The traditional Valencian society has left us a rich culture that enables us to get to know how we have lived in our lands: photographs, testimonies and objects that are part of our way of living and understanding the world, which document techniques, practices and ideological representations, as well as everyday objects that tell us about those who created and used them. Recovering these materials is one of the raisons d'être of the Museu Valencià d'Etnologia, founded by the Diputació de València in 1982.

The museum has a permanent exhibition, organised around five areas that define the relationship between people and the environment in which they work: the town, the huerta, the marshlands, the drylands and the mountains. In all these areas, the objects and contents are shown in relation to certain axes: inhabiting (the household), living together (the spaces for meeting), and working (the workplaces).

The museum is also a space for dialogue and dissemination of cultures of different parts of the world. Through its temporary programme, the museum presents aspects of global cultural diversity. The exhibitions, the Ethnomusic, Ethnocuine and Ethnocinema activities programmes, the educational workshops and the local museum fair (Etnopobles) help us to understand this exciting journey that takes us from traditional cultures to contemporary global interculturality.

The museum develops research programmes on ethnological heritage, publishes a magazine and two thematic collections of books, offers the services of a specialised library and collaborates with numerous town halls in the recovery and dissemination of local heritage.

The museum is located in the Centro Cultural La Beneficencia, in the city of Valencia.