The Puerto Rican Athenaeum —or Ateneo Puertorriqueño in Spanish— is one of Puerto Rico's chief cultural institutions. It was founded in 1876. The Athenaeum serves as a museum, school, library, and performance hall for the greater Puerto Rico. It hosts a number of contests, conferences, and exhibits each year, presenting the best art, literature, and music that Puerto Rico has to offer. Some say it was the first institution of higher learning in Puerto Rico in which the islands' top minds gave free classes in their areas of expertise.