Culture

Museums and Libraries

Guatemala City is home to many of the nation's libraries and museums, including the National Archives, the National Library, and the Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, which has an extensive collection of Maya artifacts. There are private museums, such as the Ixchel, which focuses on textiles, and the Popol Vuh, which focuses on Mayan archeology. Both museums are housed inside the Universidad Francisco Marroquín campus.

The Colonial Museum, in Antigua Guatemala, has large exhibits of colonial artwork. Almost each of the 329 municipalities in the country has a small museum. Tikal National Park has fine local museums, as well as the Dolores, Petén, 'South Petén Regional Maya Museum'.

Theatres

Two theatres in the country are the most famous, the 'Teatro Nacional de Guatemala', a 1970s architectural structure, in Guatemala City, and the Quetzaltenango National Theatre, a Neo-Colonial style building. The Rabinal Achí, a Maya Kek'chi' play was declared in 2005 a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of the Humanity, by the UNESCO.

Literature

The Guatemala National Prize in Literature is a one-time only award that recognises an individual writer's body of work. It has been given annually since 1988 by the Ministry of Culture and Sports. Miguel Angel Asturias, won the Literature Nobel Prize in 1966.