smithsonian latino art collections - Smithsonian Latino Center

morphed into the Office of the Counselor to the Secretary for Community Affairs and Special Projects
(1995-1998), managing the Latino Initiatives Pool and serving as the link between the Smithsonian
Secretary and the Latino Oversight Committee.
The establishment of the Latino Initiatives Pool in 1994-1995 of approximately one million
dollars per year and its internal grants provided needed funds for the acquisition of Hispanic artworks
and collections and presentation of new exhibitions. Although by 1993 the National Museum of
American Art (NMAA) was already responding to the Latino question by systematically acquiring
artworks by artists such as Carlos Cortez, Luis Jimenez and Frank Romero, followed by a larger number
of artists in 1994 such as Carlos Almaraz (Gift of Mark Lerner), Alfredo Arreguin, John Valadez and Chaz
Bojorquez (purchase through the Denghausen Endowment and the SI Collections Acquisition Program);
Humberto Dionisio (Gift of Jim Kitchens in Honor of Michael Ford); Manuel Neri (transfer from GSA);
Jorge Pardo (Gift of Fondo del Sol), Frank Romero (gift) Jesse Trevino (gifts) and John Valadez. In
addition, it placed Luis Jimenez’s Vaquero Fiberglas sculpture in a prominent place outside the entrance
of the building.
In 1994-1995, the first year of the Latino Initiative Pool existence, grants supported new
initiatives and projects including exhibitions, acquisition support, research, fellowships and publications.
Exhibitions at Smithsonian Museums included NMAA’s exhibitions and displays such as Hispanic Wood
Carvings in the Southwest (June 1994-October 1995); Man on Fire: Luis Jiménez (September 1994-
January 1995); Jesse Treviño: New York, Vietnam, San Antonio (September 1994-January 1995); Farm
Worker’s Altar and Posters of the Chicano Movement (July-October 1995). The museum also developed
educational materials such as the 26-minute video and a 72-page study guide on Latino Art and Culture
in the U.S. and offered a summer institute for teachers on Latino art and culture and started offering
tours in Spanish. It also commissioned Texas-based scholar Jacinto Quirarte to write a brochure on its
Hispanic collections, which was also translated into Spanish. 65
Likewise, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden organized the exhibition Felix González-
Torres: Traveling; the National Museum of American History (NMAH) continued the display of the longterm
exhibition American Encounters and also presented The Segesser Hides (1994); the Center for
Folklife Programs and Cultural Studies in collaboration with the Inter-American Foundation featured
nine countries in Latin America during the Folklife Festival of 1994; and the Smithsonian Institution
Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES) in turn traveled the exhibition Dos Aguilas and Mexico: A Vision of Its
Landscape/Mexico visión de su paisaje.
The NMAA acquired works by Carlos Almaraz, Maria Castagliola, Carmen Lomas Garza, Agueda
Martinez, Ana Mendieta, and Pepón Osorio, in addition to receiving a gift of fifty-eight works on paper by
Tomás Ybarra-Frausto, Chair of the Smithsonian Latino Oversight Committee 1995-1997, thus increasing
the holdings of Chicano art in the NMAA collection. Artists such as Juan Fuentes, Rupert Garcia, Ester
Hernandez, Cesar Martinez, Malaquias Montoya, the Royal Chicano Air Force (RCAF) Collective, Carmen
Lomas Garza, and Xavier Viramontes in this way entered the museum’s permanent collection.
Similarly, the Archives of American Art embarked on the acquisition of collections of artists
personal papers among those of Carlos Almaraz, Cundo Bermúdez, Giulio Blanc, Maria Brito, Mario
Carreño, Ramón Carulla, Margarita Cano, Humberto Dionisio, Tomás Ybarra-Frausto, Fernando A. García,
Hernan García, Carlos A. Maciá, Tomas Oliva, Enrique Riverón, Arturo and Demi Rodríguez, Rafael
Salazar, Baruj Salinas, Scull Family, Bacardi Art Gallery and Frances Wolfson Art Gallery in Miami. It
published a guide to its Latino papers in 1996.
65 For additional information see: “Latino Initiatives at the Smithsonian, 1994-1997.” Report prepared by the
Office of the Counselor to the Secretary for Community Affairs and Special Projects, p. 4-23; and the Smithsonian
Institution Latino Oversight Committee. Mid-term Report of the Smithsonian Latino Oversight Committee,
Smithsonian Institution, August 1996, p. 3-4.
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