Foundations announce $5 million initiative to advance Latinx art

Several foundations announced Wednesday the Advancing Latinx Art in Museums initiative that will provide $5 million in funding to art centers nationwide.

Two Southern California institutions that will receive funds are the Vincent Price Art Museum at East Los Angeles College and the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego.

The new effort represents the second phase of a multiyear funding collaboration between the Mellon, Ford, Terra and Getty foundations, which seek “to nurture and prioritize” Latinx art in the United States and Puerto Rico. 

The foundations will provide 10 grants of $500,000 to institutions to enable them to create and formalize permanent early and midcareer curators who have expertise in Latinx art. 

Latinx artists are defined as “creatives of Latin American or Caribbean descent who live and work in the U.S.,” according to a Mellon Foundation statement. 

Funding from the ALAM initiative aims to bolster museums and visual art organizations that have demonstrated a commitment to collecting, studying, exhibiting and engaging with Latinx art and its creators, according to the Mellon Foundation. The grant program also includes chances to increase the number of curators with Latinx art expertise as well as establish a point of connection among the Latinx curators at participating art centers and also to a wider circle of museum professionals. 

“The deep knowledge and understanding of Latinx art these ten curators hold comes from rigorous expertise and commitment to the creative expression of Latinx communities in the United States and Puerto Rico,” Mellon Foundation President Elizabeth Alexander said in a statement. “Through ALAM we are proud to help expand opportunities for Latinx art curatorship across the country, and to do our part in upholding the centrality of this work in our museums and arts organizations.”   

Getty Foundation Director Joan Weinstein added, “We need to invest more if we want Latinx art to be more broadly represented in our museums, with dedicated curators who can focus exclusively on building and stewarding these collections. ALAM is a decisive next step made possible through collaborative funding.” 

People who identify as Latinx comprise nearly 20% of the U.S. population and a considerably higher percentage in some of the country’s largest cities. However, Latinx causes and organizations regularly get less than 2% of philanthropic funding, according to the Mellon Foundation. 

“While annual funding for Latinx arts and culture has seen a gradual annual increase since 2020, Latinx artists remain the largest majority missing from most museum collections, exhibitions, scholarship, and programming,” the Mellon Foundation noted. 

“Institutional change can happen when we have experienced and knowledgeable voices at the table,” E. Carmen Ramos, chief curatorial and conservation officer of the National Gallery of Art, said in a statement. “Our renowned collection offers opportunities for Latinx art to be presented in dialogue with both the national and the global, and we anticipate that the curator’s work will benefit from the breadth and depth of our expanding holdings.”

ALAM recipients include large institutions, college and university museums, and leading Latinx museums — spanning scale, modality, and location — all aligned in their commitment to building or expanding a curatorial focus on Latinx art and ultimately creating a more inclusive curatorial field. 

In addition to the Vincent Price Art Museum and Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, other ALAM recipients are:

— 516 ARTS, Albuquerque, New Mexico  

— Arizona State University Art Museum in partnership with CALA Alliance, Tempe, Arizona 

— Blanton Museum of Art at the University of Texas at Austin, Texas   

— El Museo del Barrio, New York, New York  

— Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Puerto Rico, San Juan, Puerto Rico  

— National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.  

— National Museum of Mexican Art, Chicago, Illinois  

— Newark Museum of Art; Newark, New Jersey  

Forty-eight arts organizations from the U.S. and Puerto Rico were invited to apply, according to the Mellon Foundation. A five-member panel of Latinx art and museum experts reviewed grant applications.

More information on the ALAM initiative is available at the Mellon Foundation website.

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