Institute of Puerto Rican Culture

Museo de las Américas is a multidisciplinary museum in San Juan, Puerto Rico dedicated to the arts, folklore, architecture and broader history of the Americas. Its mission is to offer a synoptic view of the history and culture of the Americas from ancient to contemporary, emphasizing in Puerto Rico and its relationship to the continent, through exhibition programs and cultural activities. Founded in 1992 by Ricardo Enrique Alegría Gallardo, a professor at the Universidad de Puerto Rico and founder of the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture, the museum is dedicated to its role in preserving and perpetuating Puerto Rican arts and culture, both within the territory and abroad. Among its temporary exhibitions, the museum has four permanent exhibitions: The Popular Arts in the Americas, The African Heritage, The Indigenous of America and Conquest and Colonization: Birth and Evolution of the Puerto Rican Nation. Museo de Las Americas is a multidisciplinary, multicultural and multidimensional learning museum, responding to a diverse community, which allows it to consolidate itself as a cutting-edge institution in Puerto Rico. It is currently housed in the former Ballajá Barracks, built between 1854 and 1864 as one of the last major architectural projects of the Spanish colonial rule over the island before it was annexed by the United States in 1898. Initially, when Puerto Rico was annexed by the United States, the federal government paid the Catholic Church for this property, among others in the area. Ownership of the property, claimed by the Catholic Church, was not a straightforward matter and had to be resolved by the Supreme Court. The Government of Puerto Rico acquired the building in 1976 through a transfer from the Government of the United States with the commitment of restoring it and using it for cultural, educative, and touristic purposes. In 1986, a reform plan for the San Juan Historic Zone was sketched and the building was restored from 1990 to 1993.

The Escuela de Artes Plásticas y Diseño de Puerto Rico (English: School of Plastic Arts and Design of Puerto Rico) is an institution of higher learning engaged in the training of students in the visual arts. It is located in Old San Juan, San Juan, Puerto Rico. The school was founded in 1965 as part of the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture. Painter José Antonio Torres Martinó was one of the school's co-founders. The school's first director was Miguel Pou.As an autonomous school it was created by an amendment of legislation by the Legislative Assembly of Puerto Rico in 1971, and achieved its definitive form and autonomy under Public Law 54 of August 22, 1990. The school offers bachelor degrees in seven concentrations: graphic arts, photography and design (with specialties in digital graphic design and photography and motion), art education, sculpture, painting, industrial design and fashion design. Today, the school is Puerto Rico's foremost institution of higher education in the visual arts. The building used to be the Insular Madhouse or Manicomio Insular.

The Academia Puertorriqueña de la Lengua Española (Spanish for Puerto Rican Academy of the Spanish Language) is an association of academics and experts on the use of the Spanish language in Puerto Rico. It was founded in San Juan on January 28, 1955. It is a member of the Association of Spanish Language Academies. The association works with the Royal Spanish Academy to add new words to the Spanish lexicon. In 2017, the academy was instrumental in adding the word "reguetón" to the official Spanish dictionary.The academy put together a website with Puerto Rican vocabulary which can be searched by themes.

Casa Blanca is a house museum located in Old San Juan within the historic colonial section of the capital of Puerto Rico.

Paseo del Morro (English: Promenade of the Morro or Morro Promenade), is a waterside, riprap-lined, breakwater-protected pedestrian promenade about 1.5 miles (2.4 km) in length located in the historic district of Old San Juan in Puerto Rico that runs adjacent and parallel to the western section of the Walls of Old San Juan on San Juan Bay. Built in 1999 as a extension of an existing 18th-century maintenance walkway on the southwestern section of the wall located on the final stretch of Paseo de la Princesa (Promenade of the Princess), the promenade is a contemporary construction bordering the western defensive wall, which originally stood directly exposed to the waters of San Juan Bay. It was designated a National Recreational Trail in 2001.The promenade starts in Catedral, the southwestern sub-barrio in Old San Juan on the San Juan Islet, at the ending location of Paseo de la Princesa (Promenade of the Princess), Puerta de San Juan (San Juan Gate), formerly known as Puerta de Agua (Water Gate), on the Walls of Old San Juan next to La Fortaleza, the 16th-century executive residence of the Governor of Puerto Rico, passes by the Bastión de San Agustín (San Agustin Bastion), Polvorín de Santa Elena (Santa Elena gunpowder depot), and Bastión de Santa Elena (Santa Elena Bastion) on the Walls of Old San Juan, and ends at the Castillo San Felipe del Morro in Ballajá, the northwestern sub-barrio in Old San Juan on the San Juan Islet, at Punta del Morro (Morro Point), the westernmost position on San Juan Islet overlooking the entrance to San Juan Bay and Isla de Cabras (Goat Island), the small islet immediately across the bay’s entrance from El Morro where the 17th-century fort of El Cañuelo was built by the Spanish to further protect Old San Juan and its harbor from invasions by foreign powers and harassment by privateers and pirates during the Age of Discovery and Exploration.

Plaza del Quinto Centenario (Spanish for 'Square of the Fifth Centenary'), also Plaza del V Centenario, popularly referred to as Plaza del Tótem ('Totem Square'), is a modern square in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico, inaugurated in 1992 to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the European discovery and Spanish conquest of Puerto Rico and the Americas and the first European settlement of San Juan. The square is located between the Ballajá and Mercado neighborhoods of the San Juan Antiguo barrio of San Juan, Puerto Rico. It is located next to the Ballajá Barracks, the Puerto Rican National Gallery and the San José Church, close to El Morro and the San Juan National Historic Site.

Galería Nacional (National Gallery) located in Old San Juan within the historic colonial section of the capital of Puerto Rico, houses the largest collection of Puerto Rican paintings from the eighteenth century to the 1960s. The museum is located in the restored Saint Aquinas monastery of the Dominican Order. The monastery along with the adjoining San José Church is one of the first significant works of architecture on the island. The museum's holdings include many important works by José Campeche, Francisco Oller, Ramón Frade, and Rafael Tufiño. The museum is administered by the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture.

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Juan de Puerto Rico (Latin: Archidiœcesis Sancti Joannis Portoricensis) is an ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church in the United States, comprising the northeast portion of the island of Puerto Rico. Its jurisdiction includes the municipalities of Dorado, Toa Baja, Cataño, Toa Alta, Bayamón, Guaynabo, San Juan, Trujillo Alto, and Carolina.

The Center for Advanced Studies on Puerto Rico and the Caribbean (Spanish: Centro de Estudios Avanzados de Puerto Rico y El Caribe) is a private institute housed in the former San Ildefonso Conciliar Seminary in Old San Juan, San Juan, Puerto Rico that offers graduate studies in arts and philosophy. It was incorporated on February 28, 1968, by Pablo Casals, Luis Muñoz Marín, Roberto Busó Carrasquillo, and Jaime Benítez. However, it remained inactive and without organization until 1976, when Ricardo Alegría made a request before the Council on Higher Education of Puerto Rico to transform the center into an academic institution. The center is currently accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools and it publishes La Revista del Centro de Estudios Avanzados de Puerto Rico y el Caribe.

The Pablo Casals Museum (Spanish: Museo Pablo Casals), located on San José Square in Old San Juan, San Juan, Puerto Rico, is a museum dedicated to the Catalan Puerto Rican cellist, composer and conductor Pablo Casals, who lived the last 17 years of his life in San Juan where he composed his masterpiece El Pessebre. In addition to his piano, his cello, historical photographs, some of his musical instruments and personal belongings, the museum also has a media and music library which visitors can browse.

The Ballajá Barracks (Cuartel de Ballajá in Spanish) is a historic building and former military barracks located in the Ballajá section of Old San Juan, in the city of San Juan, Puerto Rico. It is located close to El Morro and its esplanade, between the Morovis, Beneficiencia and Norzagaray streets. It was built from 1854 to 1864 to house Spanish and Puerto Rican regiments. The Ballajá Barracks were the last large-scale construction project made by the Spanish Crown in the Americas.The building has been owned by the government of Puerto Rico since 1976 and today it houses the Museum of the Americas and the Puerto Rican Academy of the Spanish Language, in addition to several businesses and institutions such as a dance school, exhibition spaces, restaurants and the State Office of Historic Conservation.

San José Church (Spanish: Iglesia de San José), located in Old San Juan within the historic colonial zone of the capital of Puerto Rico, is one of the first significant works of architecture on the island. The church is one of the earliest surviving examples of 16th-century Spanish Gothic architecture in the Western hemisphere.In 2013 it was added to the National Trust for Historic Preservation's list of 11 Most Endangered Historic Places of 2013.