Centro Cultural Futurama, Lindavista

Photos courtesy of the Futurama Facebook page

The Centro Cultural Futurama is the Futurama Youth Art and Cultural Center (Centro de la Juventud Arte y Cultural), usually called just Futurama. It’s one of the most important cultural and arts centers in the north of the city.

The center is on the site of a celebrated and popular movie theater that fell into disuse. Built in 1969, the Cine Futurama was amongst the largest in the city. It’s directly north of the Plaza Lindavista shopping center. Originally designed by Hector Mestre, the theater could seat 4,800 persons at first. Later it was divided into a five-screen multiplex, but even that came to a sad end, and the theater closed entirely.

In 2003, the city purchased the property to convert it to a cultural art center. And the Futurama center opened in 2009. With a massive 3,000 square meters of floor space, it’s been a major community center ever since.

The building hosts multi-purpose rooms, a cinema, a playroom, exhibition halls, a library, a computer lab, a cafe, and there’s room for kids to watch movies, too. Maybe most exciting of all, there’s a candy store.

Among the most popular offerings are classes in music and dance, filmmaking, and art classes. But the center hosts cultural festivals and frequent international exhibitions, too.

The Centro Cultural Futurama is easily accessible from Metro Lindavista. It’s also just south of the Jaime Torres Bodet Cultural Center on the Politecnico Campus (IPN). The center of a heavily commercial area, the nearby restaurants and shops almost compete with what the center has to offer.

Hours: Daily from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.