribal museums in Arizona. The association has also worked in Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Venezuela, Ecuador, and Bolivia, where communities are creating and strengthening their museums.