Akumal Monkey Mural Arts Festival
Earlier this month, BuyPlaya was among a group of local press and influencers invited to attend the Akumal Monkey mural arts festival at the Akumal Monkey Sanctuary in the Riviera Maya. This was the eighth mural arts festival hosted by Varios Barrios, a social-collaborative group made up of artists and street art activists who are using art and graffiti to transform neighborhoods, and the first mural arts project to take place inside the Akumal Monkey Sanctuary.
The Akumal Monkey Sanctuary is an exotic wildlife rescue center located in the jungle just outside the town of Akumal, about 20 minutes from Playa del Carmen. It's home to spider monkeys, a wide variety of primates, different species of birds, such as the red macaw and African gray parrot, and even zebras and ostriches that were donated by a circus.
The Akumal Monkey mural arts festival featured 18 Mexican and international artists, including artists from Chile, Argentina, and Spain, who worked alongside members of the community to paint a series of colorful large-scale murals along an 800-meter-long wall. The project aimed to create a sense of community through art, culture, nature, collaboration, and coexistence.
The festival, which was open to the public, took place during the first week of April and featured workshops, art exhibits, and lectures. Our group had the unique opportunity to tour the Monkey Sanctuary to see all of the different murals and hear from the artists who created them.
If you’d like to see the murals for yourself, you can visit the Akumal Monkey Sanctuary. Opening hours and visitor information is available on the Akumal Monkey Sanctuary Facebook page. You can also call (984)160-0272 or email them for more information or to arrange a tour.
To learn more this and other mural arts projects in the Riviera Maya, click here to follow Varios Barrios on Facebook.
All photos by Andrea Ruiz Perron, BuyPlaya
To find out about other events just like this one, be sure to check out our Riviera Maya Events Calendar. Just click on each of the individual links to see all of the event details!
Laura Nazimiec moved to Cancun from Philadelphia. A two-week language and culture immersion program in Guatemala led to a year of backpacking in Latin America and ultimately the decision to live abroad. After moving to Mexico, Laura turned her passion for travel into her career as a blogger and social media manager for BuyPlaya Real Estate Advisors. In her free time, she enjoys running and yoga, and she also runs the website FitCancun.com. You can follow her on Twitter @FitCancun