One of the significant addresses in the capital of Uruguay for lovers of art spaces is the National Museum of Visual Arts (Museo Nacional de Artes Visuales), situated in the centre of Montevideo, in a popular park Rodó, just 600 meters away from the city beach Ramírez. 

The establishment was created in 1911 and first, it got a name by the analogy with similar museums in other countries and cities, the Museum of Fine Arts. The first place of residence for the collection happened to be the space of the Solís theatre. After just a year the collection moved to a separate pavilion built at the end of the 19th century in the Rodó park. The museum is still located in the same building today, however, the exhibition space has gone through a few reformations during the history of more than one century. There was even an 11-year break in work because of a significant rebuilding in the middle of the past century. 

Noticeable changes happened in the museum in the 1970-s: reconstruction took place, the creator of the project was a famous Argentinian architect Clorindo Testa. In 1986 a new platform with modern technical conditions was opened on the first floor: temporary exhibitions started to be held there. The exterior is quite minimalistic, and yet, the combination of bright colors in its decoration draws attention to it. Obviously, this is a solution for a big and important art object. In the 1990-s, a landscape designer, Leandro Silva Delgado, and an architect, Fernando Fabiano, went beyond the borders of the museum building and complemented it with green framing, a small garden park appeared in front of the facade. 

Today, the National Museum of visual arts of Montevideo houses the biggest and the most publicly available collection of paintings and sculptures in Uruguay. There are 5 exhibition halls. Besides the outstanding works of local artists, there is a rather substantial collection of foreign artworks. In addition to permanent expositions, the museum organizes temporary monographic exhibitions of works from its collection. Significant international traveling exhibits also encourage the art interest of local admirers of creative work. Besides, the museum halls host selections from collections of art saloons and projects of contemporary artists.