The house was converted into a museum in 1954, with the various rooms turned into exhibition halls. The main purpose of the museum is the rescue, preservation and promotion of the traditional handcrafts of Jalisco, especially ceramics. The state of Jalisco has an important ceramics tradition, especially that made in Tonalá among the Nahua communities. The building surrounds a large courtyard which contains fifteen stands with vendors selling handcrafts. These vendors vary each weekend and usually are indigenous from the Nahua and Wixarika peoples. However, other cultures such has the Mixtec, the Triqui, the Purépecha, Mazahua and Otomi have been invited to participate. The collection The museum exhibits ceramic pieces and some other handcrafts from various parts of Mexico but focuses primarily on the primary ceramic producing areas of Jalisco such as Tonalá, Santa Cruz de las Huertas, El Rosario, Tlaquepaque, Zalatitlán and Tateposco . These areas are mostly concentrated in the Valley of Atemajac except for some made in the nearby Sayula mountain range, which is included because of its quality. There are nine rooms dedicated to the exhibition of the permanent collection with a tenth set aside for temporary exhibits, mostly focused on Mexican handcrafts, folk art and folklore. The museum’s permanent collection offers a view of the regional ceramics and the history of its development. It contains pieces from the 17th and 18th centuries along pieces from contemporary masters. The Valley of Atemajac area is known for a number of pottery styles including a number exclusive to it. These include bandera, canelo, petatillo, bruñido, betus, high fire and engretado, which are named decoration styles except for high fire, which is named for firing at high temperatures. Major artisans featured at the museum include Candelario Medrano, Salvador Vázquez, Rodo Padilla, Juan Campechano, Margarito Núñez, Jesús and Ángel Carranza, Kent Edward, Jorge Wilmot, the Jimón family, the Barnabé family, the Pajarito family and the Panduro Family. The barro bruñido tradition is represented with flasks, pots, jars and storage containers from Tonalá. This is the best known ceramic style from the area, probably descended from polychrome pottery produced from the 19th century. The name comes from the fact that these pieces are not glazed, but rather they are given a slip and then polished with a stone or pyrite. Many of these pieces are slender necked jugs or lamp bases, often decorated with animals, such as rabbits, with distorted characteristics,