Galería de Arte Infantil, Casa Paoli
What is the Casa Paoli ?
This elegant and stately 19th century building, located in the scenic city of Ponce, Puerto Rico, is the restored residence of the great Puerto Rican tenor Antonio Paoli, "the tenor of kings and the king of tenors"—in his time, an artist admired around the world.
The historic building is part of the cultural heritage of Puerto Rico and is one of the most important places to visit in the southwestern area of the island. It was the birthplace of tenor Antonio Paoli (1871–1946), an artist recognized as the "first Puerto Rican to achieve international recognition in the performing arts" and "one of the most outstanding opera singers of all time." Casa Paoli was the artist's home as a child, and the place where he lived with his family until he was twelve years old.
After its restoration in1987, the building was transformed into a house-museum to honor his memory. It also became the home of the Puerto Rican Center for Folkloric Research.
In 2009, it was accepted into the National Register of Historic Places. The maintenance and restoration of this great site has been the arduous work of a small group of citizens that are proud of the musical and folkloric legacy of their country. They have managed to create an impressive cultural center, home to not only several fascinating exhibitions, workshops and public activities, but also replete with historical archives that have formed the basis of numerous important publications on the life and work of great island artists, and on the island's musical genres and folklore.
Casa Paoli currently houses the Puerto Rican Folkloric Research Center, Inc. [Centro de Investigaciones Folklóricas de Puerto Rico, Inc.] and a regional center of the Puerto Rican Foundation for the Humanities. It is sponsored by the Flamboyán Fund for the Arts.
Hear a décima sung by troubadour, Cándida Colón from Villalba, Puerto Rico. The décimas poetry extols the value and importance of the Casa Paoli to Puerto RIcan culture.
"The Center has distinguished itself by creating and implementing highly effective innovative projects. Likewise, it has been characterized for the promotion of research and study in neglected or under-served areas, serving as a forum for groups that do not have the support from other institutions. " La Perla del Sur Newspaper 2/6/2013
Current activities
Click on each topic to receive more information
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We have just completed our first ebook on aspects of music and musical instruments of Puerto Rico
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Presentation and distribution of a new method of Jazz theory for the cuatro Puerto Rican
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Driving the activities of a commemorative commission of the sesquicentennial of the abolition of slavery in Puerto Rico
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Project Rescue from Oblivion: recreating missing Caribbean musical instruments.
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Establishment of a virtual store of publications of the Center online
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Diffusion of our new video documentary of the history of the Puerto Rican tiple
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Dissemination of our new video-manual of the construction of a Puerto Rican tiple
In focus:
Apertura Exposiciòn Fotográfica
Cuerpo de agua
de Reynaldo J. Hernández
En conmemoración de los 50 años de la Casa Paoli
SABADO 26 DE ABRIL DE 2025
4 PM
CASA PAOLI
2648 CALLE MAYOR
PONCE PR
Nueva publicación del Centro
Insularismo de antonio S. Pedreida:
el investigador y el artista
Insularismo nació sobre el terreno de un minucioso proceso de investigación acompañado de amplias y continuas lecturas, así como de contactos y actividades grupales de búsqueda y de discusión. También fue resultado de una perseverante voluntad artística. Pedreira no solamente elaboró múltiples metáforas de poderosa efectividad, sino que las organizó en una estructura literaria que proyecta la impresión de ser una fuente inagotable. Si bien sus ensayos fueron cuidadosamente construidos, con una unidad propia y un perfil estilístico maduro, deben estudiarse como parte del abarcador movimiento intelectual de Pedreira, inmerso en una sociedad en profunda crisis. Respondieron a un impresionante despliegue de búsqueda y forcejeo por superar la relación de subordinación colonial. Insularismo fue un hito destacado en ese complicado camino. Es un texto con un entramado tropológico capaz de hablar en múltiples niveles.
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Nueva publicación del Centro
Brujería y hechicería en el Caribe hispano, siglo XVII es el segundo volumen de la serie Inquisición e imaginario. Esta antología de veintiún ensayos gira alrededor de los procesos inquisitoriales en el Caribe hispano y los imaginarios que desde allí se exploran y analizan. Los temas principales son las artes mágicas en su diversidad de prácticas, los procesos inquisitoriales en Cartagena de Indias, la literatura inquisitorial, el demonismo como fenómeno histórico y la caza de brujas. Se conocerán diversos personajes históricos como el inquisidor Alonso Manso, la mulata puertorriqueña Ana de Mena, la portuguesa Isabel Noble, la mulata Bárbola, de Arbornoz la criolla Lorenzana de Acereto y el negro Antón Carabali, entre otros.
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PABLO L. CRESPO VARGAS (1974) natural de Lajas, Puerto Rico; PhD. en Historia de América de la Universidad Interamericana de Puerto Rico, Recinto Metropolitano. Tiene experiencia como educador a nivel secundario y universitario y en creación de contenido virtual. Sus líneas de investigación son el imaginario cultural y religioso, la microhistoria, el desarrollo de la educación, la historia militar, la inquisición y las artes mágicas como fenómeno histórico. Crespo Vargas es autor de una variedad de obras y es el editor del blog y proyecto editorial Akelarre: Historia y ficción.
Nueva publicación del Centro
Este libro que publica Casa Paoli del Centro de Investigaciones Folklóricas de Puerto Rico, gracias a la colaboración de un grupo de investigadores y estudiosos de nuestra memoria histórica, es parte de los esfuerzos de un grupo de líderes, artistas, músicos y humanistas que organizaron una Comisión Conmemorativa del Sesquicentenario de la Abolición de la Esclavitud en Puerto Rico (1873-2023).
La obra consiste en cinco ensayos históricos que trazan el devenir de la esclavitud, el colonialismo y el racismo en Puerto Rico:
1) Pasado y presente de la Abolición de la esclavitud en su 150 Aniversario, por Francisco Moscoso, constituye la conferencia magistral del Sesquicentenario de la Abolición de la Esclavitud. 2) El camino hacia la abolición en Puerto Rico, por Juan R. González Mendoza, nos recuerda el dictamen de que el final de la esclavitud fue un proceso prolongado y complejo.
3) El Parque de la Abolición ponceño: Entre la visibilidad monumental del abolicionismo y el desvanecimiento de la memoria del pasado esclavista, de la fenecida historiadora Marta M. Flores Collazo, analiza la función de un monumento o “lugar de memoria” de la abolición en la ciudad de Ponce a fines del siglo XIX.
4) Esclavitud, servidumbre y libertos en Puerto Rico en la segunda mitad del siglo XIX: Dinámica y cotidianidad de la esclavitud pre-abolición y negociaciones de los libertos durante la pos-abolición, por Raúl Mayo Santana, resalta la necesidad de comprender la fenomenología de la estructura del sistema esclavista y la vida de las personas esclavas y libertas.
5) Liberto Refusal Strategies in Response to the Post-Abolition Contract Mandate (1873-1876), por Daniel Morales-Armstrong, trata sobre las estrategias de luchas y resistencias de los libertos a lo largo de la costa sur de la colonia.
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New Center publication
CASA PAOLI STARTS NEW SERIES OF PUBLICATIONS ABOUT THE MUSIC AND MUSICIANS OF PUERTO RICO
In its efforts to continue contributing to the dissemination and enrichment of our cultural values, the Casa Paoli of the Folklore Research Center of Puerto Rico, Inc. has begun the publication of a series of books inspired by musicians and their work throughout history. musical of our country.
The first volume, now available in bookstores under the suggestive title of Puerto Rico Musical under the authorship, editing or supervision of the retired university professor, the historian Néstor Murray-Irizarry, aims to continue providing new titles to the private, public and private libraries of the nation.
The first volume contains articles and essays that Professor Murray-Irizarry wanted to leave on the table dedicated to: the Synopsis on the development of musical hobby in Puerto Rico; Juan Morel Campos with the collaboration of Rossana Duchesne; Federico Ramos Escalera; Simon Wood; Antonio Paoli and Marcano; Domingo Cruz (Cocolía); Juan Narciso Ríos Rodríguez; Elio Adriano Llorens Rivero; Juan Ríos Ovalle; Julio Alvarado Tricoche; Mercedes Arias; Francisco (Paco) Cortes González; From hymns and other memories and Praise to our traditional musical instruments
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Casa Paoli
starts a traveling exhibition
of ancient Puerto Rican musical instrument replicas
Replicas of an antique cuatro and a small 19th century bordonúa recreated by artisan William Cumpiano for the Casa Paoli collection of native instruments
Recently the Puerto Rico Folkloric Research Center, Inc. at Casa Paoli inaugurated the first phase of a series of events related to the traveling exhibition of replicas of ancient musical instruments of Puerto Rico, titled "Rescue from Oblivion." The first exhibit stop opened at the library of the Ponce Art Museum. The exhibition includes the exhibition of several replicas - cuatros, tiples dolientes, tiples requintos and mandonuas - of the traditional musical instruments of our country that in 1888 were taken from Puerto Rico to Germany and in 1898 to Washington. For more informationClick here.
Additional features
RESCUE FROM OBLIVION
It is our effort to bring to public view the traditional musical instruments of the past that have disappeared from the sight and memory of the peoples of the Caribbean. Three experts in performance, craftsmanship, and musical history have dedicated themselves to discovering and creating replicas of lost and forgotten instruments once heard in many of the country's cities and fields, as well as undertaking the effort to recreate the music and the technique of execution of said instruments.
Commemorative commission
celebrating the Sesquicentennial of
the Abolition of Slavery
in Puerto Rico (1873-2023)
The Center has brought together a group of leaders, artists, musicians, humanists and scholars in a Commemorative Commission of the Sesquicentennial of the Abolition of Slavery in Puerto Rico. The Commission has created a work plan that includes talks, concerts, seminars, exhibitions, publications, symposiums on the contribution of Afro-descendant Puerto Ricans to the arts, education, the economy, historical research, cinema, radio, television, politics, literature and other fields of knowledge.
Upcoming Workshops
Since its founding, the Center has been dedicated to researching, enriching and disseminating Puerto Rican cultural values. The sheer number of events and editions carried out by the Center bear this out. One of our most important objectives is to raise awareness and provide our youths and adults with the opportunity to learn to build the traditional instruments of our country. Currently, the Center organizes the William Cumpiano Workshop at the facilities of our headquarters in Ponce; where with the support of the Flamboyán Fund for the Arts, workshops will be offered, in face-to-face or virtual form, in instrument-making, screen printing and engraving on wood and linoleum.
Antonio Paoli and Family
Casa Paoli, the headquarters of the Centro de Investigaciones Folklóricas de Puerto Rico, Inc., is a historic building that is part of the Historic Zone of Ponce. It is the place where Antonio Paoli (1871-1946) was born and lived until the age of twelve; the great tenor who was "the first Puerto Rican to achieve international recognition in the performing arts" and "one of the most outstanding opera singers of all time." View out page dedicated to Antonio Paoli by clicking on his image above.
Large commemorative banner created for the Center
A large educational banner commemorating the sesquicentennial (150 years) of the abolition of slavery in Puerto Rico has been created for the Center by the renowned New York visual artist Perla de Leon, a work that will be installed on a wall in view of a of the main streets of the city of Ponce, Puerto Rico. The banner displays for city passersby a list of the most important dates in the history of slavery and its abolition in Puerto Rico, along with old important documents related to slavery and faces of twenty prominent Puerto Ricans of African descent.
LISTEN TO OUR DIRECTOR explaining the reasons for the creation of the commission during a recent radio interview on WPAB Radio 550 Ponce