Conference Proceedings 2010 [pdf] - Art & Design Symposium ...

esources and venues we hope to secure with larger grants, we can aspire to assemble the kind of “must see”
Chicana/o artworks that attract Experience Seekers.
Facilitators. Other museum visitors who choose museum going as a free-choice leisure activity are a group
Falk (2009) characterizes as Facilitators, people who visit “in order to satisfy the needs and desires of
someone they care about rather than just themselves” (p. 192). Facilitators who visit our exhibition with friends
or family will find an engaging culminating activity they can use to reflect on their shared and distinct identities.
The last images installed in “Mixing it Up: Building a Mexican-American Identity” were selected by several
individuals to stand for how they see themselves. For example, there is a photograph of a preschooler holding
her stuffed Garfield cat, wearing a Hello Kitty t-shirt, and proclaiming “I am a cat.” A graduate student’s photo
of himself in uniform is accompanied by his statement about his pride in having been an Air Force mechanic.
Visitors will be invited to add their voices by contributing their own “I am . . .” visual and verbal statements to
the growing exhibition that extends in the hall outside the exhibition space. A gallery attendant is available to
photograph any interested visitor and insert the photo in an “I am . . .” printout to be returned to the visitor. A
wall panel includes both verbal and visual sources to stimulate visitors’ reflections on their own identities: (1) a
long list of identity characteristics (words like “serious,” “playful,” conservative,” adventurous,” “devoted” and
many more) and (2) a set of many iconic images (such as a leaf, a cross, a globe, a football, a bird, a dollar
sign, and many more). In the hall outside the exhibition the visitor finds markers, pencils, scissors, colored
paper, and glue they can use to add words and images to the “I am . . .” printout with their photograph.
Conversations between visitors and their companions stimulated by this experience should appeal to
Facilitators.
Continuing Collaboration
Melanie Magisos brings access to and expert information about the rich, extensive collection of Mexican-
American art associated with the Hispanic Research Center. The Center performs basic and applied research
on a broad range of topics related to Hispanic populations, disseminates research findings to the academic
community and the public, engages in creative activities, and provides public service in areas of importance to
Hispanics.
Since 1998, the Hispanic Research Center (HRC) has had a significant focus on visual art by Chicana/o artists,
working to exhibit the work of both established and emerging
artists, and to introduce the public to Chicana/o Art as a school of American fine art. The HRC has produced
books (Keller, Erickson, Johnson & Alvarado, 2002; Keller, Erickson & Villeneuve, 2004; Keller & Phillips,
2005), DVDs, and web sites about hundreds of artists (Hispanic Research Center, 2003-2009, 2007a);
developed an archive of thousands of Chicana/o art images; commissioned artworks and facilitated the
distribution of art by major Chicana/o ateliers; mounted exhibits in collaboration with museums and educational
institutions nationally and internationally; and started an arts festival to celebrate the achievements of
Chicana/o artists. The HRC has also documented on video the lives and work of Chicana/o artists in the San
Francisco Bay area and in San Antonio (Hispanic Research Center, 2007b, 2009).
In recent decades, museums began “to redefine their relationships and obligations to the public [and] ... “to
recruit formerly marginalized audiences (Williams, 2007, p. 58). Today, institutions whose primary mission
centers on “big ‘I’ identities” such as the Hispanic Research Center and others like the National Museum of
Women in the Arts in Washington, the Heard Museum in Phoenix, the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles,
and well as many mainstream institutions, mount exhibitions that bring the work of diverse artists to the public.
According to Falk (2009):
Our identity is a reflection and reaction to both the social and physical world we consciously perceive in
the moment, but identity is also influenced by the vast unconscious set of family, cultural, and personal
history influences each of us carries with us. Each is continuously constructing and maintaining, not
one, but numerous identities which are expressed collectively or individually at different times,
depending upon need and circumstance. (p. 72)
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