Career
The museum was founded to express her belief that folk art is a bond between the people of the world. The museum opened to the public in 1953 and has gained national and international recognition as the home to the world’s largest collection of folk art Its collection of more than 135,000 artifacts is divided into four exhibition wings: Bartlett, Girard, Hispanic Heritage, and Neutrogena.
Bartlett gave her Alcalde house and property to the State of New Mexico, as part of her gift that founded MOIFA. Focuses in the Bartlett wing have ranged from Turkish, Tibetan and Swedish traditions, to New Deal-era New Mexican art