In July 2003 the Metropolitan New York Library Council (METRO) sub-contracted The Museum of Modern Art Library to survey archives documenting Latino art in greater New York as part of METRO’s Documentary Heritage Project.
Conducted from September 2003 to June 2006 by The Museum of Modern Art Library, this project aimed to identify and inventory the archives of New York institutions that have supported and showcased Latino and Latin American artists, and to establish a network of repositories. This website provides researchers with an overview of each archival collection surveyed and highlights their particular assets in order to facilitate access to materials and promote research on Latino art. An Archival Collections Guide has also been published, and is available at the institutions surveyed.
We extend our gratitude to the numerous partners and individuals who contributed to the success of this project. Please take a moment to explore our Web site and to familiarize yourself with this invaluable tool to research some of the most outstanding archives of Latino and Latin American Art in New York.
Taína B. Caragol,
Latin American Bibliographer
Institutions
Art in General
Art in General is a nonprofit organization that assists artists with the production and presentation of new work. It changes in response to the needs of artists and informs and engages the public about their work.
Contact Information
Art in General
79 Walker Street
New York, NY 10013-3523
Tel.: (212) 219-0473
http://www.artingeneral.org
Contact
Anthony Marcellini, Curatorial Assistant
[email protected]
Hours open to the public
Tuesday through Saturday, 12:00–6:00 p.m.
History of the Institution
Art in General is a nonprofit organization that assists artists with the production and presentation of new work. It changes in response to the needs of artists and informs and engages the public about their work.
Art in General was founded in 1981 by artists Martin Weinstein and Teresa Liszka in the General Hardware building—hence the name “Art in General.” Weinstein and Liszka aimed to create a space where artists could exhibit unconventional work and exchange ideas with their peers. The first exhibition took place in 1982. In its twenty-five years, the organization has emerged as one of New York City’s leading nonprofit arts organizations.
Today, Art in General fulfills its mission through a variety of ways, including the organization and presentation of exhibitions, hosting a national and international artist residency program, and through educational in-school art training, regular public programs and membership events. Beginning in 2005, its exhibition program has focused on the commissioning of new work from artists.
Scope and Content
The records at Art in General document the history of this alternative art space, which has promoted international contemporary art since its foundation. Their website lists all archived programs since the formation of Art in General.
The archives of Art in General consist mainly of operational records such as exhibition files and photography documenting exhibitions and programs. The gallery files start in 1982, although there are no Latino or Latin American artists until 1987. Art in General has published catalogues and brochures documenting the work of many Latin American and Latino artists.
Overall holdings of archives and research material: Fifty-four linear feet
Overall holdings of archives and research material related to Latino art: Ten linear feet
Inclusive dates of files: 1982–present
Bulk dates: 1987–present
Languages in which records are written:
English (85%); Spanish (10%); other (5%)
Holdings - Primary Sources
Archives of institution’s history and operation related to Latino art:
Ten linear feet
The operation records from 1982 to 2002 are located on the fourth floor. Those from 2003 to the present are located in the office space on the sixth floor. Most of these records are gallery files documenting exhibitions that have taken place at Art in General. Within the gallery records artist sub-files can be found. They are organized using a coding system developed by Art in General based on the location of the exhibition in their space (i.e. Audio in the Elevator, Window Installation/Project Space, Gallery 4, and Gallery 6). Records in those categories are classified chronologically by exhibition history.
Exhibition files include records from solo shows by artists Alberto Casado, María Elena González, César Paternosto, and Cecilia Vicuña. Art in General also has the archival records of group shows that included Latino and Latin American artists such as Abel Barroso, Tania Bruguera, Los Carpinteros, Sandra Ceballos, Claudio Nolasco, Carlos Garaicoa, Silvia Gruner, Nadín Ospina, Manuel Piña, and Lázaro Savaadra. These exhibitions included Adiós Columbus: Vistas Latinas Part IV (Sept.–Nov. 1992), Domestic Partnerships: New Impulses in Decorative Arts from the Americas (April–June 1996), 1990s Art From Cuba (May-June 1998), Re-Drawing the Line (Sept.–Oct. 2000) and Between Two Cities/Punto de vista: entre dos ciudades (Nov. 1999–Jan. 2000). Various Latino and Latin American artists and scholars, such as Mónica Amor, Charles Byasini-Rivera, Ernesto Pujol, Yasmín Ramírez, Juana Valdés, and Raul Zamudio, have collaborated in some of these exhibitions as curators, organizers, and writers.
Archival holdings pertaining to Latino art also include the records of exhibitions organized as part of the Artists in Residency program. These have included: Carlos Garaicoa (1996); Aimée García, Embracing the Earth/Abrazando la Tierra, Gallery 4 (May–June 1998); Flavia Gandolfo, A Contemporary Fresco Mural/Mural Contemporáneo al Fresco (Aug.–Oct. 2001), Anna Maria Maiolino, N Times One/N Vezes Um (Dec. 2001–Feb. 2002); José A. Toirac with collaborator Meira Marrero Díaz, Think Different (April–May 2002), Javier Téllez, Blind Data *Oct.–Dec. 2002); Luis Gómez (Jan–Mar. 2004); Rubén Ortiz Torres (Sept.–Nov. 2004), and Chemi Rosado (Oct.–Dec. 2005).
Newsletters and magazines published in-house:
Art in General has published Inside, a quarterly newsletter/invitation, since 1990. Past copies are available at the institution.
Slides and photographs:
Thirty-four items
Thirty-four binders with slides and photographs document the work of artists that Art in General has showcased. Photographs include general pictures representative of the artists’ production, as well as the works that have been exhibited at Art in General.
Digital images:
Recent artist and exhibition files may have some digital images on CDs.
Art objects and artifacts available for research:
The artwork available for research consists of Art in General’s “Limited Editions,” series of signed and numbered prints, photographs, sculptures, and objects created by contemporary artists who have donated their work to support exhibitions and programs by emerging artists and public and educational programs. As of January 2005 the Limited Editions have included works by Allora & Calzadilla, Maria Elena González, and Carlos Garaicoa. For current information, please visit the institution’s website.
Exhibition catalogues published in-house that include work by Latino artists:
Nine items
Some titles include 1990s Art from Cuba: A National Residency and Exhibition Program (1997); Cloud-net (2000); Tonel: Lessons of Solitude (2001); Un real estates: Maria Elena González (2003); Alberto Casado: todo clandestino, todo popular (2005). Art in General has also published brochures documenting the work of its artists in residence. Among these are Flavia Gandolfo (2001); Aimée García (1998); Luis Gómez (2004); Anna Maria Maiolino (2002); Javier Téllez (2002); and José A. Toirac and Meira Marrero Díaz (2002).
Holdings - Secondary Sources
Vertical file materials related to Latino art: artist files, brochures, pamphlets, clippings:
Artist sub-files can be found within the gallery files.
Holdings - Finding Aids
The current finding aid consists of an exhibition history. At the present, Art in General is cataloguing its archival holdings using a catalog system provided by Franklin Furnace. This catalog will eventually be accessible online.
Accessibility
Currently, there is no space designated for researchers who wish to consult Art in General’s records. Nonetheless the institution’s staff will be happy to arrange desk space upon availability for scheduled researchers.
Restrictions
Researchers can access records by appointment.
General Assessment
The archives of Art in General document the history of this important alternative art space in New York. The gallery records are of particular interest, due to the importance of Art in General as a jumping-off point for many contemporary Latino and Latin American artists. Exhibitions such as Domestic Partnerships, curated by Yasmin Ramírez, and 1990s Art from Cuba, co-directed by Holly Block and Bettie-Sue Hertz, were among the first shows in the U.S. to give exposure to the 1990s generation of artists from Cuba.
The systematic organization of these archives makes them easily searchable.
Relations to other Latino and Latin American organizations
The gallery has collaborated with other Latino and Latin American art organizations such as the Centro Wifredo Lam, the Ludwig Foundation in Cuba, and Havana Art & Idea in Mexico City Centro.
Bronx Council of the Arts (BCA)
Founded in the early 1960s, the Bronx Council on the Arts (BCA) is a non-profit organization whose mission is to encourage and increase the public’s awareness and participation in the arts, and to nurture the development of artists and cultural organizations. Longwood Arts Project (LAP) is the visual arts program of the Bronx Council on the Arts. LAP’s mission is to raise the profile and the technical/creative ceiling of artists from under-represented groups, including women and artists of color. It does so through exhibitions at the Longwood Art Gallery at Hostos Community College and the Longwood Cyber Residency and Exhibition Program.
Contact Information
Bronx Council of the Arts (BCA)
1738 Hone Avenue (main office)
Bronx, NY 10461-1486
Tel.: (718) 931-9500
http://www.bronxarts.org
Longwood Arts Project (LAP)
Gallery, Hostos Community College
450 Grand Concourse
Bronx, NY 10451
Tel.: (718) 518-6728
Fax: (718) 518-6690
http://www.longwoodcyber.org
Contact
William Aguado (BCA), Executive Director
[email protected]
Edwin Ramorán (LAP), Gallery Director and Curator
[email protected]
Hours open to the public
Monday–Thursday, 9:30 a.m.–5:30 p.m.
The archival collections at both institutions can be viewed by appointment only.
History of the Institution
Founded in the early 1960s, the Bronx Council on the Arts (BCA) is a non-profit organization whose mission is to encourage and increase the public’s awareness and participation in the arts, and to nurture the development of artists and cultural organizations. Longwood Arts Project (LAP) is the visual arts program of the Bronx Council on the Arts. LAP’s mission is to raise the profile and the technical/creative ceiling of artists from under-represented groups, including women and artists of color. It does so through exhibitions at the Longwood Art Gallery at Hostos Community College and the Longwood Cyber Residency and Exhibition Program.
Initiated by the BCA in 1981, LAP was founded under the direction of artist Fred Wilson in the former Public School 39 at 986 Longwood Avenue in the Bronx. The school was closed due to attrition of school-age children in the district at that time, when the area was physically and economically devastated. Community leaders turned the unfortunate closure into an opportunity to help stabilize the neighborhood by developing it into a multi-service building with city agencies and non-profit organizations as its tenants.
From 1981 to 2002 LAP occupied ten rooms on the second floor of the Longwood building. From the onset, most of the rooms were turned into artist studios that were available as part of the Scholarship Studio Programs or at a subsidized rental fee. Past resident artists include Ernesto Pujol and Pepón Osorio. In 1985, the Project established the Longwood Arts Gallery with a strong commitment to presenting works by contemporary local, national, and international artists in its thematic and solo exhibitions.
In 1991, a second gallery was created to focus on Bronx-based artists. The exhibition program at the gallery has addressed urban conditions and space, national and cultural identity, immigration, violence, racism, the environment, street culture, local Bronx history, and popular culture.
In the autumn of 2002, the PS 39 building at 965 Longwood Avenue was converted back into a school administered by the NYC Board of Education. A year later LAP relocated its office and Cyber Residency Program to La Casa Blanca at Pregones Theater (www.pregones.org), at 571 Walton Avenue, in the South Bronx. One block east of their new offices at Pregones Theater, they established a new exhibition program known as Longwood Art Gallery at Hostos in cooperation with the Hostos Center for the Arts & Culture on the campus of Hostos Community College at 450 Grand Concourse. LAP continues promoting the creative visions of artists living in the Bronx and fostering exchange between these artists and their community.
Scope and Content
The Archives of BCA/LAP contain all the administrative documents related to their organization and management of cultural services and arts programs in the Bronx. BCA has an independent artist program named BRIO, through which they support artists who are Bronx residents. Approximately forty percent of the funds managed by BCA are related to the visual arts. About one-third of the artists who have received funds are Latino. In other words, between twelve and fifteen percent of the total funds granted by BCA are dedicated to Latino artists.
The BCA collects records they generate, as well as the records of visual artists, writers, and musicians that apply for their grants and programs. The records at the Longwood Arts Project pertain to the exhibitions they have organized. LAP collects vertical files on artists the gallery has showcased.
Overall holdings of archives and research material:
BCA: 850 linear feet
LAP: Forty linear feet
Overall holdings of archives and research material on Latino art:
BCA: Eighty linear feet
LAP: Sixteen linear feet (40% of their archival records)
Inclusive dates of files: (BCA and LAP) 1985–present
Bulk dates: (BCA and LAP) 1990s-present
Languages in which records are written:
Mainly English
Holdings - Primary Sources
Archives of institution’s history and operation:
BCA: Twenty-seven linear feet
LAP: Twelve linear feet
The BCA’s institutional papers generated before 1990 are stored at the Bronx Historical Society. The estimate of twenty-seven linear feet of institutional records on Latino and Latin American artists stored onsite at the BCA was obtained by multiplying 560 linear feet (the total of operation records) by forty percent (percentage of records on visual arts), and multiplying the result by twelve percent (percentage of records pertaining to Latino and Latin American artists).
The Longwood Arts Project holds 2.25 linear feet of operational papers at the BCA site and 9.75 at their own site. These records are exhibition files comprising curatorial statements, artists’ statements, exhibition loan forms, resumes, correspondence, slides, videos, photographic materials, and supplementary research materials such as exhibition announcements, articles, and reviews.
Newsletters and magazines published in-house:
BCA published a newsletter until 2001. Currently they publish a bimonthly or quarterly leaflet with opportunities for artists. BCA also publishes monthly updates on the Internet and a yearly journal that started circa 1991–92.
Oral histories
BCA has oral histories with cultural activists pertaining to the “Casitas” project, which documented the cultural centers in New York built after the model of wooden houses in Puerto Rico’s countryside. The recorded interviews are stored at BCA. This project became a traveling exhibition in 1991 titled “Las Casitas: An Urban Cultural Alternative” organized by the Smithsonian Institution.
Recorded interviews and performances:
Ten items
A video produced for the “Casitas” project is available to researchers at BCA. LAP holds recorded performances by artists such as Josely Carvalho, Claudia Joskovicz, and Paul Henry Ramírez, among others. Items are on DVD and VHS formats.
Slides and photographs:
1,000 items
There is no registry of slides at BCA. LAP holds un-catalogued slides of artists such as Freddy Hernández, Manny Vega, the artists in residence at BCA, and recipients of the Community Arts Grants. The artists in residence are listed by year on LAP’s website.
Digital images:
Over 200 items
Some of the artists whose work is documented digitally at LAP include Judith Escalona, Marcos Dimas, George Crespo, Wanda Raimundi-Ortiz, and Jaime Permuth. Some of these images are accessible at the gallery’s website.
Art objects and artifacts available for research:
Five items
These include some murals that were taken down from the original site of Longwood Arts Project and are now stored at BCA. Esperanza Cortés and Ernesto Pujol were among the artists who participated in the creation of these murals. BCA also owns a print by John “Crash” Matos.
LAP does not own artwork by Latino artists.
Exhibition catalogues published in-house that include work by Latino artists:
Two items
LAP published annual journals for years 1992/1993 and 1993/1994. These feature curatorial statements and essays by Bettie Sue Hertz, Edwin Pagán, and Yasmín Ramírez, among others, who wrote on the artists showcased at LAP during the years of this publication. Artists discussed include Carlos Barbot, Daniel del Valle, Luis Flores, María Mar, Carlos Ortiz, Ernesto Pujol, Eurípedes Rodríguez, Juan Sánchez, and Kukuli Velarde.
Holdings - Secondary Sources
Exhibition catalogues, books, and periodicals related to Latino art:
Twelve linear feet
LAP has a small library primarily for internal use. It includes catalogues for solo exhibitions of numerous artists whose work has been exhibited at LAP. Among these there are catalogues for solo exhibitions of Dina Bursztyn and Grimanesa Amorós.
Films by or about Latinos:
Thirty items
LAP keeps approximately thirty videotapes related to Latino art. They are divided into performance art, symposia, and panel discussions. The videos include a recording of the public program Artists in Cuba, organized in conjunction with the exhibition 1990s Art from Cuba held at Art in General (1997); Aztlán Today, a program organized for the traveling exhibition Chicano Art Resistance and Affirmation (1991); Images of Memory–Cuba & the 6th Havana Biennial (1997); Vanessa Aquino: Child Cries Freedom; and Paul Henry Ramirez: Unruly Acts (1998).
Vertical file materials related to Latino art: artist files, brochures, pamphlets, clippings
5.75 linear feet
LAP holds an artists registry with artist files. The artists represented include Luis Cruz Azaceta, Diógenes Ballester, Rocío Cabello, William Córdova, Humberto Chávez, Marcos Dimas, María Domíguez, Esperanza Cortés, Tatiana Garmendia, Félix González-Torres, Marina Gutiérrez, Renny Molenaar, Wanda Raimundi-Ortiz, Juan Sánchez, Elaine Soto, Nitza Tufiño, Virginia Ayress, among others. Not all the artists showcased at Longwood have artist files. Artist files are not regularly updated, except for artists shown since 2002 and past Resident Artists and Commissions Artists.
Holdings - Finding Aids
LAP is working on an artist registry for their records.
Accessibility
The records at BCA and LAP have been developed for internal use. At BCA the records are not separated according to artistic genre (e.g. music, literature, visual arts). It is up to the researcher to go through these materials and sort out the projects related to visual arts and to Latino artists. The records at BCA are stored in a basement. There is no study space designated for researchers.
Records at the LAP are easier to consult due to their location in the gallery space and because of their focus on the visual arts. There is no space designated for researchers at LAP, but the gallery staff is willing to receive researchers and to assist them with their queries.
Restrictions
Financial information of BCA and LAP is confidential.
General Assessment
For over forty years the Bronx Council on the Arts has been a major funder and promoter of arts in the Bronx. Thus, its archives constitute an important record on the development of music, literature, and visual arts in that borough. Some Latino visual artists that have benefited from their support, and who may be documented in the BCA’s archival records include Arthur Avilés, Marcos Dimas, Carlos Ortiz, Moses Ros, Joe Wippler, and dance and visual arts organization Pepatián. Through its cyber residency and its gallery, the Longwood Art Project has been instrumental in facilitating and showcasing the projects of both established and emerging Latino visual artists. The artist registry and the exhibition records at LAP reflect this long trajectory and offer valuable information on artists whose works are not extensively documented elsewhere.
Relations to other Latino and Latin American organizations
BCA/LAP have worked in collaboration with the following Latino art institutions: the Association of Hispanic Arts, The Bronx Museum of the Arts, El Centro de Estudios Puertorriqueños, En Foco, Hostos Community College, Lehman College, MediaNoche, El Museo del Barrio, Pepatián, Pregones Theater, PR Dream, and Taller Boricua.
The Bronx Museum of the Arts
The Bronx Museum of the Arts (BxMA) was founded in 1971 to serve the culturally diverse populations of the Bronx and the greater New York metropolitan area. The Museum functioned as a small exhibition space within the Bronx Courthouse until 1982, when it moved to its current location. The Bronx Museum of the Arts seeks to collect, conserve, interpret, and exhibit twentieth- and twenty-first-century works by artists of Latin American, Asian, and African descent and artists with strong ties to the Bronx.
Contact Information
The Bronx Museum of the Arts
1040 Grand Concourse
Bronx, NY 10456
Tel. (718) 681-6000 ext. 135
Fax. (718) 681-6181
http://www.bronxmuseum.org
Contact
Erin Riley-Lopez, Assistant Curator
[email protected]
Hours open to the public
Public hours: Monday, Thursday, Saturday, Sunday 12:00 p.m.–6:00 p.m., Friday 12:00 p.m.–8:00 p.m., Closed Tuesday and Wednesday
Office hours: Monday–Friday, 10:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m.
Archives are available by appointment only.
History of the Institution
The Bronx Museum of the Arts (BxMA) was founded in 1971 to serve the culturally diverse populations of the Bronx and the greater New York metropolitan area. The Museum functioned as a small exhibition space within the Bronx Courthouse until 1982, when it moved to its current location. The Bronx Museum of the Arts seeks to collect, conserve, interpret, and exhibit twentieth- and twenty-first-century works by artists of Latin American, Asian, and African descent and artists with strong ties to the Bronx.
Scope and Content
While the Museum has no formal archival collection policy, the content of the museum’s records reflects its mission to collect works from the latter half of the twentieth century to the present by artists of Latin American, Asian, and African descent and artists with strong ties to the Bronx. Records pertaining to Latino artists are estimated to represent 1/8 of the total records of the museum.
The Museum’s slide collection is organized into three sub-groups: collection slides, artist slides, and installation slides. Artist files are subdivided into files of artists in the permanent collection, and general artist files, which contain information on artists who have been part of the Artists in the Marketplace program (see Secondary Sources), artists who have exhibited at the BxMA, and artists being considered for future exhibitions. Slides and artist files are organized in alphabetical order and not divided by ethnic background.
Overall holdings of archives and research material: 120 linear feet
Overall holdings of archives and research material related to Latino art: Thirty-two linear feet
Inclusive dates of files: 1920–present
Bulk dates: 1970–present
Languages in which records are written:
English, Spanish, Portuguese (5%)
Holdings–Primary Sources
Archives of institution’s history and operation related to Latino art:
Five linear feet
Newsletters and magazines published in-house:
Two linear feet
The BxMA published a museum newsletter from 1981 until 1991
Recorded interviews and performances:
Fifteen items
These include performances by Pepón Osorio and Pepatián.
Slides and photographs:
1,720 items
This includes fifty slides and transparencies of collection objects created by Latino artists, 1,300 slides of exhibition installations including Latino artists, and 370 miscellaneous slides collected by curators or donated by Latino artists. These slides include works by Rimer Cardillo, Valeska Soares, Luis Jiménez, and Ester Hernández, among others. Slides cannot be checked out, but duplicates can be purchased for research purposes.
Art objects and artifacts available for research:
165 items
The BxMA has an outstanding collection of works on paper by Latin American and Latino artists, including Ana Mendieta, Roberto Juarez, and Juan Sánchez, as well as sub-collections of prints from Argentina and Puerto Rico and many prints and drawings by Chicano/a artists like Ester Hernández and Luis Jiménez. Researchers may be granted authorization by the curators to view these items closely.
Exhibition catalogues published in-house that include work by Latino artists:
Eighteen items
Some important titles include The Latin American Spirit: Art and Artists in the United States 1920–1970, Luis Cancel, ed. (1988); Rimer Cardillo: Araucaria, Marysol Nieves, ed. (1998). Raquel Rabinovich: Invisible Cities (1986). Annual AIM (Artist in the Marketplace) catalogues from 1984 to the present include Latino artists.
Holdings–Secondary Sources
Exhibition catalogues, books, and periodicals related to Latino art:
Eight linear feet
Books are for internal use and are located in curators’ workspace. Some titles on Latino art include CARA: Chicano Art Resistance and Affirmation Richard Griswold del Castillo, Teresa McKenna, and Yvonne Yarbro-Bejarano eds. (1991), and Chicano Annotated Bibliography (1995) Shifra Goldman and Tomás Ybarra-Frausto eds. (1985).
Vertical file materials related to Latino art: artist files, brochures, pamphlets, clippings:
Fifteen linear feet
The vertical file materials are organized in alphabetical order. They are composed of artist files containing clippings, résumés, and slides of artists who have exhibited their work at the BxMA, including Liliana Porter, Juan Sánchez, and Ernesto Pujol. The artist files also contain material on every artist who has participated in the AIM (Artists in the Marketplace) program. Every year this program provides exhibition opportunities and artistic training for thirty-six emerging artists chosen by the Bronx Museum. The program has been ongoing for twenty-four years and has included many artists from New York’s Latino community such as Miguel Luciano, Diógenes Ballester, and Sandra Bermúdez. Additionally, there are numerous artist files generated by the curatorial staff to serve their exhibition needs.
Following the mission of the BxMA, the artists files focus on artists of Latin American, Asian, and African descent, as well as artists with strong ties to the Bronx. Approximately 1/8 of the artist files are dedicated to Latino artists.
There is also a section of the vertical files dedicated to artists who have works in the permanent collection of the BxMA; Latino artists like Ana Mendieta, Pepón Osorio, and Ester Hernández are included. The BxMA has a permanent collection of 800 works of art; approximately 1/16 of this collection is devoted to works by artists of Latin American descent.
Artist files are generated as new exhibitions take place at the BxMA or as new works of art are added to the permanent collection.
Holdings–Finding Aids
There is a database for the collection, but not for the archives.
Accessibility
The museum currently lacks the infrastructure to facilitate scholarly use of its archives. The archives are spread throughout several rooms in the museum and access to them is only possible by appointment and with prior knowledge of the files to be researched. However, the BxMA plans to organize a small library for internal use as well as archives accessible to the general public.
Restrictions
The BxMA restricts access to selected records, some of which are confidential. Special permission from the curator is required to view the Museum’s files. Some artists’ files or collection files contain confidential information such as personal addresses or phone numbers.
General Assessment
The content of the museum’s archive reflects the institution’s mission to collect works from the latter half of the twentieth century to the present by artists of Latin American, Asian, and African descent and by artists with strong ties to the Bronx. The artist files are the strength of the BxMA’s research materials. They are an excellent resource for information on many emerging Latino artists (especially those who participated in the AIM Program) as well as more established Latino and Latin American contemporary artists that have exhibited at the BxMA, including Josely Carvalho, Liliana Porter, and Pepón Osorio. Researchers may access videotaped walk-throughs of previous exhibitions.
The BxMA has a valuable slide collection of Latino and Latin American contemporary artists who are rarely represented in other slide collections around the city.
However, the BxMA’S files are fairly difficult to access because the museum does not have an area reserved for researchers, and materials can therefore only be viewed upon advanced request.
Relations to other Latino and Latin American organizations
The multidisciplinary Latino art organization Pepatián, regularly presents projects at the BxMA. In 1986 The Bronx Museum produced an exhibition with the Puerto Rican photography collective En Foco. In its early years the BxMA also collaborated with El Taller Boricua.
Center for Cuban Studies
The Center for Cuban Studies is a non-profit cultural institution located in New York City with a national membership base. Through programs of news, information, and exchanges, it works to normalize the relations between the United States and Cuba.
Contact Information
Center for Cuban Studies
231 West 29 Street, 4th floor
New York, NY 10011
Tel. (212) 242-0559
Fax. (212) 242-1937
http://www.cubaupdate.org
Contact
Sandra Levinson, Executive Director
[email protected]
Hours open to the public
The Center for Cuban Studies: Monday–Friday, 9:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m.The Lourdes Casal Library: Friday, 1:00–5:00 p.m., or by appointment
History of the Institution
The Center for Cuban Studies is a non-profit cultural institution located in New York City with a national membership base. Through programs of news, information, and exchanges, it works to normalize the relations between the United States and Cuba.
The 1961 U.S. ban on trade and travel to Cuba has resulted in a cultural embargo on information about Cuba. The Center opened in 1972, organized by a group of scholars, writers, artists, and other professionals, in response to the effects of U.S. policy toward Cuba. The Center has served as a communication link between the U.S. and Cuba through its publications, organized tours, library services, exchange programs, and art projects.
In 1999 the Center for Cuban Studies created the Cuban Art Space to collect, exhibit, and sell the art of artists born and living in Cuba. The Center for Cuban Studies and the Cuban Art Space share the same building.
Scope and Content
The Center for Cuban Studies documents the intellectual, social, historical, cultural, and political changes in Cuba over the last fifty years. The Cuban Art Space collects art by Cuban artists living in Cuba, and occasionally by artists in other Latin American countries and the United States. The archival records of the Cuban Art Center primarily document the art of Cuban artists who live and work in Cuba.
The bulk of the archival material is located at the Cuban Art Space together with the main office of the Center for Cuban Studies. In addition, the Lourdes Casal Library (on the third floor of the same building) contains some research materials on the visual arts, including books, periodicals, and clippings.
The collection of art at the Cuban Art Space is a very important element of their research material, as objects are viewable upon request.
Overall holdings of archives and research material: Twenty-three linear feet
Overall holdings of archives and research material related to Latino art: Two linear feet
Inclusive dates of files: 1930–present
Bulk dates: 1950–present
Languages in which records are written:
Most primary source materials are in Spanish. Secondary source materials (particularly art books) are mostly in English.
Holdings–Primary Sources
Archives of institution’s history and operation related to Latino art:
One linear foot
These materials include files related to operations and exhibitions organized at the Cuban Art Space. The Center for Cuban Studies has also some institutional records in an off-site location.
Newsletters and magazines published in-house:
CUBA Update is a quarterly, web-based magazine published by the Center of Cuban Studies that covers many topics including politics, economics, and the arts, with an emphasis on U.S-Cuba relations. With its own correspondents in Havana and the input of experts on both Cuba and the U.S., CUBA Update provides news coverage and discussion of important issues almost impossible to find elsewhere.
The Cuban Art Space has its own electronic newsletter, which it distributes to members only.
Recorded interviews and performances:
Twenty items
The Cuban Art Space holds recorded interviews with artists such as Alberto Korda, Marucha, Raúl Corrales, Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, William Pérez, and Rita Ibarra. These are recorded on VHS.
Slides and photographs:
2,500 items
The Cuban Art Space has approximately 1,500 images of artworks from their collection. Some artists represented in those photographs include Osvaldo Salas, Marta Jiménez, Alexis Martínez. In addition, the Cuban Art Space has 1,000 slides of posters, many of them produced by the Instituto Cubano de Arte e Industria Cinematográfica (ICAIC).
An additional 2,500 digital images document exhibition installations and works by individual artists. Approximately 490 of these images are available on the website. The rest are archived in the Cuban Art Center’s database. Some artists represented within the online images include Yamilis and Jacqueline Brito, Wayacón, Carlos Estévez, Joel Jover, Manuel Mendive, and Elsa Mora.
Art objects and artifacts available for research:
9,000 items
These include 1,500 photographs (art and photojournalism); 5,000 Posters (silkscreen); 2,200 Prints, Drawings; and 500 Paintings.
Exhibition catalogues published in-house that include work by Latino artists:
Seven items
Some titles include Cuban Photography 1959–1982 (1983), 10 Artists from Cuba (1981), Naïve Art from Cuba (1997), and Alfredo González Rostgaard: A Retrospective (2001).
Holdings–Secondary Sources
Exhibition catalogues, books, and periodicals related to Latino art:
Sixteen linear feet
These volumes are organized between the Lourdes Casal Library and the Cuban Art Space. Included are books on the art of Amelia Peláez and Roberto Fabelo, Jorge Rigol’s Apuntes Sobre Pintura y Grabado en Cuba, the catalogues of the Havana Biennial, the catalogues of the Salón Nacional de Fotografía, and a collection of hand-made books published by Ediciones Vigía. The Lourdes Casal Library subscribes to the art journal Arte Cubano and to the Revista Revolución y Cultura, which always includes articles about Cuban visual arts.
Vertical file materials related to Latino art: artist files, brochures, pamphlets, clippings:
Twelve linear feet
Materials in the artist files include digital images, résumés, slides, and clippings. Among the artists represented are José Bedia, Soso Bravo, Sandra Dooley, Carlos Estévez, Roberto Fabelo, José Fuster, Alicia Leal, Raúl Martínez, Elsa Mora, Manuel Mendive, William Pérez, Sandra Ramos, and Adrián Rumbao.
Holdings–Finding Aids
A database of the art collection is available. The artist files are not cataloged but are assembled in one filing cabinet and organized alphabetically. The materials at the Lourdes Casal Library are listed in a database. However, art books and periodicals are in the process of being added.
Accessibility
Archival records and research materials are viewable only upon request. Appointments should be made at least one day in advance. There are no access restrictions to the research materials.
Restrictions
None.
General Assessment
The archival records pertaining to the visual arts at the Cuban Art Space and the Center for Cuban Studies constitute a unique source of information for researchers interested in Cuban art produced on the island after the Revolution in 1959. The art collection of the Cuban Art Space, their artist files, and the cultural and art journals available at the Lourdes Casal Library are great resources that fill a void in the sources of information available on Cuba in the United States.
Relations to other Latino and Latin American organizations
The Center for Cuban Studies collaborates with the Institute for Research in African-American Studies, the Institute for African Studies, and the Institute for Latin American Studies (Columbia University) to organize lectures related to Cuban culture.
The Center for Puerto Rican Studies
Founded in 1973 as a component of The Center for Puerto Rican Studies, El Centro Library and Archives is devoted to collecting, preserving, and providing access to resources documenting the history and culture of Puerto Ricans—primarily on the mainland, but also in Puerto Rico. The mission of El Centro’s Library is twofold. One part of that mission is to collect, preserve, and provide access to archival and library resources documenting the history and culture of Puerto Ricans. The other is to produce, facilitate, and disseminate interdisciplinary research about the diasporic experiences of Puerto Ricans and to link scholarly inquiry to social action and policy debates.
Contact Information
El Centro de Estudios Puertorriqueños/The Center for Puerto Rican Studies—Library & Archives
Hunter College
695 Park Avenue, Room E 1429
New York, NY 10021
Tel. (212) 772-4197
Fax (212) 650-3628
http://centropr.org
Contact
Pedro Juan Hernández, Senior Archivist
[email protected]
Hours open to the public
Monday, Wednesday & Thursday 9:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m.
Tuesday 9:00 a.m.–9:00 p.m.
Friday & Saturday 12:00–6:00 p.m.
Hours are subject to change.
History of the Institution
Founded in 1973 as a component of The Center for Puerto Rican Studies, El Centro Library and Archives is devoted to collecting, preserving, and providing access to resources documenting the history and culture of Puerto Ricans—primarily on the mainland, but also in Puerto Rico. The mission of El Centro’s Library is twofold. One part of that mission is to collect, preserve, and provide access to archival and library resources documenting the history and culture of Puerto Ricans. The other is to produce, facilitate, and disseminate interdisciplinary research about the diasporic experiences of Puerto Ricans and to link scholarly inquiry to social action and policy debates.
Scope and Content
The collection includes books, periodicals, audio and video tapes, manuscripts, photographs, prints, and recorded music documenting the history and culture of Puerto Ricans who migrated to the United States and Puerto Ricans on the island.
The photographs in El Centro’s collection are of particular interest as many of them are both art works and historic material documenting the Puerto Rican diaspora. El Centro’s holdings in books and catalogues related to Latino visual arts production, while limited, include rare and out-of-print books, making it a valuable resource. Among those books are Peter Bloch’s Puerto Rican Painting (1978) and catalogues from recent and past exhibitions of Puerto Rican artists in the island and the mainland. El Centro holds also a growing collection of artist files.
Overall holdings of archives and research material: 4,000 linear feet
Overall holdings of archives and research material on Latino art: 129 linear feet
Inclusive dates of files: 1900–present
Bulk dates: 1940–present
Languages in which records are written:
English, Spanish. Finding aids are bilingual.
Holdings–Primary Sources
Personal papers of artists, critics or art historians associated with Latino art:
Eight linear feet
These include the personal papers of writer Clemente Soto Vélez, which contain numerous materials related to art, including works on paper by Nuyorican artists such as Jorge Soto, Merián Soto and her dance company Pepatián, and Pepón Osorio, among others. El Centro also holds the personal papers of literary critic and art collector Rafael Rodríguez, which contain material related to the visual arts. El Centro holds as well the personal papers of art historian Mario César Romero, a long-time resident of El Barrio, East Harlem.
Archives of institution’s history and operation related to Latino art:
42.2 linear feet
These include, among other holdings, the records generated for the symposium Assessment and Valuation of Puerto Rican, Chicano, Latino, and Hispanic-Caribbean Art, co-organized by The Center for Puerto Rican Studies, the Inter-University Program for Latino Research, Notre Dame, and Appraisers Association of America, Inc. This event was held on May 20–21, 2005 at Hunter College. Records include as well the exhibition files generated by El Centro for the artists showcased since the inception of their gallery program in 2003.
Newsletters and magazines published in-house:
Since 1994 El Centro publishes Centro Journal, a peer-reviewed academic journal dedicated to the Puerto Rican diaspora. The Fall 2005 issue of this journal is titled “Puerto Rican Visual artists and the United States” and was edited by Yasmín Ramírez. The work of artists Néstor Otero, Marcos Dimas, Fernando Salicrup, and Rafael Trelles and others has appeared on the cover of this journal. El Centro recently published a two-volume CD-Rom entitled Puerto Ricans in the USA: 1898–1999. El Centro also publishes a bi-annual newsletter. The Centro Journal and the newsletter can be accessed online on El Centro’s website.
Recorded interviews and performances:
57 items
These include all the interviews with personalities of art and culture conducted by Yasmín Ramírez for her doctoral dissertation on Nuyorican art. Those interviewed include: Jack Agüeros, Brenda Alejandro, Diógenes Ballester, Petra Barreras, Antonio Bechara, Marimar Benítez, Peter Bloch, Charles Biasiny Rivera, Luis Cancel, Evelyn Collazo, Papo Colo, Rafael Colón Morales, Marcos Dimas, Adrian García, Chino García, Antonio Martorell, Irving McManus, Rafael Montañez Ortíz, Isabel Nazario, Carmen Nelson, Pepón Osorio, Dylcia Pagan, Gladys Peña, Nilda Peraza, Geno Rodríguez, Federico Ruiz, Fernando Salicrup, Juan Sánchez, Nitza Tufiño, and Rafael Tufiño. El Centro holds as well a video produced for the 30 Year Portfolio of Digital Prints published by Taller Boricua, and a video by Rafael Montañez-Ortiz titled “Introspective: Selection of works from 1950–1990.” These items are on VHS, mini-DV, and audiotape formats.
Slides and photographs:
25,000 items (seventy linear feet)
These include the photographs from the Office of Information of Puerto Rico, which contain images by Jack Delano, Edwin and Louise Rosskam, Charles Rotkin and others photographers who documented life in Puerto Rico in the 1940s and 1950s. The Library also holds a vast and rich collection of over 10,000 photographs by Justo A. Martí, a Cuban photojournalist who worked for El Diario La Prensa. These photos document the Puerto Rican and Latino community in New York in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. In addition, some of El Centro’s collections of personal papers contain photographs dating to the early part of the century. El Centro Library and Archives also holds photographs by contemporary photographers such as Adál Maldonado, Máximo Colón, Tony Vélez, and Hiram Maristany.
Digital images:
350 items
This represents half of the entire collection of paintings, prints, and posters at El Centro. El Centro hopes to complete digitization by June 2004, when they will have 700 digital images.
Art objects and artifacts available for research:
165 items
El Centro has 8.5 linear feet of flat files, which include silk-screens produced for the DIVEDCO films by masters of the “50s Generation” like Rafael Tufiño and Lorenzo Homar. Other renowned Puerto Rican and Nuyorican artists in the collection include Julio Rosado del Valle, Nestor Sambolín, Epifanio Irizarry, Antonio Martorell, Jorge Soto, Fernando Salicrup, Marcos Dimas, Gilberto Hernández, Elizam Escobar, Manuel Vega, Juan Sánchez, and Hiram Maristany. El Centro’s collection includes five paintings and twenty-five drawings. In 2003 El Centro started commissioning limited editions of prints by Puerto Rican artists to be sold. This initiative is a way to promote artists while fundraising for other art projects organized by El Centro. Miriam Hernández was the first artist to create a print for El Centro. Forthcoming in 2006 is a new edition by Miguel Luciano.
Films by or about Latinos:
Undetermined
El Centro holds numerous films by Puerto Rican directors and producers which deal with aspects of Puerto Rican culture in the island and the mainland. These include Miguel Piñero Reading at magic Gallery (1964); Myrna Baez: Los Espejos de Silencio/Mirrors of Silence (1989); Nine Artists of Puerto Rico (1970); The Oxcart (1970), among many others. A complete list with descriptions is available on their website. El Centro also owns the films produced by the Division of Community Education (DIVEDCO) in Puerto Rico from the 1930s to the 1950s, in which visual artists collaborated with filmmakers to create films of educational value.
Holdings–Secondary Sources
Exhibition catalogues, books and periodicals related to Latino art:
Eleven linear feet
El Centro regularly receives Aztlán, a Chicano Studies journal that often includes articles on visual arts. El Centro has various art journals in microfilm published between 1923 and 1969 such as Artistas Hispanos, New York, 1948; Cine Variedades, New York, 1953–1954; La Voz del Artista, New York, 1960; and Artes y Letras, New York, 1933–1935 and 1936–1939.
Vertical file materials related to Latino art: artist files, brochures, pamphlets, clippings:
Six linear feet
El Centro has a growing collection of vertical files of Puerto Rican and Latino artists, including: Manuel Acevedo, John Ahearn and Rigoberto Torres, Elia Alba, José Alicea, Cándida Alvarez, Myrna Báez, Diógenes Ballester, Tony Bechara, Charles Biasiny-Rivera, Héctor Méndez Caratini, Wilfredo Chiesa, Papo Colo, Máximo Colón, María Cortijo, Marcos Dimas, Jack and Irene Delano, Perla De León, James de la Vega, María Dominguez, Elizam Escobar, Rafael Ferrer, Adrian García, Anaida Hernández, Luis Hernández Cruz, Miriam Hernández, Yasmín Hernández, Lorenzo Homar, Carlos Irizarry, Miguel Luciano, Adál Maldonado, Antonio Martorell, Malaquías Montoya, Arnaldo Morales, José Morales, Rafael Colón Morales, Wanda Ortiz, Rafael Montañez Ortiz, Pepón Osorio, Miguel Pou, Arnaldo Roche, Geno Rodríguez, Gloria Rodríguez, Freddy Rodríguez, Charlie Rosario, Ray Rosario, Julio Rosado del Valle, Fernando Salicrup, Juan Sánchez, Scherezade García, Elaine Soto, Jorge Soto, Rigoberto Torres, Tanya Torres, Miguel Trelles, Nitza Tufiño, Rafael Tufiño, ,Julio Valdez, Jorge Vargas, Manuel Vega, Tony Vélez, Pedro Villarini,and Joe Wippler (Ezo).
Holdings–Finding Aids
El Centro Library has twenty-five full finding aids for its collection of personal papers, along with a number of incomplete finding aids. El Centro’s finding aids are all bilingual. All books and exhibition catalogues in its collection can be found through the database of CUNY libraries (CUNY+). El Centro is preparing an inventory of the art in its flat files, which will be made available on its Web site. Additionally, El Centro will be cataloging these items, making them accessible through CUNY+. El Centro has a list of the films in their collection available online. El Centro Journal is reproduced on El Centro’s website.
Accessibility
The Center for Puerto Rican Studies is an academic research center. Materials are catalogued and well preserved. Appointments are required to use archival materials, but the library is open to the general public without appointment.
Restrictions
El Centro restricts access to selected records, some of which are confidential. El Centro is a non-circulating library. Please note that the Library and Archives are open to the general public and no academic ID is required. In the interests of better serving researchers with the limited staff available, the Archives are available by appointment only.
General Assessment
Although El Centro Library and Archives is best known for its holdings in history, literature, sociology, and cultural anthropology, its holdings in Puerto Rican visual arts are of comparable strength. El Centro is one of the few research centers in New York where this material is catalogued, making it easier for the general public to find the materials they seek.
The Centro Library and Archives is committed to making its resources available to a wide audience. For this reason, El Centro allows the public to examine its holdings closely, even allowing researchers to handle works of art under staff supervision.
Relations to other Latino and Latin American organizations
El Centro has had collaborative relationships with many of the major Puerto Rican and Latino organizations in New York City. For example, El Diario/la prensa, ASPIRA, the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund, the Puerto Rico Federal Affairs Administration, Julia de Burgos Cultural Center, and El Museo del Barrio, among others.
El Centro had a close relationship with visual artists in New York when it was founded in 1973. This relationship has, however, become less prominent over the last two decades. Many of El Centro’s early publications contain reproductions of rarely seen works by Nuyorican artists such as Jorge Soto and Manuel Neco Otero. Artist Néstor Otero has maintained a collaborative relationship with El Centro Journal. In 2003 El Centro began a program of monthly exhibitions, displaying works from their permanent collection as well as works by invited artists.
Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural and Educational Center
Named after the respected Puerto Rican poet, the Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural and Educational Center was created to nurture and aid in the development of the Puerto Rican and Latino arts in the Lower East Side.
Contact Information
Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural and Educational Center
107 Suffolk Street
New York, NY 10002
Tel: (212) 260-4080
http://csvcenter.org
Contact
Jan Hanvik, Executive Director
[email protected]
Hours open to the public
Art Gallery: Monday-Thursday, 4:00–10:00 p.m.
History of the Institution
Named after the respected Puerto Rican poet, the Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural and Educational Center was created to nurture and aid in the development of the Puerto Rican and Latino arts in the Lower East Side.
The Clemente was founded in 1993 by Edgardo Vega Yunqué, Nelson Landrieu, and Mateo Gómez. At the time, Teatro La Tea, established by Landrieu and Gómez, was the only functioning theater in the building that now houses the Clemente. Less than a year later, after much hard work and payment of an outstanding debt of over $30,000, the devoted trio acquired the lease to the city-owned building, on 107 Suffolk Street from Solidaridad Humana, a community-based education and human services organization.
The Clemente is located at 107 Suffolk Street, between Rivington and Delancey Streets; it is the foremost architectural landmark in that part of the Lower East Side still known as Loisaida. The Dutch Neo-Gothic building is a former public school (PS 160) constructed in 1898 by the Board of Education of the City of New York. By the mid-seventies the building had ceased to serve as a public school. From 1984 to 1990 it housed Solidaridad Humana, a revolutionary community-based education program that was comprehensive and bilingual.
As with most Latino arts centers and organizations throughout the country, the Clemente has struggled against many odds to keep its doors open. Lack of funding, benefactors, or patrons to support Latino arts programs present hardships. Nevertheless, the space is steadily being improved with the intention of making the Clemente a focus of Latino art and culture in New York City.
Currently the Clemente houses twelve resident companies and fifty-three individual artists, of which one-third are Latino / Hispanic.
Scope and Content
The archival records of the Clemente are mostly self-generated. They include the organization’s operation records, which are comprised mainly of occupancy agreements and documents regarding the building’s operations and maintenance. The Clemente also holds one linear foot of artist files regarding its resident artists.
There is no formal archival policy in place. The Clemente keeps application materials sent by artists soliciting studio space. These materials include artists’ letters of interest, press on solo or group exhibitions, and resumes. Promotional materials on exhibitions and cultural events held at the Clemente are mostly limited to emails and flyers.
The Clemente can mediate the access to the archival records of resident companies.
Overall holdings of archives and research material: Thirty-five linear feet
Overall holdings of archives and research material on Latino art: Thirty-two linear feet
Inclusive dates of files: 1984–2005
Bulk dates: 1993–2005
Languages in which records are written:
English
Holdings–Primary Sources
Archives of institution’s history and operation related to Latino art:
Thirty-one linear feet
The Clemente keeps information such as occupancy agreements, donation information, bills, checks, brochures, and some artist file materials.
Archives of manuscripts of other institutions related to Latino art:
The main office of the Clemente holds solely records on their operations. However, most of the resident companies in the Clemente building, including Teatro La TEA and SEA hold their own archival records. The contact information for the resident companies can be found on the Clemente website.
Digital images:
Twenty-two items
The organization has digital images documenting the work of many of its resident artists. These images will soon be made accessible through the Clemente’s website.
Exhibition catalogues published in-house that include work by Latino artists:
The Clemente has not published any catalogues, but flyers and postcards are printed for most of the exhibitions they organize.
Films by or about Latinos:
The Clemente does not actively collect films, although there are some in its archive. Some Latino film companies like Cine Huracán and MoxieFilms, and independent filmmakers including Vlamyr Vizcaya, Luis Castro, and Isabel Bigalow hold studios at the Clemente. The organization can facilitate contact with these artists and companies in order for researchers to have access to their productions and archival materials.
Holdings–Secondary Sources
Vertical file materials related to Latino art: artist files, brochures, pamphlets, clippings:
One linear foot
Artist files document the resident artists at the Clemente. They include materials on Sira Ayensa, Natalia Campos, Luis Castro, Anibal Cicardi, Silvio de la Cruz, Rafael Mendez, Freddie Molina, Miguel Trelles, and Rafael Tufiño, among others. Files are created as an artist becomes a tenant of the Center and are updated as he or she builds a base exhibition portfolio.
Holdings–Finding Aids
There are no finding aids to the Clemente archives.
Accessibility
Currently there is no space designated for researchers, but there is a conference table that can be made available when it is not being used by the staff.
Restrictions
Archival records are accessible by appointment only.
General Assessment
For more than a decade, the Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural Center has served as an important incubator for the arts in the Lower East Side. It has provided workshop and exhibition space for numerous Puerto Rican and Latino artists, as well as to artists of other cultural backgrounds. The archival holdings that are of interest to researchers are currently limited. Nonetheless, the Clemente is starting to develop an archive in the hopes of documenting the artists who hold working space there.
Relations to other Latino and Latin American organizations
Currently the Clemente houses twelve resident dance, theater, film, and performance companies. These include:
La Tea (Latin American Theater Experimental & Associates) Theater Company is the oldest resident theater at the Clemente. Founded in 1982, La Tea is committed to nurturing and promoting Latin American literature, music, and visual art.
SEA Society of the Educational Arts, Inc./Sociedad Educativa de las Artes, Inc. was founded in 1985 in Puerto Rico, and has been operating in New York since 1993. SEA is a not-for-profit Hispanic/Bilingual Arts-in-Education Organization dedicated to the empowerment and educational advancement of children and young adults.
Fantastic Experimental Latino Theater (FELT) was founded in 1994, to strengthen and develop social and cultural awareness of Latinos in New York City. FELT addresses social and economic issues affecting the health and general well being of New York City’s Latino population.
HOLA Hispanic Organization for Latin Actors is a Hispanic arts service organization committed to exploring and expanding available avenues for projecting Hispanic artists and their culture into the mainstream of the Anglo-American industry, culture, and society.
Mark DeGarmo Dancers/Dynamic Forms, Inc. was founded in New York City in 1982 by choreographer, dancer, arts educator, and artistic director Mark DeGarmo and incorporated as a not-for-profit organization in 1987.
Afro Brazil Arts (ABA)/Capoeira Angola Palmares Academy, a non-profit organization founded in 1991, expands the circle of people who express themselves through art with capoeira instruction, performance, and the production and distribution of educational material.
Féraba is an African dance and percussion ensemble. The members of Féraba originally came from Austria, Japan, the United States, and West Africa and brought their diverse cultural backgrounds with them to this growing eclectic company.
Artists Alliance
Pier Studios
Arts for Arts
LES Visual Arts Collective
In addition, the Clemente has served as a venue for the Latin American Dance Festival and exhibitions from Organization of Puerto Rican Artists (O.P. Art).
Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum
Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, Smithsonian Institution is the only museum in the United States devoted exclusively to historic and contemporary design. The Museum believes that design shapes our objects, making them more desirable, functional, and accessible. Celebrating the nature of design, the Museum explores design’s impact on the quality of our lives. The Cooper-Hewitt presents compelling perspectives on the impact of design on daily life through active educational programs, exhibitions, and publications.
Contact Information
Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum
2 East 91 Street
New York, NY 10028
Tel. (212) 849-8330
http://ndm.si.edu
Contact
Steve van Dyk, Chief Librarian/Elizabeth Broman, Reference Librarian
[email protected]
Hours open to the public
Monday–Friday: 10:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.
Saturday: 10:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m.
Sunday: 12:00–6:00 p.m.
Garden entrance on Ninetieth Street open May–September (weather permitting)
Closed Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, and New Year’s Day
Appointments should be made at least one day in advance.
History of the Institution
Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, Smithsonian Institution is the only museum in the United States devoted exclusively to historic and contemporary design. The Museum believes that design shapes our objects, making them more desirable, functional, and accessible. Celebrating the nature of design, the Museum explores design’s impact on the quality of our lives. The Cooper-Hewitt presents compelling perspectives on the impact of design on daily life through active educational programs, exhibitions, and publications.
The goals of the Cooper-Hewitt’s historical and archival collections are to document the history of design, to encourage and assist scholarly research in design and related areas, and to increase public knowledge in these subject areas. The Cooper-Hewitt Archive, like the Smithsonian Libraries, supports the mission of the institution to increase and disseminate knowledge by building, organizing, managing, housing, preserving, and making readily available these special collections.
The Museum was founded in 1897 by Amy, Eleanor, and Sarah Hewitt—granddaughters of industrialist Peter Cooper—as part of The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art. A branch of the Smithsonian since 1967, the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum is housed in the Andrew Carnegie Mansion on Fifth Avenue in New York City.
The Museum’s Latino/Hispanic Archive was created in 1995 in response to the growing need for information about, and a fuller awareness of, the diversity of those working in American design. As the Smithsonian’s national repository of documentary and visual materials on Latino and Hispanic designers and their work, the Archive facilitates research in the fields of industrial and graphic design, architecture and interior design, urban planning, and the design of textiles, wallcoverings, floorcoverings, jewelry, furniture, glass, ceramics, and theatrical and movie sets.
Scope and Content
The Cooper-Hewitt’s Library is a branch of the Smithsonian Institution Libraries and contains more than 70,000 volumes, including books, periodicals, catalogues, and trades literature dating from the fifteenth through the twenty-first centuries.
Volumes cover American and European design and decorative arts, with concentrations in architecture, graphic design, interior design, ornamental patterns, furniture, wallcoverings, textiles, metalwork, glass, ceramics, and jewelry. The Library’s Archive contains photographs, correspondence, promotional material, drawings, writings, and related resource items for more than thirty American designers, including Henry Dreyfuss and Donald Deskey. Additionally, the library maintains research files on contemporary African American designers.
Within the Library’s Archive, the Latino-Hispanic Archive documents the work of contemporary designers of Latino and Hispanic descent, with a focus on those working in the United States and the Caribbean; South American and Central American designers are also represented. The designers and architects included demonstrate a level of expertise and achievement that warrants recognition by the academic and professional design communities. The archive consists of slides, photographs, exhibition catalogs, clippings, promotional materials, and periodicals. The work of designers and architects such as Miguel Baltierra, Benjamin Noriega-Ortíz, and José Rugueiro can be found the archive.
Overall holdings of archives and research material: 70,000 volumes
Overall holdings of archives and research material related to Latino art: Twelve linear feet
Inclusive dates of files: 1400–present
Bulk dates: (Latino/Hispanic Archive) 1980–1998
Languages in which records are written:
English, Spanish, Portuguese
Holdings–Primary Sources
Archives of institution’s history and operation related to Latino art:
One linear foot
These files contain correspondence between Luis Badillo, organizer of the Latino/Hispanic Archive, and the artists, architects, and designers who sent their materials to be archived at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum.
Newsletters and magazines published in-house:
The archive contains copies of the Cooper-Hewitt Magazine that mention the Latino/Hispanic Archive. This magazine is published three to four times a year. The Latino/Hispanic Archive only has the issues published between 1996 and 1999.
Slides and photographs:
200 items
Some of the artists’ files contain slides (approximately 200 in total) and/or photographs of their works. Slides or photos of the work of architects Warren James, Miguel Baltierra, Rafael Viñoly, Cesar Pelli, etc. can be found in the archive.
Art objects and artifacts available for research:
One item
The archive holds an artist book by the graphic designer Carlos Segura from the design firm Segura Inc.
Holdings–Secondary Sources
Exhibition catalogues, books, and periodicals related to Latino art:
2.25 linear feet
Catalogues, books, and periodicals are loosely arranged and many are located within the artist files.
The Latino/Hispanic Archive has several sets of architecture and design journals published in Latin America. The CHM Latino/Hispanic Archive stopped receiving most of these periodicals around 1998. These include Heliografía, a quarterly newsletter of the Architecture School at the University of Puerto Rico. The Cooper-Hewitt has the issues of this quarterly newsletter that were published between 1993 and 1996.
The Latino/ Hispanic Archive has issues 6–11, published between 1997 and 1998, of Proyecto Diseño, a quarterly Colombian design magazine. The Latino/ Hispanic Archive also has issues 1–8, published between 1983 and 1990, of Brazilian architectural magazine Arquitetura Revista.
More Latino/Hispanic materials would likely be found at the American Art/Portrait Gallery Library (AAPG), or the National Museum of American History (NMAH), or at the Hirshhorn Museum Library, all located in Washington, DC. The Cooper-Hewitt’s Library does not collect books related to Latino/Hispanic art and artists, as this objective would overlap with the collection policies of the branches of the Smithsonian Institution in DC. However, it is possible to arrange intra-library loans from these branches.
Vertical file materials related to Latino art: artist files, brochures, pamphlets, clippings:
Seven linear feet
The artist files of the Latino/Hispanic Archive contain clippings, resumes, slides, photographs, brochures, and thin catalogues of artists and designers who work in lighting, furniture, graphics, interior design, architecture, and other decorative arts. Among the artists represented are the architects Miguel Baltierra, Warren James, Eugene Kopac, Cesar Pelli, Rafael Viñoly. Graphic artists and designers Carlos Segura, Néstor Otero, jewelry designer Pola Lubezki, and furniture designer José Regueiro also have artist files.
Artist files are not organized alphabetically.
Each artist file has a tag that identifies the branch of design in which the artist works.
Holdings–Finding Aids
There is a list of the artists represented in the artist files of the Latino/Hispanic archive. Artist files are not organized alphabetically, but each artist file has a label identifying the branch of design in which the artist works.
Accessibility
The Latino/Hispanic Archive is located within the Cooper-Hewitt Library, and therefore has the necessary infrastructure for servicing researchers.
Restrictions
None.
General Assessment
The Latino/Hispanic Archive at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum constitutes a unique resource for its emphasis on architecture, design, and decorative arts. Information on architecture, design, and decorative arts made by Latinos is hard to find even in specialized art libraries. The artist files contain research material on many Latino architects and designers working in New York and in Latin America. Since 1998 there has been no one in charge of adding new materials to the archive.
Relations to other Latino and Latin American organizations
The Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum is part of the Smithsonian Institution, which implemented policies for Latino Initiatives starting in 1993. The Smithsonian Center for Latino Initiatives opened its doors on August 10, 1998. The Center’s vision was shaped by means of extensive dialog, conferences, and collaboration among educators, scholars, and community leaders, as well as museums, universities, and cultural and public institutions. Their website, which includes exhibitions, resources, and educational opportunities, can be visited at: http://latino.si.edu.
Dominican Studies Institute Library
The CUNY-DSI Library is a unique collection whose mission is to identify, collect, organize, preserve and make available bibliographical sources documenting the Dominican experience in the United States. As an organized research unit of the university, the institute sponsors research projects covering areas that include, but are not limited to, education, migration, language, literature, history, economics, women’s issues, politics, youth, cultural identity, sports, performing arts, and visual arts.
Contact Information
Dominican Studies Institute Library, City College, CUNY
Convent Avenue & 138 Street, NAC 4/107
New York, NY 10031-9198
Tel.: (212) 650-7496
Fax:(212) 650-7489
http://www.ccny.cuny.edu/dsi
Contact
Sarah Aponte, MLS, MSEd. CUNY-DSI Librarian
[email protected]
Hours open to the public
Monday–Friday, 9:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m.
Note: Closed on Fridays during the month of July and the first half of August.
History of the Institution
The CUNY Dominican Studies Institute at the City College of New York (CUNY-DSI) came into being through the agency of the Council of Dominican Educators, community activists, and other academics from CUNY. Founded to address the lack of reliable information on Dominicans for academic researchers and others, it is the first and only university-based research institution in the United States focusing on the study of Dominican life in the diaspora. The CUNY-DSI began as a pilot project in August of 1992, with a development grant made available by CUNY’s Chancellor. Upon official approval by the Board of Trustees in 1994, the CUNY-DSI became an integral component of the City University of New York.
The CUNY-DSI Library is a unique collection whose mission is to identify, collect, organize, preserve and make available bibliographical sources documenting the Dominican experience in the United States. As an organized research unit of the university, the institute sponsors research projects covering areas that include, but are not limited to, education, migration, language, literature, history, economics, women’s issues, politics, youth, cultural identity, sports, performing arts, and visual arts.
Regular donations combined with a budget allocation from the CUNY-DSI’s annual operating budget have enabled the library to grow systematically, becoming the largest specialized collection on U.S. Dominicans in the country.
Scope and Content
The archival holdings of CUNY-DSI Library pertain to Dominicans in the United States, the Dominican Republic, and elsewhere. Holdings include articles, newspaper clippings, master and doctoral dissertations, documentaries, audio-cassettes, conference papers and others. They cover a variety of fields including culture, history, literature, politics, and sociology. The holdings documenting the visual arts, while limited, include rare and out-of-print books, exhibition catalogues, and clippings on Dominican art production in the U.S.
Overall holdings of archives and research material: Eighty-six linear feet
Overall holdings of archives and research material related to Latino art: Fourteen linear feet
Inclusive dates of files: 1930–present
Bulk dates: 1960s–present
Languages in which records are written:
English (50%) and Spanish (50%)
Holdings–Primary Sources
Archives of institution’s history and operation related to Latino art:
Three linear feet
These records pertain to various exhibitions and public programs organized by the Dominican Studies Institute, including Caña Brava: The Bateys of the Dominican Republic (2003), an exhibition of Jon Anderson’s black and white photos of life in the Dominican sugar cane plantation villages; Dominican Youth Across Borders: A Photo Exhibit (2004), an exhibition of Ruben Ramírez’s photographic work on the U.S. Dominican youth and their counterparts in the Dominican Republic; Dominican Rock: An Audiovisual Experience (2004), a photo/video exhibit produced by Harold Martínez to provide a general view of the current rock scene in the Dominican Republic as a growing alternative movement; Memories of Underdevelopment: A Portrait of the Dominican Republic (2004), a slideshow and discussion on the issues facing a developing nation and its historical and cultural legacy; Encrucijadas/Crossroads: An Exhibition of Contemporary Dominican-American Art (2004), a one-day fine arts’ exhibit that showcased the work and talent of New Dominican American Artists; and Eduardo León Jimenes Art Contest: A New York Exhibition of Selected Award-Winning Works (2006), an exhibit organized by The Eduardo León Jimenes Cultural Center (Centro León) on the occasion of the XXI Eduardo León Jimenes Art Contest, the oldest privately sponsored art competition in Latin America, containing fourteen award-winning works from previous years of the Contests and all of the participants from 2004.
Personal papers of artists, critics, or art historians associated with Latino art
0.5 linear feet
The CUNY-DSI Library holds the personal papers of performer, writer, and educator Josefina Báez. Báez is the founder and director (since 1986) of Latinarte/Ay Ombe Theatre troupe collective. Her work explores the experience of the Dominican diaspora.
Archives of manuscripts of other institutions related to Latino Art:
2.5 linear feet
The CUNY-DSI Library holds the papers related to the annual cultural festival “Quisqueya en el Hudson: Festival of Dominican Arts, Music and Dance” sponsored by the Ethnic Folk Arts Center and NewQuisqueyanos. This festival began in 1996 as a two-year program of research, community collaboration and presentation of Dominican traditional performance arts. Since that time, it has developed into an established Washington Heights celebration. Some of the visual artists who have been involved in the project include Reynaldo García Pantaleón, Alex Guerrero, Juan Valoy, and Rafo Castillo.
Recorded interviews and performances:
Two VHS
The CUNY-DSI Library holds recorded performances of theater performer and educator Josefina Báez as part of the two-part conference organized by the CUNY-Dominican Studies Institute in 2001. Panel II: Palabras, Ritmos y Diferencias was part of the conference “Up from the Margins: Diversity as Challenge to the Democratic Nation/Desde la Orilla: la Diversidad Como Reto de la Nación Democrática” (June 29, 2001).
Exhibition catalogues published in-house that include work by Latino artists:
One item
The CUNY-DSI Library published the catalogue Crossroads: An Exhibition of Contemporary Dominican Art (2004), on the occasion of their first exhibition of Dominican visual arts.
Holdings–Secondary Sources
Exhibition catalogues, books, and periodicals related to Latino art:
Six linear feet
The CUNY-DSI Library holds several hard-to-find books and catalogues on Dominican art history and criticism, including Pedro Mir’s Fundamentos de Teoría y Crítica de Arte (1979); Obra crítica en el periódico El Caribe, vols. I and II, and Artes plásticas by Manuel Valldeperes (1989). Some other titles on art from the Dominican Republic include Domingo Batista Pasión por la Luz, 2003; Art in Transit: A Dominican Experience (INTAR, 1996); and Modern and Contemporary Art of the Dominican Republic by the Americas Society (1996). The DSI also has catalogues of individual exhibitions by Cándido Bidó, Tito Cánepa, Freddy Rodríguez, Darío Suro, Iván Tovar, and Julio Valdés.
Films by or about Latinos:
Approximately sixty items
The audiovisual collection of the Dominican Studies Institute Library comprises approximately sixty films directed or produced by Latinos (mostly Dominicans). Many of them are documentaries on Dominican culture and history and on the diaspora. The documentary Aguas Limitadas/Limited Water, directed by Armando Guareño (1999) deals with Dominican contemporary art. The DSI also owns several feature films, including In the Time of the Butterflies, directed by Mariano Barroso, (2001); Nueba Yol ¡Por fin llegó Balbuena! directed by Angel Muñiz (1995); and Raising Victor Vargas, directed by Peter Sollet (2003).
Vertical file materials related to Latino art: artist files, brochures, pamphlets, clippings:
Two linear feet
The library has vertical files on Dominican artists working between the United States and the Dominican Republic. These include files on Tito Cánepa, Scherezade García, Charo Oquet, and Freddy Rodríguez.
Recorded lectures and symposia:
One
The Library holds a recording of the two-day symposium titled Dominican Culture at the End of the Century: Issues for a Future Research Agenda, organized by the DSI in 1998. This two-day symposium focused on the visual arts, spiritual traditions, popular/folk music, and history of the Dominican people in the homeland and the U.S. At the symposium, Leonora Vega, from Leonora Vega Gallery, moderated the panel “Dominican Visual Artists: Between Here and There.” Panelists included artists Scherezade García, David Medina, and Charo Oquet, and art critic Sara Hermann. The event was in English and Spanish. This item is on VHS format.
Holdings–Finding Aids
The CUNY-DSI Library has an online catalog of its holdings that is accessible at: http://origin.admin.ccny.cuny.edu/dsi/dsi_database/index.html.
In addition, the library’s website has a list of their audiovisual collection, which is accessible at: http://www.ccny.cuny.edu/dsi/avcollection.htm.
Accessibility
The CUNY-DSI Library is open to the general public and no appointment is necessary.
Restrictions
The CUNY-DSI Library is a non-circulating library.
General Assessment
The CUNY-DSI Library is the largest repository of bibliographic and research materials devoted to the study of the Dominican experience in the United States. Holdings documenting the visual arts include exhibition catalogues, rare texts on Dominican art history and criticism, clippings, and audiovisual materials. Although limited in number, this collection constitutes an outstanding resource for the study of the under-documented Dominican artistic community in New York and beyond.
Relations to other Latino and Latin American organizations
The CUNY-DSI works in collaboration with the Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College (CUNY), as well as the Inter-University Program for Latino Research (IUPLR) with headquarters at the University of Notre Dame.
Additional notes or comments:
The Library of the Dominican Studies Institute welcomes donations of catalogues, clippings, and other research materials on Dominican visual artists. For information on where to send these please contact the library staff.
Emilio Sánchez Foundation
The Emilio Sánchez Foundation is a nonprofit organization that preserves and promotes the legacy of the Cuban-born American artist Emilio Sánchez (1921–1999) through research, exhibitions, publications, and contacts.
Contact Information
Emilio Sánchez Foundation
19 West 21st Street, Suite 502
New York, NY 10010
Tel. (212) 924-0786
http://emiliosanchezfoundation.org
Contact
Ann Koll, Executive Director and Curator
[email protected]
Hours open to the public
The Foundation’s archive is open by appointment only.
History of the Institution
The Emilio Sánchez Foundation is a nonprofit organization that preserves and promotes the legacy of the Cuban-born American artist Emilio Sánchez (1921–1999) through research, exhibitions, publications, and contacts. The Foundation was created by the artist’s will. Profits made from the sales of his artwork will be given to charitable causes of Sánchez’s choice: to support ophthalmic research and to assist other non-profit organizations to support contemporary artists through direct grants. The Foundation received the designation of private operating foundation from the Internal Revenue Service in May 2005. Prior to that it functioned as the estate of the artist.
Scope and Content
The archives of the Emilio Sánchez Foundation document the life and career of Cuban-born artist Emilio Sánchez. The Foundation owns some of the artist’s personal papers, including various sketchbooks and personal journals, as well as an important collection of photographs that the artist took as source material for his artworks. The Foundation’s art collection is photographed and digitized.
In addition, the archival holdings at the Foundation document the institution’s operations in regards to its promotion of public awareness about this artist.
Overall holdings of archives and research material: 18.5 linear feet
Overall holdings of archives and research material on Latino art: 18.5 linear feet
Inclusive dates of files: 1950–present
Note: Some artworks date from the late 1940s
Bulk dates: 1970s–1990s
Languages in which records are written:
English (85%) and Spanish (15%)
Holdings–Primary Sources
Personal papers of artists, critics or art historians associated with Latino art:
2.5 linear feet and eight sketchbooks and personal journals
The personal papers of Emilio Sánchez that are owned by the Foundation include notes and photographs the artist took as preparation for some of his paintings and prints. In addition, the Foundation owns eight sketchbooks and personal journals with details of his daily life and travels.
The designation of private operating foundation is due to expire in the future, and the Emilio Sánchez papers will need to be relocated.
The Miami-Dade Public Library and the Archives of American Art (AAA) also own personal papers of Emilio Sánchez. For information on these collections please consult respectively, http://www.mdpls.org/ and http://www.aaa.si.edu/guides/archivos/index.cfm.
Archives of institution’s history and operation related to Latino art:
Eight linear feet
Some outstanding records include correspondence related to the Foundation’s collaborations with collectors, museums, galleries, and cultural organizations that have acquired or showcased the work of Sánchez. There is also documentation on some of his works and press materials for events organized by the Foundation.
Recorded interviews and performances:
Two items
The Foundation has the transcripts of two interviews with Emilio Sánchez. One of the interviews was conducted by Arlene Jacobowitz in 1967 for the Brooklyn Museum of Art and discusses his work Casita al sol (1966), which the museum had recently acquired. The interview is five pages long and is available on the Foundation’s website. The second interview was conducted in 1968 by Ronald Christ for Harcourt Publishers and is eighteen pages long. A copy of it is included in the five linear feet of Sánchez’s personal papers at the Archives of American Art. The Emilio Sánchez Foundation also has the transcript of this interview.
Slides and photographs:
435 slides; 1,100 photographs
The Foundation holds 375 slides of Sánchez’s oil paintings and 60 slides of his lithographs. In addition there is one linear foot of photographs documenting Sánchez’s artwork and one linear foot of photographs that the artist took as a source material for his work. This comprises approximately 1,100 photographs.
Digital images:
2,875
The Foundation’s art collection is fully digitized. There are 2,500 digital images of works on paper and 375 images of oil paintings.
Art objects and artifacts available for research:
3,775 items
Most of the items were the personal property of the artist at the time of his death and are now part of the Foundation. The Foundation houses 375 oil paintings, a collection of 900 drawings and 2,500 works on paper, all by Emilio Sánchez.
Exhibition catalogues published in-house that include work by Latino artists:
One item
Emilio Sánchez: Paintings, Watercolors, Drawings and Prints_ (2001), produced by the Estate, contains essays by Carol Damian, Ann Koll, and Robert Sindelir.
Holdings–Secondary Sources
Exhibition catalogues, books, and periodicals related to Latino art:
Six linear feet
The Foundation has a library for internal use. Many of its books belonged to Emilio Sánchez. Several catalogues in the library document exhibitions that showcased his work. These include Giulio V. Blanc, Cuban Artists of the Twentieth Century, Museum of Art, Fort Lauderdale (1993); Luis Calzadilla, “The Cuban Medio Punto,” in Emilio Sánchez, Elite Fine Art (1994); Carbonell Galaor, Emilio Sánchez: Causas y Efectos de la Luz, Museo de Arte La Tertulia, Cali, Colombia (1974); Graciella Cruz-Taura et al., Outside Cuba/Fuera de Cuba (1989); Carol Damian, Breaking Barriers: Selections from the Museum of Art’s Permanent Contemporary Cuban Collection, Museum of Art, Fort Lauderdale (1999); Carol Damian, St. James Guide to Hispanic Artists: Profiles of Latino and Latin American Artists, _Thomas Riggs, ed. (2002); Carol Damian, et al. _Far From Cuba, , Museé des Tapisseries, Aix-en-Provence, France (1998); Memoria: Cuban Art of the 20th Century (2002); Donald Kuspit, The Spell of Structure: Emilio Sánchez’s Cuban Houses, Elite Fine Art (2002); The Latin American Spirit: Art and Artists in the U.S. 192–1970, The Bronx Museum of Arts (1989); Ricardo Pau-Llosa, Emilio Sánchez, Recent Work, The Museum of Art Fort Lauderdale (1985); Marta Traba, Art of Latin America 1900–1980 (1994).
Holdings–Finding Aids
The Foundation has compiled a catalog with images documenting their art collection. The rest of the holdings are not catalogued, but their manageable size and clear organization makes them easily searchable.
Accessibility
The archive is available only by appointment. Records are well organized and easily searchable. There is no area formally assigned for researchers, but the staff is committed to making working space available for day-researchers.
Restrictions
None.
General Assessment
The archival records of the Emilio Sánchez Foundation constitute an important source documenting the art of this Cuban artist who spent most of his career in New York City. This internationally recognized artist is known for his paintings and prints depicting the play of light on architectural structures. The archive’s single focus and organization make it easy and pleasant to consult.
Relations to other Latino and Latin American organizations
The Emilio Sánchez Foundation has worked in collaboration with El Museo del Barrio, the Cuban Artists Fund, the Museum of Latin American Art in California, and the Miami Dade Public Library. Since 2005 the Emilio Sánchez Foundation awards an annual fellowship to artists of Cuban descent through the Cintas Foundation.
En Foco
Founded in 1974 by three New York Puerto Rican photographers—Charles Biasiny-Rivera, Phil Dante, and Roger Cabán—En Foco’s mission is to promote and exhibit work by photographers of color (e.g. Latinos, African Americans, and Asians) in the United States.
Contact Information
En Foco
1738 Hone Avenue
Bronx, NY 10461
(718) 931-9311
http://www.enfoco.org
Contact
Marisol Díaz, Program Director
[email protected]
Hours open to the public
Monday–Thursday, 9:30 a.m.–5:30 p.m.
The collection can be viewed by appointment only.
History of the Institution
Founded in 1974 by three New York Puerto Rican photographers—Charles Biasiny-Rivera, Phil Dante, and Roger Cabán—En Foco’s mission is to promote and exhibit work by photographers of color (e.g. Latinos, African Americans, and Asians) in the United States.
Over their thirty-year history, this collective of photographers and their institution have been seminal in establishing Latino visual identity in photography. En Foco works toward the greater visibility and recognition of the work of other photographers of color in the United States.
Scope and Content
The archives of En Foco concern photographers of color (e.g. Latinos, Asians, and African American) in the United States.
The vast majority of the archival material documents Puerto Rican and Latin American photographers, although some Asian and African American photographers are also documented. The main source of archival information about photographers is the slide registry and the objects of the permanent collection. The vertical file with clippings regarding En Foco is a valuable source on the institution’s history and development.
Overall holdings of archives and research material: Ninety linear feet
Overall holdings of archives and research material related to Latino art: Ninety linear feet
Inclusive dates of files: 1970–present
Bulk dates of Latino/Hispanic Archive: 1970–present
Languages in which records are written:
English, Spanish
Holdings–Primary Sources
Archives of institution’s history and operation related to Latino art:
Seventy linear feet
These archives are only available upon request. See Restrictions.
Newsletters and magazines published in-house:
En Foco published a newsletter titled Critical Mass from 1986 to 1997. After that year, the newsletter was incorporated into Nueva Luz, En Foco’s quarterly photographic journal. This bilingual journal (Spanish and English) has been published since 1984.
Recorded interviews and performances:
Undetermined
En Foco holds video recordings of workshops in the 1970s and 1980s, when En Foco had an exchange program and brought Latino and Latin American photographers to lecture and give workshops at the University of Sagrado Corazón in Puerto Rico.
Slides and photographs:
4,450 items
The slide registry provides a reference to the work of approximately 200 artists. Each one has a file with twenty to forty slides, totaling approximately 3,000 slides. The slide registry is in the process to be uploaded on the En Foco website.
The permanent collection holds over 430 photographs. Some Latino photographers in the permanent collection include Adál, Laura Aguilar, Pablo Cambo, Evelyn Collazo, Papo Colo, Andre Cypriano, Pablo Delano, and Juan Sánchez. En Foco has also a Print Collector’s Program in which photographers donate a determined number of prints to sell for the benefit of En Foco. Some photographers who participate in that program include Adál, Juan Sánchez, Gerald Cyrus, Valdir Cruz, Frank Gimpaya, Dawoud Bey, and others.
Art objects and artifacts available for research:
450 items
The permanent collection holds over 430 photographs. Please refer to slides and photographs section above.
Exhibition catalogues published in-house that include work by Latino artists:
Nine items
Some titles of catalogues by En Foco include La Familia (1979), Vapors (1980), The Return: Four Photographers from Puerto Rico (1985), A Decade of En Foco (1986), Latina (1988), and Island Journey: An Exhibition of Puerto Rican Photography (1995).
Holdings–Secondary Sources
Exhibition catalogues, books, and periodicals related to Latino art:
Ten linear feet
En Foco collects publications on artists represented in their collection and general books on Latino art and artists, for example: Mango Mambo by Adál, México Profundo by Miguel Garder, and Espantapájaros del Sur by Polibio Díaz.
Vertical file materials related to Latino art: artist files, brochures, pamphlets, clippings:
Ten linear feet
This material includes files with small catalogues on artists represented in the collection and clippings about En Foco.
Holdings–Finding Aids
En Foco has a database of the organization’s permanent collection of photographs.
Accessibility
Materials at En Foco are accessible upon request, depending on the seriousness of purpose. The researcher must write a letter establishing the purpose of his or her research in order to obtain access.
Restrictions
Some materials at En Foco are confidential and the institution reserves the right to restrict access to any of its holdings. Please refer to the Accessibility section.
General Assessment
En Foco has important institutional archives that document the history of the first Puerto Rican photography group in New York, and the developments of a Puerto Rican and Latino photographic aesthetic. The slide registry of En Foco is also a valuable source that is constantly updated with information on emerging Latino photographers. Moreover, their permanent collection is useful for researchers who want to see and study the work of photographers like Adál, Graciela Iturbide, and André Cypriano, among many others.
Relations to other Latino and Latin American organizations
En Foco has worked in collaboration with the Bronx Council of the Arts, the Association of Hispanic Arts, the Bronx Museum for the Arts, Hostos Community College, and Lehman College Art Gallery.
Exit Art
Exit Art’s mission is to create and present exhibitions and programs that explore the diversity of cultures and voices that continually shape contemporary art and ideas in America. Exit Art is also committed to bringing to public attention the work of under-recognized and emerging artists experimenting with the convergence of film, video, performance art, music, design, and visual art.
Contact Information
Exit Art
475 Tenth Avenue (corner of Thirty-sixth Street)
New York, NY 10018
Tel.: (212) 966-7745
Fax: (212) 925-2928
http://www.exitart.org
Contact
Audrey Christensen, Director of Archives and New Media
[email protected]
Hours open to the public
Monday–Friday, 10:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m.
History of the Institution
Exit Art was founded in 1982 by artist Papo Colo and curator Jeanette Ingberman during the alternative space movement. From the start, its founders recognized a lack of exposure for artists whose work challenged social, political, sexual, or aesthetic norms and raised difficult questions of race, ethnicity, gender and equality. In its first decade Exit Art presented a series of mid-career retrospectives with catalogues that helped to bring wide public attention to artists now firmly established, including Juan Sanchez and Cecilia Vicuña.
After moving in 1992, Exit Art identified the emergence of a generation of young artists with diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and aesthetics and expanded its curatorial model to become an incubator for the careers of these emerging artists. One important project was 1992’s Fever, named one of the ten most significant shows of the decade by Newsweek’s Peter Plagens in 2000.
In 2000, Exit Art felt the necessity to connect beyond the art world and inaugurated a series of thematic exhibitions exploring critical issues in contemporary society. The first exhibition in this series was Paradise Now: Picturing the Genetic Revolution (2000), which provoked widespread discussion about genetic research and bioengineering. Reactions (2002) presented over 2,500 responses to how 9/11 changed public and private behavior, and was acquired by the Library of Congress for its American Memory project.
One of Exit Art’s curatorial models since moving to Hell’s Kitchen in 2002 has been conceptplus, which began with an idea for an exhibition publicized through an international call to artists using the Internet. Exit Art has received hundreds of proposals from throughout the world, from which each exhibition is curated, broadening the group of artists into a global community and allowing for a more democratic curatorial process.
Exit Art’s mission is to create and present exhibitions and programs that explore the diversity of cultures and voices that continually shape contemporary art and ideas in America. Exit Art is also committed to bringing to public attention the work of under-recognized and emerging artists experimenting with the convergence of film, video, performance art, music, design, and visual art. Exit Art’s exhibitions, projects, and performances have expressed a unique creative vision that has frequently challenged traditional notions of what art is and offered new opportunities to bring together artists and the public. Over the past twenty years Exit Art has acquired a substantial international reputation for curatorial innovation, providing crucial support to artists at the beginning of their careers and anticipating the newest trends, movements, and ideas in the culture at large.
Scope and Content
The archives of Exit Art pertain mostly to the institution’s operations. Primary and secondary sources include exhibition files, slides and digital images, catalogues, recordings of interviews and performances, artwork, and artist files. Included in these records is information on many Latino and Latin American artists. These records are also invaluable as sources documenting the history of one of the main alternative art spaces and centers of multiculturalism in New York and the United States.
Other outstanding sources include the personal papers of visual artist and cultural producer Papo Colo, and the administrative papers of The Cultural Space and Trickster Theater, two organizations he founded. Exit Art also has a personal notebook of poems by the deceased Nuyorican poet Miguel Piñero.
There is no formal collection policy in place. Exit Art archives its operational records. Artist files are mostly created for those who have worked with or had exhibitions at Exit Art. There are approximately 1,000 artist files all together, though the institution has showcased over 2,300 artists. Approximately 200 of the 2,300 artists who have exhibited their work at Exit Art are Latinos. In 2004 the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) awarded Exit Art a grant for the organization and digitization of its archives.
Overall holdings of archives and research material: Approximately 300 linear feet
Overall holdings of archives and research material related to Latino art: Seventy-five linear feet
Inclusive dates of files: 1982–present
Bulk dates: 1982–present
Languages in which records are written:
Mostly in English, some correspondence in Spanish.
Holdings–Primary Sources
Personal papers of artists, critics or art historians associated with Latino art:
Twenty linear feet
Exit Art owns a folder with personal papers of the Nuyorican poet Miguel Piñeiro (1947–1988). The papers include Piñero’s handwritten poetry and a notebook he wrote while imprisoned in Attica for second-degree armed robbery. These papers came to Exit Art as part of the papers of the Lower East Side artist Martin Wong, who collaborated with Piñero.
The personal papers of artist Papo Colo, co-founder and co-director of Exit Art are also housed at the institution.
Archives of institution’s history and operation related to Latino art:
Seventy-five linear feet
Archives include exhibition files, artists’ files and administrative files. During its first ten years Exit Art organized mostly solo shows; a few of those were devoted to Latino and Latin American artists. In 1993 Exit Art began organizing group shows. Of the 165 exhibitions/events that have taken place at Exit Art, 82 have included Latino artists. This number is continuously growing, since virtually every exhibition since 1993 includes the work of Latino and Latin American artists. What follows is a list of selected individual and group exhibitions that have included Latino and Latin American artists since the inception of Exit Art:
Illegal America (1982); Fantastic Landscape (1984); Pedro Luján (1985); Surplus Show (1985); Ringside Gallery: Cándida Alvarez (1985); Transculture/Transmedia (1986); Papo Colo: Will, Power, And Desire, 1976–1986 (1986); Immigrants & Refugees/Heroes or Villains (1987); Concrete Crisis (1987); Films With a Purpose: A Puerto Rican Experiment in Social Films (1987); Raúl Ruiz: Work for and about French TV (1987); 1988 International Forum of Super 8 (1988); Juan Sánchez: Rican Structured Convictions (1989); Cecilia Vicuña: Precarious (1989); Internal Exile: New Films and Videos from Chile (1989); Jaime Davidovich: Forces/Farces (1991); Parallel History: The Hybrid State (1991); The Hybrid State Films (1991); Speaking Tongues (1992); The Design Show: Exhibition Invitations in the U.S.A., 1940–1992 (1993); César Paternosto: Abstraction as Meaning: Painting and Sculpture (1993); Mapping Interior Spaces: Video at the Edge of the Millennium (1993); Poverty Pop: The Aesthetics of Necessity (1994); Endurance (1995); Counterculture: Alternative Information from the Underground Press to the Internet (1996); Sweat (1996); Terra-Bomba (1997); La Tradición (1997); Hybrobar (1998); Hybro Video (1998); The End (2000); THE LP SHOW (2001); Exit Biennial: The Reconstruction (2003); L Factor (2004); Praying Project (2005); Exit Biennial II: Traffic (2005); The Studio Show (2006); The Drop (2006); Wild Girls (2006).
Newsletters and magazines published in-house:
In 1992 Exit Art conceived a newsletter entitled El Primer Mundo where artists would be invited to submit letters to fictional or historical characters. This was intended to be a yearly publication. However, only one issue was published. Guillermo Gómez-Peña contributed to this issue.
In 2002 Exit Art created the online newsletter Exit Culture Online. This publication is accessible at www.exitart.org. In November of 2005 Exit Art started Exit Times, a weekly newsletter distributed by email.
Archives of manuscripts of other institutions related to Latino Art:
Eleven linear feet
These comprise five linear feet of records generated by Cultural Space, and six linear feet of records generated by the Trickster Theater.
The Cultural Space/The Laboratory was operational between 1990 and 1992. It was founded by artist Papo Colo in recognition that changing economic times demanded a new approach to servicing artists’ needs. The Cultural Space was conceived as an artists’ laboratory with minimum administrative staff and costs. It proposed to establish an arena in which a new understanding of American culture could be presented without the limiting labels of ethnicity, race, gender, or cultural background, presenting programs that dissolved boundaries but did not erase differences, creating bridges of understanding. The Cultural Space closed in 1992. Despite its short existence, The Cultural Space received enthusiastic notice in art journals and the press.
The Trickster Theater was begun as The First World Theater by Papo Colo in 1992. A founding principle was to enable people to work in theater who would otherwise not have the opportunity: students, visual artists from other media, and young people starting out in theater performance or technical craft. In its theatrical explorations, The First World Theater broke down barriers between media and created a theater intimately influenced by the visual arts. Clips of performances can be accessed at www.trickstertheater.org.
Recorded interviews and performances:
Fifty-four items
The audiovisual archival holdings of Exit Art include several interviews with its co-founders. The organization has also numerous audiovisual materials that have been featured in its exhibitions, as well as recordings of performances organized in conjunction with exhibitions at Exit Art. The institution holds also recorded rehearsals and performances for the Trickster Theater.
Recorded performances and audio/visual material featured in some of Exit Art’s exhibitions include documentation of performances by Manuel Acevedo, Juliette López Aranda, Francisca Benítez, Papo Colo, Ximena Cuevas, Jaime Davidovich, Nicholas Dumit Estevez, Coco Fusco, Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Arnaldo Morales, Raúl Ruiz, Cecilia Vicuña, and Ricardo Zulueta. Items are in High 8, VHS, 3/4 Inch, and audiocassette formats.
Slides and photographs:
Slides: Approximately 6,000
Prints: Approximately 2,500
Transparencies: Approximately 400
The slides are mostly installation shots and shots of individual works featured in exhibitions at Exit Art. Exit Art also holds some negatives and transparencies.
Digital images:
400 items
Exit Art has digital images from its exhibitions since 2003, with about four shows per year. Weekend events (e.g. screenings and concerts) are also included. There are normally about fifty digital images per show, although some exhibitions have many more. In addition, some artist files contains CDs with digital images. Exit Art’s website also contains multiple images by Latino and Latin American artists. Most of these images are in JPEG format.
Art objects and artifacts:
Exit Art is not a collecting institution. However, they have kept some works they helped produce or which artists donated. Latino and Latin American art works in their collection include a portfolio of prints by Juan Sánchez produced by Exit Art in 1987. Exit Art also has some posters produced by the Political Art Documentation/ Distribution (PADD) group which were featured in the 1987 exhibition Concrete Crisis. Exit Art also has video and audio art by Latino and Latin American artists.
Finally, Exit Art offers its Benefit Print Portfolios, which it produces and sells to raise funds for the institution. Each portfolio has a print by Papo Colo. The 2004 portfolio also contains a print by Alfredo Jaar.
Exhibition catalogues published in-house that include work by Latino artists:
Sixteen items
These include Illegal America (1982); Dirty Pictures (1982); Papo Colo: Photogenics (1983); Forbidden Films (1983), Pedro Luján (1985), Surplus Show (1985); Papo Colo: Exit in 3 (1986);Papo Colo: Will, Power and Desire (1986); Films with a Purpose: A Puerto Rican Experiment in Social Films (1987); Raúl Ruiz: Works for and About French TV (1987); 1988 International Forum of Super 8 (1988); Juan Sánchez: Rican/Structed Convictions (1989); Internal Exile: New Films and Videos from Chile (1990); and The Hybrid State, The Hybrid State Films (1991). Starting in 2005, Exit Art’s publications will be either in print and/or on CD. The institution’s Twenty-fifth Anniversary catalogue will be in print.
Films by or about Latinos:
Two items
Films directed by Latinos include Papo Colo’s two twenty-two-minute films created for the exhibition Exit in 3. The originals belong to Colo, but Exit Art has copies.
Holdings–Secondary Sources
Exhibition catalogues, books, and periodicals related to Latino art:
Ninety-seven items
Exit Art has a library of 653 volumes including books, catalogues, and journals, and original press of the exhibitions they have organized. Ninety-seven of those pertain to Latin American and Latino art, literature, and politics. This number does not include small catalogs, which are usually included in the artist files. Some titles include Coco Fusco ed., Reviewing Histories: Selections from New Latin American Cinema (1987); Chon Noriega ed., The Ethnic Eye: Latino Media Arts (1996); Gloria Anzaldúa’s Borderlands: La Frontera The New Mestiza (1987); Juan Downey of Dream into Study (1989); Miguel Piñero’s La Bodega Sold Dreams (1985); Mirrors Espejos: Contemporary Mexican Artists in the United States (n.d.); Third Text: Third World Perspectives on Contemporary Art (1987);andthe serial Culture, nos. 1–19 (1987–1992).
Vertical file materials related to Latino art: artist files, brochures, pamphlets, clippings:
200 items
These are all related to artists who have been showcased at Exit Art. They include invitations, catalogues, slides, CDs, resumes, reproductions of work, press. Latin American and Latino artists in Exit Art’s artist files include: Manuel Acevedo, Aziz & Cucher, Francisca Benítez, Sandra Bermúdez, Luis Camnitzer, Eduardo Cintrón, Ximena Cuevas, Jaime Davidovich, Juan Downey, Nicolás Dumit-Estevez, León Ferrari, Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Nicolás Guagnini, Alfredo Jaar, Claudia Joskowicz, Pedro Luján, Gabriel Martínez, Ana Mendieta, Marta Minujín, Cildo Meireles, Arnaldo Morales, Nico y Katiuschka, Gloria Ortiz-Hernández, César Paternosto, Wanda Raimundi-Ortíz, Freddie Rodríguez, Milton Rosa-Ortíz, Juan Sánchez, Martín Sastre, Karin Schneider, Javier Téllez, Cecilia Vicuña, and Ricardo Zulueta. Exit Art does not keep unsolicited materials from artists they have not showcased.
Recorded lectures:
Six items
Exit Art has recordings of the five panel discussions and one music program that were held in conjunction with the L Factor exhibition.
The programs included a panel discussion with the exhibition curators, where Rene Algeria, Papo Colo, Ed Morales, Maria-Christina Villasenor, Christian Viveros-Faune participated; a panel discussion “What’s Latin About Rock and Hip Hop,” with panelists: Enrique Lavin, Elizabeth Mendez-Barry, Ed Morales, Raquel Rivera, and Bryan Vargas; a performance & lecture by Nicolás Guagnini titled “Oscar de la Hoya and Tristan Tzara: The Absurdity of Latin Masculinity”; a panel discussion organized by Christian Viveros-Faune titled “Post Latino, New Latino.”
The L Factor public programs also included a series of three video programs curated by Christina Villasenor; of which Exit Art has also copies. These were titled “Spanglish and Hy-Spanic,” “Quien Es Mas Macho?,” and “Ich Bin Ein Latino.” Finally the music program “A Showcase of New Latin Music,” organized by José Ayala, featured the bands PostData, Si*Se, and Zemog el Gallo Bueno. These items are recorded in MiniDV format.
Holdings–Finding Aids
Exit Art is currently working on a database of its archival holdings. The archives database will eventually be online and will include images. The institution is hoping to have a version available sometime in the fall of 2006, though without images. The complete database, with images, will most likely be available in 2007. In the meantime, they have compiled lists of their exhibition files, artist files, publications, and a catalog of their library that reference their holdings.
Accessibility
Currently, there is no space designated for researchers, although Exit Art is happy to organize working space upon request for scholars wanting to consult its archives.
Restrictions
None
General Assessment
Since its inception, Exit Art has been an enclave of avant-garde international art in the United States. During its twenty-five-year history this institution has exhibited the work of numerous Latino and Latin American artists. The archival records of Exit Arts contain invaluable information on the organization’s important role as a showcase for experimental international art, including work by Latino and Latin American artists. Finding aids and the systematic organization of records facilitate research in the archives.
Relations to other Latino and Latin American organizations
Exit Art collaborated with El Museo del Barrio and The Museum of Modern Art in the organization of the program Films with a Purpose: A Puerto Rican Experiment in Social Films, held April 23–May 3, 1987.
Felix Gonzalez-Torres Foundation
The mission of the Foundation is to foster an appreciation for the work of Felix Gonzalez-Torres among the general public, scholars, and art historians.
Contact Information
Felix Gonzalez-Torres Foundation
Andrea Rosen Gallery
525 West Twenty-fourth Street
New York, NY 10011
Tel. (212) 414-4242
Contact
Emilie Keldie, Associate Director
[email protected]
Hours open to the public
Library is available by appointment only.
History of the Institution
The Felix Gonzalez-Torres Foundation was created in May 2002 by Andrea Rosen. Since its establishment, the Foundation has been housed at Andrea Rosen Gallery. It may eventually have its own site.
The mission of the Foundation is to foster an appreciation for the work of Felix Gonzalez-Torres among the general public, scholars, and art historians. The Foundation provides guidance and assistance to those who are interested in including his work in exhibitions and helps people gain access to appropriate works for exhibition. In addition, the Foundation holds the copyright to all of the artist’s work and fills reproduction requests, for reviews, articles, and catalogues. It also issues non-exclusive license agreements outlining the terms of usage.
Scope and Content
The Foundation always obtains one copy of publications to which it lends an image. These publications are available for research. The Foundation has access and can facilitate access to the archival materials on Felix Gonzalez-Torres’s work that are housed at Andrea Rosen Gallery. These materials include slides and transparencies of all of his works and installation shots of nearly every exhibition in which his work was included, exhibition catalogues, magazine and newspaper articles, and reviews.
Overall holdings of archives and research material: Thirty-six linear feet
Overall holdings of archives and research material on Latino art: Twenty-eight linear feet
Inclusive dates of files: 1986–present
Bulk dates: 1986–present
Languages in which records are written:
Most materials are in English.
Holdings–Primary Sources
Archives of institution’s history and operation related to Latino art:
Operational records such as correspondence with both curators and owners of the work regarding the organization of exhibitions and loans of work to exhibitions issued on behalf of collectors, who may wish to remain anonymous, are kept confidential. Anyone wishing to exhibit the work of Gonzalez-Torres or who has an interest in learning more about the nature of his work can obtain access to sample loan forms, however. The Foundation provides guidance in helping curators determine which pieces work best depending on their show’s context. Communications with museums often include instructions for the fabrication, installation, maintenance, and de-installation of those works by the artist that can be refabricated. The Foundation knows who owns individual artworks, and who is likely to loan.
Slides and photographs:
2,400 slides; 400 photographs; 900 transparencies
The Andrea Rosen Gallery owns and houses all slides, transparencies and photographs. Every single artwork is documented with high-quality photography. Since many of the artworks can be refabricated for exhibition, each of these manifestations are documented as well. Wherever possible, the work is photographed in the context of other work in the show in order to provide a more complete understanding of the installation. High-quality images and high-resolution scans are available for reproduction.
Digital images:
2,500 items
The Foundation scanned all transparencies housed at Andrea Rosen Gallery in 2010 in order to provide them when requested for research and publication. The slide collection has not been scanned as of 2011.
Holdings–Secondary Sources
Exhibition catalogues, books, and periodicals related to Latino art:
Seventy-five linear feet
These include a library of books, catalogues, and periodicals that have addressed or featured the work of Gonzalez-Torres. The library is housed at Andrea Rosen Gallery. There is a complete bibliography, maintained by the Foundation, that includes exhibition catalogues, books, and periodicals.
Vertical file materials related to Latino art: artist files, brochures, pamphlets, clippings:
Twelve binders
Newspaper clippings on Felix Gonzalez-Torres’s work spanning 1986 to the present are stored in binders and are accessible and housed at Andrea Rosen Gallery.
Holdings–Finding Aids
The Foundation continuously compiles a biography and bibliography. Catalogs are filed by the name of the institution, and magazine articles are filed by name of publication. Newspaper clippings are arranged chronologically. Images are organized by the inventory number that the gallery assigns. A catalog raisonné was published in 1997 by the Sprengel Museum in Hanover, Germany, providing a useful tool that is accessible at the Foundation for research.
Accessibility
There is no designated area for researchers at this time, but there may be in the future.
Restrictions
Correspondence between the Foundation, museums, and owners of Gonzalez-Torres’s work is confidential. The archive is only accessible by appointment.
General Assessment
The Felix Gonzalez-Torres Foundation can facilitate access to the archival records on the artist owned by Andrea Rosen Gallery. The Felix Gonzalez-Torres Library and Archives housed at Andrea Rosen Gallery are the most comprehensive in the world, and are thus a great resource for anyone studying the development of his career and the methods of his practice.
Relations to other Latino and Latin American organizations
The Felix Gonzalez-Torres Foundation has assisted curators on several projects. These include facilitating the loan of artwork to accompany material in the exhibition Felix Gonzalez-Torres: Early Impressions, held at El Museo del Barrio from February 24 to May 21, 2006, and the earlier version of this exhibition at the Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña’s Trienal Poli/Gráfica de San Juan: América Latina y el Caribe, on view from December 4, 2004 to March 6, 2005.
The Foundation also helps the exhibition organizers to obtain appropriate works and provides guidance for fabricating, installing and maintaining works by Felix Gonzalez-Torres. Recent exhibitions with his work have included Farsites: Urban Crisis and Domestic Symptoms in Recent Contemporary Art, held simultaneously at Centro Cultural de Tijuana, Mexico and San Diego Museum of Art from August 26 through November 13, 2005; Beyond Geography: 40th Anniversary Exhibition at The Americas Society in New York from July 14 through October 15, 2005; and Morir de Amor. Permanencia Voluntaria at Museo Universitario de Ciencias y Arte in Mexico City from April 20 to July 3, 2005.
The Foundation also assisted the Cuban Research Institute at Florida International University in the organization of the Felix Gonzalez-Torres Community Art Project, a three-year initiative that sponsors visits of internationally renowned contemporary artists to the campus of Florida International University. The project seeks to promote awareness of the artist’s work and his legacy and lectures and studio visits are part of the program. In addition, the Foundation helped facilitate donations for this project.
Lehman College Art Gallery
Since its foundation in 1984, Lehman College Art Gallery (LCAG) has been dedicated to serving the interests of the Bronx community and the greater New York area by providing a dynamic center for the contemporary visual arts. The gallery presents thematic shows, as well as individual exhibitions of leading figures in contemporary art and promising emerging artists. Education is an integral component of exhibition programming and provides the basis of the gallery’s outreach—from young students to senior citizens.
Contact Information
Lehman College Art Gallery
250 Bedford Park Boulevard West
Bronx, NY 10468-1589
Tel.: (718) 960-8731
http://www.lehman.edu/gallery
Contact
Susan Hoeltzel, Gallery Director
[email protected]
Hours open to the public
Tuesday–Saturday, 10:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m.
History of the Institution
Since its foundation in 1984, Lehman College Art Gallery (LCAG) has been dedicated to serving the interests of the Bronx community and the greater New York area by providing a dynamic center for the contemporary visual arts. The gallery presents thematic shows, as well as individual exhibitions of leading figures in contemporary art and promising emerging artists. Education is an integral component of exhibition programming and provides the basis of the gallery’s outreach—from young students to senior citizens.
Regularly scheduled gallery talks, poetry and fiction series, panels, and seminars are offered for adults. The Gallery Workshop Program combines tours with hands-on studio projects for K–12 students. The gallery also offers a graduate-level course that helps elementary teachers develop curricula, drawing on the exceptional art resources of the city—featuring the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Frick Collection, and galleries in Chelsea and SoHo.
Technology has also been important to their exhibition and education programming. Projects range from the production of Bronx Public Art on the Web, a teachers’ guide to over one hundred public art projects in the Bronx; to online exhibition catalogues to performance art. The gallery recently received a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to develop Bronx Architecture, an Internet-based guide for high school teachers and the general public. Over the last several years, the gallery has provided artists’ residencies with access to computer and video equipment to create new-media work.
Scope and Content
The archives at Lehman College Art Gallery are comprised mainly of records generated by the gallery for the production of exhibitions. In the last fifteen years, the gallery has had over twenty exhibitions showcasing the work of Latino and Latin American artists, many of whom live in New York. Most of these files include slides of artwork. The exhibition files are organized in chronological order. The gallery has also published exhibition catalogues and gallery notes on artists including Luis Camnitzer, Catalina Parra, and Jorge Tacla, among many others.
Overall holdings of archives and research material: Fifty-one linear feet
Overall holdings of archives and research material on Latino art: 11.5 linear feet
Inclusive dates of files: 1984–present
Bulk dates: 1984–present
Languages in which records are written:
99% of the records are written in English. The gallery also has some bilingual (Spanish and English) catalogues.
Holdings–Primary Sources
Archives of institution’s history and operation related to Latino art:
The gallery keeps exhibition and Web files. Early catalogues have been scanned and posted to the archives section of the website. In the past fifteen years, the gallery has had many group shows that include both well-known and promising Latin American artists. There are approximately 150–200 Latino and Latin American artists whose work has been exhibited at Lehman College Gallery. The following is a list of exhibitions that have included Latin American and Latino artists: Landscape in the Age of Anxiety (1986–87); Convergences/Convergencias: Caribbean, Latin American, and North American (1987–88); Guillo Pérez: Half-a-Century of Pictorial Production (1990–91); Luis Camnitzer: Retrospective Exhibition 1966–1990 (1990–91); Jorge Tacla: Memory of Place (1992–93); Friends and Neighbors: The Work of John Ahearn and Rigoberto Torres (1992–93); Pa’Lante: Political Works from the Collection of El Museo del Barrio, (1993); Contemporary Public Art in the Bronx (1993–94); Lehman College Art Gallery Tenth Anniversary: Small Works Exhibition (1994–95); The Works of Rigoberto Torres (1995); Mythologies: The Art of Andrea Arroyo (1995–96); Fusion: The South Bronx and Fashion Moda (1995–96); Close to home, (1996); Anaida Hernández: Hasta que la muerte nos separe (1997–98); A family portrait by Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons (1998); In view of Nature, (2000); En Foco’s New Works Photography Awards, (2000); The Bronx Celebrates: Pepón Osorio (2002-2003); De lo que soy: Of What I Am (2002–03); Monika Bravo Symphasis/simultaneous appearances (2000-01); Syncretism: Marta María Pérez Bravo, Maria Cravo Neto (2000–01); Aixa Requena: Antilles Textures (2000-01); Elba Damast (2004–2005); Intricate Subtleties (2004–05); Elba Damast: Memories of Things to Come (2003–04); Marisa Tellería-Diez (2005–06); The City: Contemporary Views of the Built Environment (2004–05); Bronx Bound: New MTA public art projects in train stations along the 2, 4, and 5 lines 2005–06; Scherezade Garcia: Paradise Redefined (2006), Bits and Pieces: The Collage Impulse (2007), Sugar Buzz: an exhibition of sweets as imagery and medium (2007).
Some Latino and Latin American artists who have been showcased in group shows include Laura Anderson-Barbata, Andrea Arroyo, Luis Cruz Azaceta, Jose Bedia, Jacobo Borges, Mara Maria Perez Bravo, Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons, Alfredo Ceibal, Esperanza Cortes, Crash and Daze, Pablo Delano, Judite dos Santos, Juan Downey, Oscar García, Scherezade García, Alfredo Jaar, Catalina Parra, Jorge Tacla, Mari Mater O’Neill, Juan Sánchez, and Carlos Vega.
In addition, the gallery has developed an online archive of public art in the Bronx with biographies, maps, and photographs. Some of the Latino and Latin American artists featured include Andrea Arroyo, Cándida Alvarez, Agustín M. Andino, Rafael Ferrer, Ricky Flores, José Ortega, Bob Rivera, Freddy Rodríguez, Jorge Tacla, and Rigoberto Torres.
Newsletters and magazines published in-house:
The gallery has distributed a seasonal schedule in press-release form since 1984.
Archives of manuscripts of other institutions related to Latino art:
Lehman Gallery curated shows from 1990 to 1996 for Krasdale Foods, a private-label food producer in the South Bronx and White Plains that has a modern and contemporary art program. Records pertain to the exhibition Self-Revelation: Artistic Confrontation (1998), which included artist Luis Jiménez, and to the Graphic Arts Council of New York Members Exhibition (1996), which included artist Emilio Sánchez.
Slides and photographs:
700 items
Slides and photographs relating to Latin American artists are integrated in the gallery’s exhibition files. There is an average of 5 slides per artist. In addition the gallery has black-and-white installation photos for press kits that might include the work of Latino and Latin American artists. Please refer to question on institutional records for information on the artists included in the exhibition files.
Digital images:
150 items
The gallery has approximately 150 digital images that have been scanned and posted. Catalogue images, images from slides, and installation images have been digitized. The number of digital images per artist varies. Some artists whose work is featured on the website as part of the Exhibition Archive section include Monika Bravo, Maria Magdalena Campos Pons, Anaida Hernández, Pepón Osorio, Aixa Requena, and Rigoberto Torres.
Art objects and artifacts available for research:
The gallery has a study and teaching collection. They have a few works of art including The Donut Man, a sculpture by Rigoberto Torres.
Exhibition catalogues published in-house that include work by Latino artists:
The gallery has published exhibition catalogues for Jorge Tacla, Catalina Parra, Luis Camnitzer, and Rigoberto Torres, as well as for the Taíno Treasures exhibition of 2003. Lehman Gallery has also published twenty-nine brochures, including gallery notes on the following artists: Andrea Arroyo, Monika Bravo, Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons, Elba Damast, Jaime Davidovich, Anaida Hernández, Catalina Parra, Aixa Requena, Jorge Tacla, and Marisa Tellería-Diez, Elba Damast, Scherezade García, Laura Anderson-Barbata, Esperanza Cortés, Marta María Pérez Bravo, Tatiana Parcero, Belkis Ramírez, Kukuli Velarde, among others.
Holdings–Secondary Sources
Recorded lectures and symposia:
One item
The gallery has a recording of the panel discussion organized in conjunction with the exhibition Taíno Treasures: The Legacy of Dr. Ricardo E. Alegría (2003).
Holdings–Finding Aids
The exhibition history serves as a finding aid to locate the chronologically organized records.
Accessibility
Lehman Gallery has no formal space designated for researchers, but the staff can make available working space for day researchers.
Restrictions
The records are accessible by appointment.
General Assessment
The archival holdings of Lehman College Art Gallery reflect the gallery’s importance as a venue for contemporary Latin American and Latino artists active in the Bronx. This archive’s effective organization makes it easy for researchers to use. In addition, the gallery has extensive information on its exhibitions available through its website. The section titled “Public Art in the Bronx” on the gallery’s website is also an excellent resource on the involvement of Latino and Latin American artists in public art projects in that borough.
Relations to other Latino and Latin American organizations
The Lehman College Art Gallery has collaborated in the organization of exhibitions with the Bronx Museum of the Arts, the Center for Cuban Studies, the Center for Puerto Rican Studies, En Foco, El Museo del Barrio, the Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña, the Universidad de Puerto Rico and the Universidad del Turabo in Caguas, Puerto Rico.
El Museum del Barrio
The mission of El Museo del Barrio is to present and preserve the art and culture of Puerto Ricans and all Latin Americans in the United States.
Contact Information
El Museo del Barrio
1230 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10029
Tel. (212) 831-7272
http://elmuseo.org
Contact
Noel Valentín, Registrar
[email protected]
Hours open to the public
Museum’s public hours: Wednesday-Sunday, 11 a.m.–5 p.m.
Thursday, 11 a.m.–8 p.m.
Archives are available by appointment only.
History of the Institution
The mission of El Museo del Barrio is to present and preserve the art and culture of Puerto Ricans and all Latin Americans in the United States.
El Museo del Barrio was founded in 1969 by a group of Puerto Rican parents, educators, artists, and community activists in East Harlem’s Spanish-speaking el barrio, the neighborhood that extends from Ninety-sixth Street to the Harlem River and from Fifth Avenue to the East River on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. Founded in the context of the national civil rights movement, El Museo also emerged during campaigns that called for major art institutions to to represent a variety of non-European cultures in their collections and programs. From the outset, El Museo defined itself as an educational institution and a place of cultural pride and self-discovery for the founding Puerto Rican community. Initially El Museo operated in a public school classroom as an adjunct to the local school district; then, between 1969 and l976, El Museo moved to a series of storefronts on Third and Lexington Avenues, in the heart of el barrio. In 1977 El Museo found a permanent home in the spacious, neoclassical Heckscher Building at 1230 Fifth Avenue. El Museo is a member of the Cultural Institutions Group (CIG) of New York City.
Since its inception, the museum has collected works from pre-Colombian Caribbean cultures, through traditional arts, to modern and contemporary art. Today its permanent collection holds 6,000 works.
Scope and Content
El Museo has compiled and preserved a sizable biographical, bibliographical, and visual archive on Latino artists. The records of El Museo del Barrio reflect the mission of the institution: to present and preserve the art and culture of Puerto Ricans and all Latin Americans in the United States. As such, most of the material these records contain (seventy-five to eighty percent) pertains to Puerto Rican and Latino art, while the remaining records pertain to Latin American artists who live and work outside of the U.S.
El Museo’s archives are organized according to the scope of the materials they preserve; as such, they reflect the history and the specific mission of El Museo. The records are located at various spaces within the Heckscher Building on Fifth Avenue between 104 and 105 Streets.
The archives include:
- Administrative and operations archives pertaining to exhibitions and public events, organized chronologically (performances, teacher and student activities, artists’ workshops, and outreach activities)
- Archives related to the permanent collection, including images and text located on The Museum System database (TMS)
- Artists’ Files, which containing biographical, bibliographical information, and visual materials (transparencies, slides, etc.) as well as correspondence between El Museo staff and artists, which is organized alphabetically by artists’ last names. The Artists’ Files is dedicated exclusively to Latino and Latin American artists, with a focus on artists born, living, and working in Puerto Rico and New York City.
- The Young Lords Archives, a small but very important holding of publications by and photographs of this activist group of the 1960s
El Museo also has a small reference library of books and catalogues, with strong holdings in Caribbean pre-Columbian art, traditional arts of Puerto Rico and Mexico, and Puerto Rican, Latino, and Latin American modern and contemporary art. The library also contains books and catalogues on Latin American and Latino artists. Some shelves are organized alphabetically and others by country.
The library also contains some valuable materials concerning the history of El Museo. Among these are several binders with installation slides of every exhibition that has taken place at El Museo since the mid-eighties; there is also some inconsistent documentation of earlier exhibitions. The library contains every publication by El Museo since its founding.
El Museo has a number of recorded public programs and performances, including videos by Liliana Porter and Nicolás Dumit Estévez.
Overall holdings of archives and research material: 367 linear feet.
Overall holdings of archives and research material related to Latino art: 275 linear feet.
Inclusive dates of files: Pre-Columbian–present
Bulk dates: ninth century-seventeenth century (Taíno); 1969–present.
Languages in which records are written:
Most of the materials are in English and Spanish, but there are also some in French and Portuguese.
Holdings–Primary Sources
Archives of institution’s history and operation related to Latino art:
Seventy-five linear feet
El Museo has a backlog of administrative and operational files that have not been organized at this time and are not accounted for in this survey.
Newsletters and magazines published in-house:
El Museo has a full run of Quimbamba (four issues), a discontinued newsletter it published from the late-1980s through mid-1990s.
Oral Histories:
Twenty-five items
El Museo holds twenty-five interviews on videotape, undertaken in 2001 as the preliminary phase of a compilation of the history and timeline of El Museo. Members of the founding community, former and current Trustees, and staff members were interviewed by Yasmín Ramírez, Consulting Curator. Among those interviewed are: Jack Agueros, Tony Bechara, Marimar Benítez, Charles Biasiny-Rivera, Luis Cancel, Evelyn Collazo, Papo Colo, Rafael Colón Morales, Jane Delgado, Marcos Dimas, Carlos Irrizarry, Irving MacManus, Rafael Montañez Ortiz, Isabel Nazario, Carmen Nelson, Carlos Ortiz, Pepón Osorio, Dylcia Pagán, Gladys Peña, Federico Ruiz, Fernando Salicrup, Juan Sánchez, and Nitza Tufiño.
Recorded interviews and performances:
Ninety interviews
Fourteen recorded events
El Museo holds ninety interviews conducted by Assistant Curator Margarita Aguilar in conjunction and continuation of the Oral History Project and in preparation for the exhibition Voces y Visiones: Highlights from El Museo del Barrio’s Permanent Collection. These audiotaped interviews were conducted in 2000 and 2003 and focus on artworks in the permanent collection of El Museo. Creators of the works, their donors and community members knowledgeable of the collection holdings participated in this compilation. Among them are the interviews by: Adál (Maldonado), Papo Colo, Marcos Dimas, Antonio Frasconi, Charles Juhasz-Alvarado, Pepón Osorio, Sandra Pérez, former Mayor of New York Ed Koch, Liliana Porter, Fernando Salicrup, Juan Sánchez, Edward J. Sullivan, Nitza Tufiño, and Rafael Tufiño, among others.
El Museo has videos made by Latino artists and video recordings of performances by Latino artists from programs at or sponsored by El Museo, among which are works by Liliana Porter and Nicolás Dumit Estévez.
El Museo began recording public events in 1999. El Museo’s collection of fourteen recordings includes the symposium Then and Now: Reflecting on Chicano and Nuyorican Art (1999), as well as various lectures organized in conjunction with the Rafael Tufiño exhibition. Videos cannot be checked out.
Slides and photographs:
Fifteen linear feet
El Museo preserves numerous transparencies and negatives (both 35mm and 4 x 5), as well as black-and-white photographs documenting installation shots and the art in exhibitions held at El Museo. Transparencies, other negatives, and photographs of works in the permanent collection also are equally preserved in El Museo’s archives. In addition, the archives include two linear feet of photos related exclusively to the Heckscher Building and the Teatro Heckscher. Transparencies, other negatives, and photos cannot be checked out, but may be consulted by appointment only.
Digital Images:
One hundred items
Approximately one hundred artworks by Puerto Rican, Latino, and Latin American artists are digitized in El Museo’s collection database, The Museum System (TMS). The database may be available to qualified researchers by appointment only.
Exhibition catalogues published in-house that include work by Latino artists:
Sixty-three items
The majority of the catalogues and brochures published by El Museo feature the work of Latino artists. These catalogues span the length of the institution’s history, from 1969 to the present. Some titles include: José Morales Paintings & Drawings: New York Series #1 (1979); Children of Darkness: Rafael Colón Morales (1983); Rafael Montañez Ortiz, Years of the Warrior 1960, Years of the Psyche 1988 (1988); Carmen Herrera: the Black-and-White Paintings, 1951–1989 (1989); and Con to’ los hierros: Pepón Osorio (1991).
Holdings–Secondary Sources
Exhibition catalogues, books, and periodicals related to Latino art:
Sixty linear feet
The small reference library on the first floor contains books and catalogues on Puerto Rican, Latino, and Latin American artists, exhibitions and collections. Publications are organized alphabetically by country and subdivided into monographs on individual artists, group exhibitions or broader themes. Of particular importance is a series of publications by the activist group The Young Lords and related photographs.
Vertical file materials related to Latino art: artist files, brochures, pamphlets, and clippings:
132 linear feet
The artist files contain materials (i.e. biographical and bibliographical materials such as clippings, slides, invitations, brochures, and resumes) of emerging and established artists, including many who have exhibited at El Museo such as José Morales, Pepón Osorio, Juan Sánchez, and Nitza Tufiño. About eighty percent of the artist files are dedicated to U.S. Latino artists.
Holdings–Finding Aids
El Museo does not have a complete finding aid. However, researchers can use TMS, El Museo’s collection database, and the museum’s object files for works in the collection.
For information on the context and the year of publication of a particular exhibition catalogue published by El Museo, researchers can consult the exhibition catalogue binders, in which all the catalogues have been organized in the order they were published by the institution.
Information about the provenance of a work in the collection is in the minutes of the programs and acquisitions meetings.
Accessibility
The library, artist files, and videos of El Museo are assembled in one room on the ground floor, making it easy for researchers to have access to them. Artist files are organized in alphabetical order by artist’s last name. Books are not catalogued, but they are organized in alphabetical order and by country. The library and artist files are accessible by appointment and with prior knowledge of what is to be researched. There is NO equipment for viewing the recorded public programs and videos at the library.
Files of the institution’s history, administration, and operation are distributed in various areas both on the first and third floors, and are inaccessible to the general public. They may be made available to qualified researches by appointment only. Correspondence is generally restricted.
Information about the provenance of a work in the permanent collection is recorded in the museum’s object files and on The Museums System database (TMS) located on the first floor. These files are not open to the general public, but are available to qualified researchers by appointment only.
Restrictions
El Museo del Barrio restricts access to selected records that contain confidential information.
General Assessment
El Museo del Barrio has one of the largest and most preeminent collections of research material on Latino artists in New York and the United States.
The strength of the collection resides in the Artist Files. These contain slides, clippings, and invitations pertaining to numerous Latino artists from the Nuyorican community, as well from other communities such as the Mexican-American, Cuban, and Dominican.
The institutional files, catalogues, and exhibition slides of El Museo also constitute a major asset of El Museo’s library and archives, as they document the history of the first museum dedicated to Puerto Rican and Latin American art in the U.S.
Relations to other Latino and Latin American organizations
Throughout its thirty-six years El Museo has benefited from its collaborations with many institutions also dedicated to the study, preservation, and presentation of Puerto Rican, Latino, and Latin American art and culture. These organizations include:
- In New York City: Cayman Gallery, El Taller Boricua, Association of Hispanic Art, The Latino and Video Festival of the Public Theater, InterAmericas/Society of Arts and Letters of the Americas, The Printmaking Workshop, and En Foco, Inc.
- In Texas: Gilberto Cárdenas/Galería Sin Fronteras and Jack S. Blanton Museum of Art, University of Texas at Austin
- In Pennsylvania: El Taller Puertorriqueño
- In Chicago: Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum
- In the Caribbean: Centro de Estudios Avanzados de Puerto Rico y El Caribe, San Juan; Museo de Antropologia, Historia y Arte, University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras; Museo del Hombre Dominicano, Santo Domingo and Museo de Arqueología, Altos de Chavón, Dominican Republic
- In Mexico and South America: Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes, Mexico and Museo de Arte Latino Americano de Buenos Aires/MALBA, Buenos Aires
Other institutions with different missions from El Museo who have been significant partners include the Board of Education of New York City, the New York Council for the Arts, American Museum of Natural History, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Museum of Modern Art, the San Antonio Museum of Art, and the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, among others.
Additional Notes:
El Museo del Barrio would like to acquire the means to improve the organization of these significant materials and to make them more readily available to researchers and the general public.
Museum of Contemporary Hispanic Art
The Hostos Community College archives collects unpublished materials of permanent historical value including official records, correspondence, papers and publications generated by the administration, academic departments, faculty, special programs and student organizations since 1970. Through these and other special collections the archives promotes an awareness of the diverse ethnic and cultural history of this unique bilingual institution and the surrounding South Bronx community that inspired it.
Contact Information
Archives of the Museum of Contemporary Hispanic Art at Hostos Community College Library and Archives
475 Grand Concourse
Shirley J. Hinds Allied Health & Science Building,
Room A308, third floor
Bronx, NY 10451
Tel. (718) 518-4220
http://www.hostos.cuny.edu/library
Contact
William Casari, Archivist/Instructional Services Librarian
[email protected]
Hours open to the public
Monday-Friday, 10:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m.
History of the Institution
The Hostos Community College archives collects unpublished materials of permanent historical value including official records, correspondence, papers and publications generated by the administration, academic departments, faculty, special programs and student organizations since 1970. Through these and other special collections the archives promotes an awareness of the diverse ethnic and cultural history of this unique bilingual institution and the surrounding South Bronx community that inspired it. The archives, a unit of the Hostos Community College Library, also maintains a comprehensive collection of works published by and about Eugenio María de Hostos, namesake of the college, among other special collections.
In 1991, the year that The Museum of Contemporary Hispanic Art (MoCHA) closed, its archives were brought to Hostos Community College in an effort to save them from destruction and eventually to make them accessible to the general public.
MoCHA was established during the rise of multiculturalism in 1985, as an alternative museum in SoHo that showcased the art of Latin American and Latino artists under-represented in mainstream institutions. MoCHA operated under the umbrella of Friends of Puerto Rico, Inc. (FOPR), a non-profit organization founded and incorporated in 1956.
From 1974 to 1984, FOPR administered the Cayman Gallery, which in its lifetime was the only non-commercial Hispanic arts center in the mainstream of American Art. Despite its short existence, MoCHA helped launch the career of numerous artists who became successful in the nineties. In Fall 2006 the records will be made available, by written request only, for the first time since the museum ceased to exist in 1991.
Scope and Content
MoCHA’s archival records comprise administrative files, exhibition files, numerous exhibition catalogues, artist files, and recordings of public programs organized by the museum. These sources reflect the focus of the institution in showcasing and promoting Latino and Latin American contemporary art.
Overall holdings of archives and research material: 164 linear feet
Overall holdings of archives and research material related to Latino art: 164 linear feet
Inclusive dates of files: not available
Bulk dates: not available
Languages in which records are written:
English and Spanish
Holdings–Primary Sources
Archives of institution’s history and operation related to Latino art:
42.2 linear feet
Archives of manuscripts of other institutions related to Latino art:
Included in MoCHA’s archives are the records of Friends of Puerto Rico and Cayman Gallery.
Recorded interviews and performances:
Twenty-five items
Approximately half of the videos are recorded lectures and the other half are recorded performances by artists. Some titles of videos include Inés Harechal’s “De lo real a lo imaginario,” Elody Tracisio’s “Un concepto de identidad,” and Susana Alkin’s “Latino Images.”
Slides and photographs:
Approximately 2,000 items
Slides and photographs are organized by artist and contained in the artist files, with the exception of one binder of slides organized alphabetically by artist. The selection of artist files includes artists of Latin American descent born in the United States, as well as Latin American artists who live in the United States but still keep a strong connection to their countries. Some of the artists included are Luis Cruz Azaceta, Rimer Cardillo, Carmen Herrera, Josely Carvalho, Gladys Triana, Núria Manso Camps, and Jorge Tacla.
Art objects and artifacts available for research:
Some of the museum’s artwork is available, including paintings by Luis Cruz Azaceta and a collection of wooden santos in the Hostos Library and outside the president’s office. Artwork is housed separately and remains a separate collection from the administrative files of MoCHA.
Exhibition catalogues published in-house that include work by Latino artists:
2.5 linear feet
These include Luis Cruz Azaceta: Tough Ride Around the City (March, 1986), Raul Acero (January 1987); Ricardo Estanislao Zulueta: Basement Therapy (November 1988); Gladys Triana: Movement-Fragmentation (January 1990); and The Decade Show: Frameworks of Identity in the 1980s, published in collaboration with The New Museum of Contemporary Hispanic Art and The Studio Museum in Harlem (May 1990).
Holdings–Secondary Sources
Exhibition catalogues, books and periodicals related to Latino art:
Twenty-four linear feet
MoCHA and the Cayman Gallery Library include many volumes on Puerto Rican history and culture, including Miguel Melédez Muñoz’s Obras Completas. These books are currently boxed, are not catalogued, and are not available for browsing or researcher consultation.
Vertical file materials related to Latino art: artist files, brochures, pamphlets, clippings:
Sixty-four linear feet
There are several sets of artist files organized with a color-coded system in orange, yellow, green, and blue folders. The green folders are of artists that were not showcased at MoCHA. Some of the green folders contain a copy of a letter from the museum acknowledging receipt of materials. Presumably the orange, yellow, and blue files were created for artists that were showcased by the museum.
Holdings–Finding Aids
There is a card catalogue of approximately 2,000 cards dedicated primarily to artist file content. No additional finding aids, inventory lists, or catalogs are available at this time.
Accessibility
As of August 2006 the records are being inventoried and will be available to researchers during fall 2006 by written request only. Collections are housed within the Hostos Library and Archives and minimal stabilization and re-housing of the collection has begun. Some materials may not be available until they can be inventoried. As a academic library, Hostos Community College Library has the infrastructure to welcome researchers.
Restrictions
Financial and legal files are restricted and are not available for researchers. Collection available via written request only.
General Assessment
The MoCHA Collection documents an important time period for Latino and Latin American Art. Exhibited artists include many notable artists who went on to become very well known. While the collection is a priority for the archives funds are not available for its full processing at this time.
Museum of Modern Art Library and Archives
Founded in 1929 as an educational institution, The Museum of Modern Art is dedicated to being the foremost museum of modern art in the world.
Contact Information
Museum of Modern Art Library and Archives
11 W 53 Street
New York, NY 10019
Tel.
Library: (212) 708-9433
Archives: (212) 708-9617
Fax
Library: (212) 333-1122
Archives: (212) 408-6385
Email
Library: [email protected]
Archive: [email protected]
Website
Library: /research/library/
Archives: /research/archives/
Contact
Library: Sandy Sumano, Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Bibliographer for Latin America
Archives: Michelle Elligot, Chief of Archives, Library, and Research Collections
Hours open to the public (appointments are required)
MoMA Library Manhattan: Wedesday–Friday, 11:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.
MoMA Library QNS: Monday, 11:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.
Archives: Thursday and Friday, 1:00 p.m.–5:00 p.m.
History of the Institution
Founded in 1929 as an educational institution, The Museum of Modern Art is dedicated to being the foremost museum of modern art in the world.
Library
The Library of The Museum of Modern Art was founded in the 1930s. From the 1940s to the 1980s, the research materials on Latin American Art collected by the Museum were united under the Latin American Archive at the Library (even though they were comprised primarily of secondary source materials). Eventually, these materials were integrated into the whole collection of research materials offered by the MoMA Library.
In 1982 James Findlay published a comprehensive bibliography of Latin American Art based primarily on MoMA Library holdings, but also including other important sources. In 2000 Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, Trustee and member of The International Council, funded the newly created position of Latin American Bibliographer to renew the Museum’s committment to documenting the art of this region. From this position, between 2000 and 2003 Donald Woodward increased the Latin American, Caribbean, and U.S. Latino holdings of the Library by 5,000 volumes. Today the Library has over 15,000 volumes of books on Latin American and Caribbean art.
Since 2003, the current Latin American Bibliographer, Taína Caragol, has expanded MoMA’s network of Latin American exchange partners to European institutions that promote and showcase Latin American art. She had also worked to strenghthen MoMA’s ties to the New York-Latino art community through the Survey of Archives of Latino and Latin American art.
Archives
The Museum Archives were established in 1989 to preserve and to make accessible historical documents about the Museum and modern and contemporary art.
Scope and Content
Library
The Library’s collection holdings are devoted to literature on modern and contemporary art, dating from the 1880s to the present. The strength of the Museum’s collection lies in its exhibition catalogues and artists’ monographs. The Library contains over 15,000 volumes of literature on Latin American, Caribbean, and U.S. Latino art. These volumes are integrated within the overall holdings of the Library. Until 2000 the Latin American holdings of the Library focused primarily on art south of the border and in the Caribbean. The two Latin American bibliographers who have worked at MoMA Library since that time have worked to expand the collection to include U.S. Latino art as well. The Artist and Subject Files are also an important component of the Library, containing information and clippings on numerous established and emerging Latin American, Caribbean, and U.S. Latino artists.
Archives
The Museum Archives contain materials related to the Museum operations and to artists, critics, or art collectors closely associated with the Museum. The Archives include a administrative and program records; personal papers of former staff; sound and video recordings of Museum-related events; oral histories of former staff, trustees, artists, and others closely associated with the Museum; and archival collections from non-MoMA individuals and institutions. The Museum Archives staff also runs the Museum’s Record Management Program. The Museum Archives do not have a Latin American or U.S. Latino component per se. However, they have important records including personal papers of former Museum staff members and Trustees who established connections with Latin America (e.g. Alfred Barr, René d’Harnoncourt, Elaine Johnson, Abby Aldrich Rockefeller), oral histories, and files documenting exhibitions that included artists of Latin American and Latino background at MoMA.
Overall holdings of archives and research material:
Library: 200,000 volumes or 13,333 linear feet
Note: One linear foot is approximately fifteen volumes.
Archives: 2,500 linear feet
Overall holdings of archives and research material related to Latino art:
Library: 16,500 volumes or 1,100 linear feet are devoted to Latin American materials. Approximately sixty of those 1,100 feet pertain to U.S. Latino artists or to artists who have lived in the United States for a significant part of their careers.
Note: One linear foot is equivalent to approximately fifteen volumes. Latin American and Latino Artist and Subject Files are not counted in this question, although they constitute a great asset of MoMA Library.
Archives:
Nine linear feet on Latin American art
Five linear feet on Latino Art
Note: This number was generated for the purposes of this survey. Documents are distributed throughout the Archives collection.
Inclusive dates of files:
Library: 1880–present
Archives: 1910–present
Bulk dates:
Library: 1950–present
Archives: 1929–1995
Languages in which records are written:
Library: The materials pertaining to Latin American and Latino art are predominantly in Spanish, English, and Portuguese.
Archives: Materials are predominantly in English. A few holdings are also in French, German, and Spanish.
Holdings–Primary Sources
Archives
The Museum Archives hold institutional records containing the personal papers of numerous former staff members and trustees of the museum who had strong connections with Latin American art (particularly with Mexico and South America). The Early Museum History records are particularly rich in these materials. Outstanding records include the papers of Alfred H. Barr, Jr., founding director of the Museum. Barr’s papers include his travel diaries to Mexico, Cuba, and other countries. The papers of René d’Harnoncourt also contain two linear feet of documentation related to Latin American art. There is also material pertaining to Latin American art within the papers of Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, Lincoln Kirstein, and Elaine Johnson, all of whom were promoters of Latin American art at the Museum. Some administrative records, among them those of the Department of Circulating Exhibitions and those of the Department of Painting and Sculpture, may contain documentation on exhibitions organized by MoMA that featured Latin American or Latino artists, as well as on international art exhibitions sent by The Museum to travel through Latin America. The Archives will soon have an inventory of the archival records of P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, an affiliate of The Museum of Modern Art and a venue that has showcased many Latino and Latin American artists.
Library
The Library holds no primary sources.
Newsletters and magazines published in-house:
Library
An annual Library Bulletin existed from 1980 to 1992. Most of the issues listed the research libraries and bookstores in New York with a focus on the visual arts. Issues of the Library Bulletin also list periodicals available between 1980 and 1992 at MoMA Library and at the Film Study Center and the Architecture and Design Study Centers.
In 1982 James Findlay, the first Latin American Bibliographer at MoMA, published the book Modern Latin American Art: A Bibliography (1983), which was based in large part on the Latin American and Latino holdings of MoMA Library.
Recorded interviews and performances:
Library: Six items
Titles of recorded interviews and performances at the Library include Ana Mendieta: Fuego de Tierra (1988), Projeto Portinari (1980), Liliana Porter: Fragments of the Journey (1993), The Latin American Spirit: Conceptual Video Program(1995), Soto: A New Vision of the Art (1970) and Los Four: Murals of Aztlán (2004). These materials exist in Umatix, video cassette, and DVD format.
Archives: Seventeen items
The Museum Archives have numerous sound recordings related to Latin American and Latino art. Some outstanding items include the acoustic guide to the exhibition Latin American Artists of the Twentieth Century (1993), the symposium “Latin American Architecture 1920-1960: Contemporary Reflections” (2002), a gallery talk with Liliana Porter (1993), an interview with Roberto Burle Marx (1991), and an interview with Cesar Pelli (1993). The Archives also have the sound recordings of the Conversations with Contemporary Artists programs in which Alfredo Jaar, Coco Fusco, Vik Muniz, and Arturo Herrera have participated.
Slides and photographs:
Library: Undetermined
Many artist files at the Library contain slides, photographs, and transparencies documenting the artists’ work.
Archives: Undetermined
The Museum Archives hold photographs documenting the work of Latin American and U.S. Latino artists featured in MoMA exhibitions. It is necessary to know the name of the exhibition in order to search for the corresponding images.
Art objects and artifacts available for research:
Library: 180 items
The MoMA Library has a growing collection of approximately 180 artist books produced by Latin American and Latino artists, including a collection of some twenty books published by Ediciones Vigía in Matanzas, Cuba. Other artist books include Grabados y Poesías (1950) by Edgardo Antonio Vigo, Tres Poemas (1961) by Leandro Katz, Nearer (1974) by Anna Bella Geiger, Poesías (1980) by León Ferrari, Hijueputa by Gilles Charalambo (1980), House of the Thirsty (1983) by Eugenio Dittborn, and El libro dibujado: el dibujo librado (1995) by Antonio Martorell.
In addition, Latin American and Latino artworks in the collections of the Print and Illustrated Books Department and the Departments of Drawings, Photography, and Film and Media, are accessible at The Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Print Room, the Drawing Study Center, The Erna and Victor Hasselblad Photography Study Center, The Celeste Bartos Film Study Center, the Circulating Film and Video Library, and the Film Stills Archive. For more information, please consult the Research and Learning page on the MoMA Web site.
Exhibition catalogues published in-house that include work by Latino artists:
Library: Over thirty items
Through its history, MoMA has published over thirty catalogues and books that include the work of Latin American and Latino artists. Some titles include Diego Rivera (1931), Portinari of Brazil (1940), The Latin American Collection of The Museum of Modern Art (1943), Brazil Builds: Architecture New & Old (1943), Latin American Architecture since 1945 (1955), Latin American Artists of the Twentieth Century (1993), Manuel Alvarez Bravo (1997), and Listen, Here, Now! Argentine Art in the 1960s: Writings of the Avant-Garde (2004). At least fifteen catalogues published by MoMA include the work of U.S. Latino artists or Latin American artists who have worked in the United States. Some of these titles include Thinking Print: Books and Billboards 1980–95 (1996), The Museum as Muse: Artists Reflect (1999), Modern Art Despite Modernism (2000), Modern Contemporary: Modern Art since 1980 at MoMA (2000), Tempo (2002), Artists and Prints: Masterworks from The Museum of Modern Art (2004), and Latin American and Caribbean Art: MoMA at El Museo (2004).
Holdings–Secondary Sources
Exhibition catalogues, books, and periodicals related to Latino art:
Library: Latin American 16,500 items
U.S. Latino 1,320 items
The number of U.S. Latino holdings was generated for the purpose of this survey. U.S. Latino materials are not classified apart from general Library collection. This number does not include the art library of pioneer historian of modern Latin American art, Stanton Loomis Catlin, which MoMA Library acquired in the Summer of 2006 and is currently processing.
The Latin American and Latino holdings at the Library can be searched on the Latin American Modern and Contemporary Art Bibliography online, as well as through the library’s general catalog.
Some titles of Latin American and Latino periodicals accessible at MoMA Library include: Arquitecto, Arte al Día, Arte en Colombia, Arte en Cuba, ArtEs en Santo Domingo, Arte Informa, Art Nexus, Curare, Fisura, Luna Córnea, México en el Arte, Poliester: pintura y no pintura, Ramona, Review: Literature and Arts of the Americas, Revista del Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña, Southward Art, and Velocidad Crítica.
Vertical file materials related to Latino art: artist files, brochures, pamphlets, clippings:
Library: Undetermined
The Library has a wealth of ephemera (e.g. clippings, invitations, short catalogues, and artist bios) classified under its artist files. Some Latino and Latin American artists documented include: Manuel Acevedo, Maria Brito Avellana, Judy Baca, Diógenes Ballester, José Bedia, Tania Bruguera, Rimer Cardillo, Enrique Chagoya, Nayda Collazo-Llorens, Papo Colo, Luis Cruz Azaceta, Jaime Davidovich, Juan Downy, Marisol Escobar, Víctor Estrada, Rafael Ferrer, Coco Fusco, Harry Gamboa, Rupert García, Scherezade García, Luis Guispert, Raúl Guerrero, Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Félix González-Torres, Gronk, Enrique Guzmán, Anaida Hernández, Esther Hernández, Miriam Hernández, Ricardo Hernández, Alfredo Jaar, Warren James, Luis Jiménez, Yolanda López, Miguel Luciano, Adál Maldonado, Antonio Martorell, Ana Mendieta, Amalia Mesa Bains, Ralph Montañez Ortiz, Malaquías Montoya, José Morales, Vik Muñiz, Carlos Osorio, Pepón Osorio, Liliana Porter, Lina Puerta, Ernesto Pujol, Wanda Raimundi-Ortiz, Frank Romero, Gloria Rodríguez, Fernando Salicrup, Emilio Sánchez, Juan Sánchez, Andrés Serrano, Rafael Trelles, Nitza Tufiño, Rafael Tufiño, Juana Valdés, Patsy Valdéz, and Jorge Zeno. MoMA Library archives all unsolicited materials sent by artists and galleries in its artist files.
The MoMA Library also has an invaluable collection of subject files documenting particular art events and institutions, such as the defunct Museum of Contemporary Hispanic Art, the Bienal de São Paulo, the Bienal de Grabado Latinoamericano y del Caribe in San Juan, and the Bienal Iberoamericana de Pintura Coltejer, among many others.
In addition, the Library has the archives generated by the Political Art Documentation/Distribution (PAD/D), an artists’ collective conceived by Lucy Lippard in 1979 and active through 1988. Its archive was organized by Barbara Moore and Mimi Smith and was donated to the Library in 1989. PAD/D’s stated goal was, “To provide artists with an organized relationship to society, to demonstrate the political effectiveness of image making, and to provide a framework within which progressive artists can discuss and develop alternatives to the mainstream art system.”
This archive focuses on the years 1979–90, with some material dating from the early 1960s. The collection is composed of two sections: files and posters. Files are organized by names of persons, groups, and exhibition spaces, as well as by topics and PAD/D administrative categories. The files are catalogued individually in the Library Catalog. Some Latin American and Latino materials include files on Luis Cruz Azaceta, Luis Camnitzer, Josely Carvalho, Papo Colo, Elizam Escobar, Antonio Frasconi, Guillermo Gómez-Peña, and Félix González Torres and on Latino organizations such as the Caribbean Cultural Center, INTAR, El Museo del Barrio, La Raza, and The Museum of Contemporary Hispanic Art. Some political posters produced or archived by PAD/D pertain to Latin America.
Holdings–Finding Aids
The Latin American, U.S. Latino and Caribbean holdings at the Library can be searched through Latin American Bibliography , as well as through the Library Catalog. Artist files and subject files, as well as materials in the Museum Archives and in the Study Centers, are only available through the Library Catalog.
Accessibility
Visits to conduct research at both the MoMA Library and the Museum Archives are by appointment only. The Library reading room in Queens has a maximum capacity of eight researchers. The Archives can accommodate up to four researchers. In November of 2006 the Library and Archives will also have offices and space for researchers in the Lewis B. and Dorothy Cullman Education and Research Building at MoMA.
Restrictions
Some materials in the Museum Archives may be confidential.
General Assessment
The Museum of Modern Art Library is one of the best and most comprehensive research centers for the study of modern and contemporary Latin American and Latino art. The strength of the collection resides in its important Library holdings, which include rare books, scholarly publications and catalogues, and periodicals on the art of this region. The artist files and subject files also contain a unique collection of ephemera and hard-to-find documents.
The Museum Archives are also a great source for research on this subject due to MoMA’s close ties with the art of Latin America since the Museum’s inception in 1929.
Relations to other Latino and Latin American organizations
MoMA has worked in collaboration with the Americas Society, originally called the Center for Inter-American Relations.
The Museum Library has an exchange partnership program with numerous museums and cultural institutions dealing with Latin American art. These include Colección Cisneros (Venezuela), Banco Itaú Cultural (Brazil), Banco de la República and Biblioteca Luis Angel Arango (Colombia), Fundación Espigas and Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires (Argentina), TeorÉtica (Costa Rica), Museo Extremeño e Iberoamericano de Arte Contemporáneo (Spain), and Daros Latin America (Switzerland), among others.
As part of the METRO-MoMA Survey of Archives of Latino Art, MoMA’s Latin American Bibliographer has been inventorying the primary and secondary sources documenting Latino art at institutions including The Americas Society, Art in General, The Bronx Council on the Arts, The Bronx Museum of the Arts, the Center for Puerto Rican Studies, the Cuban Art Space, the Dominican Studies Institute, the Emilio Sánchez Foundation, Exit Art, the Félix González Foundation, the Hemispheric Institute for Performance and Politics (at NYU), the Latin American Video Archives, the Latino/Hispanic Archive at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, En Foco, Lehman Gallery, Longwood Art Gallery, El Museo del Barrio, Puerto Rico and the American Dream, and El Taller Boricua. Important scholars of Latino and Latin American art, among them Susana Torruella-Leval, Edward Sullivan, and Tomás Ybarra-Frausto, are part of the Survey’s Advisory Committee. Liza Kirwin, Curator of Manuscripts at the Archives of American Art and coordinator of the Archivos Virtuales of Latino and Latin American Art, is also part of the Survey’s Advisory Committee.
Additional notes or comments:
The Museum Library accepts and catalogues unsolicited books, catalogues, and artist files materials from emerging and established artists. Materials can be sent to the following address:
Latin American Bibliographer
Museum of Modern Art Library
11 West 53rd Street
New York, NY 10019
Organization of Puerto Rican Artists
The Organization of Puerto Rican Artists (O.P. Art) was founded in 1993 by a group of New York–based Puerto Rican artists who felt the need for an organization dedicated to exposing the largely under-recognized talent and contributions of Puerto Rican artists. The group decided to unite its individual creative talents to function as a grassroots artist collective promoting emerging and established Puerto Rican artists internationally.
Contact Information
Organization of Puerto Rican Artists (O.P. Art)
258 West Fifteenth Street, #4RE
New York, NY 10011
Tel. (212) 989-3633
http://www.op-art.org
Contact
Luis Carle, Director
[email protected]
Hours open to the public
By appointment only
History of the Institution
The Organization of Puerto Rican Artists (O.P. Art) was founded in 1993 by a group of New York–based Puerto Rican artists who felt the need for an organization dedicated to exposing the largely under-recognized talent and contributions of Puerto Rican artists. The group decided to unite its individual creative talents to function as a grassroots artist collective promoting emerging and established Puerto Rican artists internationally.
Today this nonproffit organization has grown to fifty active members and collaborates with over one hundred artists other artists in the realization of exhibitions. O.P. Art’s principal objective has been to promote their collective work through group exhibits of visual art that capture the complexity of the Puerto Rican experience. Since its inception O.P. Art has organized four major exhibits of Puerto Rican art of all media at Peter Madero Gallery, and the Clemente Soto Velez Cultural and Educational Center in New York, and at the Ateneo Puertorriqueño and the Museo de las Américas in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Since July 2004, O.P. Art has been curating monthly exhibitions at the restaurant La Taza de Oro restaurant in Chelsea.
Scope and Content
The records at O.P. Art pertain mostly to the collective’s exhibitions and activities promoting contemporary Puerto Rican art. They include exhibition and press files, grant files, photographs of the collective’s work, and catalogues of their exhibitions. The archive also holds the personal papers and photographic work of O.P. Art’s director Luis Carle.
Overall holdings of archives and research material:
18.5 linear feet
Overall holdings of archives and research material related to Latino art:
18.5 linear feet
Inclusive dates of files: 1980–present
Bulk dates: 1993–present
Languages in which records are written:
English (50%), Spanish (50%)
Holdings–Primary Sources
Personal papers of artists, critics or art historians associated with Latino art:
Ten linear feet
The personal papers of Luis Carle, founder and director of O.P. Art, are also housed at the same place as the organization’s records. Carle’s personal papers include some twenty diaries and agendas that go back to the late 1980s. These contain information on his trips, exhibitions, and art-related meetings. Carle’s papers also contain documentation and clipped reviews of exhibitions held throughout his career.
Archives of institution’s history and operation related to Latino art:
5.5 linear feet
These comprise most of the archival holdings of O.P. Art. Some examples of records that can be found include the minutes of monthly meetings organized by O.P. Art between 1993 and 1995, correspondence with institutions such as the Bronx Council on the Arts, the Association of Hispanic Arts, and the Smithsonian Institution; grant and fundraising files; and exhibition files of the shows they have organized. Among the latter, there are some electronic files for the exhibitions organized since 2004 by O.P. Art at La Taza de Oro. All of the exhibition files contain clippings of their reviews.
Recorded interviews and performances:
Six items
VHS and DVD Formats
O.P. Art has several recorded interviews related to their exhibitions. These include Nuevas Caras del Arte Puertorriqueño, produced by Erik Jackson, New York (1994); Expresion—Es exhibit interview by Carmen Dominicci, Puerto Rico (July 1995); In Art We Trust exhibition and interviews for Hispanic Information & Telecommunications Network, Inc., New York (2003); and news program for the Hispanic Gay community, Fruta Extraña TV, Public Access, New York (2003).
The archive also holds recorded performances by Julio Peña and José Luis Cortés, both members of O.P. Art.
Slides and photographs:
Over 1,000 items
The slides at this archive document the work of the artists in the collective. Some photographs document the making of a mural by the members of O.P. Art in Ocean Park, Puerto Rico. These images will eventually be available on the collective’s website. Also housed in the same archive is Luis Carle’s photographic work since the nineties, which spans the genres of fashion, celebrity, events, historical, and landscape photography. Some of Carle’s photographs are related to the AIDS awareness movement and document the Gay Pride Parade in Washington D.C.
Digital images:
Undetermined
Some of the photographic documentation of the collective’s artwork is in digital formats, particularly JPEG, PSD, and TIF. The archive also contains digital and digitized photographs by Luis Carle, many of which are accessible on his website at www.luiscarle.com.
Art objects and artifacts available for research:
The archive also has works made by several artists of the collective. These still belong to the artists themselves, and are only stored at O.P. Art’s archive.
Exhibition catalogues published in-house that include work by Latino artists:
Four items
O.P. Art has published catalogues for all the exhibitions as a collective. Their titles are Nuevas caras del arte puertorriqueño (1994); EX PRESION ES… Un Grito Visual (1995); POP @ O.P.ART (2000); In Art We Trust/A Decade of Achievements (2005).
Films by or about Latinos:
Four items
Formats VHS and DVD
The archive holds a copy of a thirty-minute documentary produced by José Estrada for O.P. Art on Antonio Martorell’s installation El Sementerio (1993), which addresses the AIDS epidemic in the gay population.
The archive also holds a copy of Uncanned Films by Carlos A. Valentin, and a copy of an eighteen-minute documentary produced and directed by Luis Carle on the production and selling of fake Santos de Palo (wooden saints).
In addition, O.P. Art’s archive holds a copy of the trailer and performance The Traveler by Papo Colo (1999).
Holdings–Secondary Sources
Vertical file materials related to Latino art: artist files, brochures, pamphlets, clippings:
Three linear feet
O.P. Art also holds newsletters, postcards, and brochures printed by Visual AIDS, an organization with which several members of O.P. Art have collaborated.
Holdings–Finding Aids
There are no finding aids to the archive.
Accessibility
The archive is located in Luis Carle’s residence, and is thus only accessible by appointment.
Restrictions
The archive is accessible by appointment only.
General Assessment
The archives of O.P. Art are an important resource documenting the exhibitions and activities of this artist collective whose aim is to promote Puerto Rican contemporary art internationally. The archive also documents the relations of many of the members of the collective to the AIDS awareness movement. Finally, the archive also documents the work of Luis Carle, the collective’s founder.
Relations to other Latino and Latin American organizations
O.P. Art has worked in collaboration with several Latino and Latin American cultural institutions for the organization of their exhibitions. These include the Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural Center in New York City, and the Ateneo de Arte Puertorriqueño, the Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña, and the Museo de Arte de las Américas in Puerto Rico. The collective’s archives have also been accounted for by the Smithsonian Institution’s Puerto Rican Documentation Project conducted in 1997–1998.
Several artists of O.P. Art including Carlos Aponte, Luis Carle, Jose Luis Cortés and Alfonso Muñoz have been showcased as part of the S-Files Biennial at El Museo del Barrio.
Puerto Rico and the American Dream
Puerto Rico and the American Dream, also known as PR Dream, was founded in 1998 by Judith Escalona and Stephanie Owens. Initially it functioned as a website on the history, culture, and politics of the Puerto Rican diaspora. Thanks to a grant from Manhattan Neighborhood Network, Judith Escalona, co-founder and co-director of PR Dream, was also able to offer training on digital film and TV production for the community of El Barrio, as a means of preserving the oral histories of the Puerto Rican diaspora.
Contact Information
Puerto Rico and the American Dream
1355 Park Avenue, First Floor
New York, NY 10029
Tel. (212) 828-0401
Fax (212) 828-0402
http://www.PRdream.com
Contact
Judith Escalona, Co-founder and Director
[email protected]
Hours open to the public
Tuesday–Saturday, 1:00–7:00 p.m.
Archives are available by appointment only.
History of the Institution
Puerto Rico and the American Dream, also known as PR Dream, was founded in 1998 by Judith Escalona and Stephanie Owens. Initially it functioned as a website on the history, culture, and politics of the Puerto Rican diaspora. Thanks to a grant from Manhattan Neighborhood Network, Judith Escalona, co-founder and co-director of PR Dream, was also able to offer training on digital film and TV production for the community of El Barrio, as a means of preserving the oral histories of the Puerto Rican diaspora.
In 2003 PR Dream opened an office space and established a multimedia center and computer laboratory for the community with the help of a larger grant from The New York Foundation. This space also functions as a training center for film production and editing. Recently PR Dream received a significant grant from Manhattan Borough President, Scott Stringer, to acquire new equipment in order to expand their programs which now include: The Oral History Project; MediaNoche: digital gallery and digital film studio; MediaNoche_WiFi: offering free wireless access to the community and extending the gallery outside into a virtual exhibition space; Webcasting; The Handball Court Summer Films Series; and their website, www.PRdream.com.
In light of the changes in technology and demographics that have taken place in the decade since PR Dream was founded, the institution is rethinking its use of technology and its role in the community.
Scope and Content
The archives pertain to the history, culture, and politics of Puerto Rico and the Puerto Rican diaspora. Most of their records are preserved on magnetic and digital formats rather than on paper. The institution also collects art books and exhibition catalogues on Puerto Rican art from the island and the mainland. Some exhibitions, lectures, and art essays are available online. Among these are the exhibition catalogue for Intersecting Circles: Metaphors of Caribbean and Latin American Transnationalism (2003); the exhibit Cambios: 50 años de transformación en la vida puertorriqueña, with photographs by Jack Delano; and the lecture “The Epitaph of El Barrio” by Diógenes Ballester. PR Dream also preserves its own administrative records. It also receives private donations of research materials on the Puerto Rican diaspora in formats such as CDs, CD-ROMs, and videos.
The gallery MediaNoche has as a policy keeping at least one work of every artist showcased at that venue. Projects from MediaNoche residencies involve interacting with the community of El Barrio. The ongoing project DIAL_el barrio_ is one example, through which new-media artist Stephanie Owens leads a team of designers and technologists in the creation of a wireless technology project that disseminates information on the cultural legacy of Spanish Harlem.
Overall holdings of archives and research material:
Twenty linear feet
This number represents only the paper records. The archive also contains over 575 megabytes of web-based material and another three to five gigabytes of files stored on ZIPs, CDs and DVDs.
Overall holdings of archives and research material related to Latino art:
Ten linear feet
This number represents only the paper records. There are approximately two gigabytes of digital material that is either web-based or stored on ZIPs, CDs and DVDs.
Inclusive dates of files: 1890-present.
Bulk dates: 1990-present.
Languages in which records are written:
Spanish (40%) and English (60%)
Holdings–Primary Sources
Archives of institution’s history and operation:
2.5 linear feet
This number represents the records that pertain to Latino visual arts. PR Dream and MediaNoche operation files document artists who have been or will be showcased at La Galería (a section on PR Dream’s website) or at MediaNoche. Artist files contain artists’ biographies, clippings, and images of artists such as Eduardo Cintrón, Mateo Zlatar, Diógenes Ballester, and Miriam Hernández.
Newsletters and magazines published in-house:
560 megabytes
PR Dream does not publish any printed materials. Their publication is in the form of a website accessible at www.PRdream.com. Several sections of the website concern the visual arts. These include the virtual gallery La Galería, which currently showcases the art of Miguel Luciano, Juan Sánchez, Diógenes Ballester, and Rafael Tufiño. In this section one can also find clips of interviews with the artists. The Nuyorican Cinema section contains a curated selection of clips of films written or directed by Puerto Ricans living in New York. This section features an essay by Escalona titled “Our Latin Thing: The Nuyorican Experience in Narrative Film”. The Forum section if the website offers public debates related to the arts. Outstanding among these were debates in 2003 dedicated to the new Latin American direction of El Museo del Barrio. Other forums have also discussed the existence of a Puerto Rican national painting aesthetic. Although past forum discussions are not accessible on the website, PR Dream intends to publish them eventually in an e-book format. The Oral Histories section includes some oral histories by Puerto Rican artists such as Tanya Torres, and Juan Sánchez. The Corrientes section has postings of exhibitions, lectures, and cultural events currently happening in the United States and in Puerto Rico.
There is also MediaNoche, accessible online at www.medianoche.us. MediaNoche features information on all the new-media artists exhibiting at this online gallery.
Oral histories:
Twenty to thirty items
One of the main projects of PR Dream is to document the Puerto Rican diaspora by collecting the oral histories of New York-Puerto Ricans. Some visual artists who have recorded oral histories include Juan Sánchez and Tanya Torres. Excerpts of some oral histories can be accessed online on PR Dream’s website. Full interviews are available to the general public at PR Dream’s space on 106th Street. Items are recorded on MiniDV.
Recorded interviews and performances:
Items undetermined
The material documents artists’ performances and talks, poetry, music, and plays.
Some of the archive’s outstanding holdings include an interview with the graffiti artists of Tats Cru and footage of their artwork. PR Dream also has extensive interviews (longer than one hour) with artists Diógenes Ballester, Marcos Dimas, Miguel Luciano, Antonio Rodríguez, Carlos Ortiz, Juan Sánchez, Nitza Tufiño, Rafael Tufiño, and Fernando Salicrup. PR Dream is continually interviewing Puerto Rican artists from both the island and the mainland for their archive. These interviews are recorded on mini-DVD.
Recorded artist talks of the artists whose work has been shown at MediaNoche are also available. These include Mateo Zlatar, La Manga, Eduardo Cintrón, nicoykatiushka, Antonia Guerrero, and Ursula Endlicher.
PR Dream has also a two-hour interview with José García, producer and director of Realidades, the first national Latino TV show. There is also a one-hour interview of Dylcia Pagán, a regular contributor to the show and a former political prisoner.
PR Dream also has footage of a poetry series with Nuyorican poets Pedro Pietri, Miguel Piñero, and “El coco que habla.” The material is recorded on ¾ inch tape, ½ inch tape, Betacam, High 8,and VHS. Please note that equipment to view this material is unavailable.
Slides and photographs:
Approximately sixty items (ten per artist)
Includes slides of Nuyorican artists Nicholasa Mohr and Marcos Dimas.
Digital images:
2,000 items
Includes all the digital images of artwork used on the website, as well as others that have not yet been put online. They include the artwork of artists who are or will eventually be showcased in La Galería. Among these there are images by Diógenes Ballester, Jack Delano, Miriam Hernández, Miguel Luciano, Nicholasa Mohr, Juan Sánchez, and Rafael Tufiño. The website also contains a section on Nuyorican Cinema which has clips and stills of films written or directed by Puerto Ricans. Some titles include La carreta (1970); Short Eyes (1978); Los dos mundos de Angelita (1982); Brincando el charco (1994); and The Krutch (2005).
Art objects and artifacts available for research:
Nine items
PR Dream owns several original posters by Rafael Tufiño. In addition, PR Dream has the artwork of artists who have been showcased at MediaNoche Gallery. Some Latino and Latin American artists who have given some of their artwork to MediaNoche and PR Dream include Eduardo Cintrón, Mateo Zlatar, and Diógenes Ballester.
Films:
Fifty to sixty items
PR Dream has approximately twenty-five features and shorts of Puerto Rican and Nuyorican Cinema. For a list of their titles please consult www.PRdream.com. PR Dream also has many of the films produced by the Division of Education of the Community (DIVEDCO) in the late 1930s. Items are on VHS and DVD format. In 2007 PR Dream started to produce films with its own crews. The organization is currently in the postproduction of its first film Bx3M: the story of three Latino youths coming of age in a city going up in flames.
Unpublished anthologies, film screenplays, and plays:
Fifteen items
Some titles include Chico For Mayor by Pedro Pietri; Kiss of Chaos by Ricardo Thompson; Four Fiery Tales, four short screenplays presented by Fuego Films; The Big Pick Up by Jaime Sánchez; Descarga by Fabiola Herrera and Akigami Baval_; Where the Señoritas Are_ by Janis Astor del Valle; Lavoe: A Love Story by Tony Felton; and U.S. Spanish Roots, a plan for a historical dramatic television mini-series by Angel Gil Orrios and Judith Escalona. PR Dream also has some unpublished plays including Lolita de Lares by Migdalia Cruz; Sneaking Out of the Revolving Door, a monologue by Pedro Pietri; The Return of the Mismatched Socks Salesman by Pedro Pietri; and The Krutch by Judith Escalona.
PR Dream also has the following unpublished poetry anthologies: If You Can Sleep, You Are Heartless by Pedro Pietri, Anthology of poetry by Tato Laviera, and Prophetic License: Anthology of Poetry by Rodrigo E. Ortiz III, which will be eventually published as e-books.
Holdings–Secondary Sources
Books and periodicals and exhibition catalogues published by other institutions:
Six linear feet
This collection includes art books and exhibition catalogues on Puerto Rican art from the island and the mainland. PR Dream also has the Association of Hispanic Art’s printed newsletter through early 1990s, which thereafter became a digital subscription. Most of these materials are at the house of Judith Escalona, and are inaccessible to the public at this time. There are plans to make them available, however.
Some outside exhibitions, lectures, and art essays are available online. These include the exhibition catalogue for Intersecting Circles: Metaphors of Caribbean and Latin American Transnationalism organized in conjunction with the Krakow Print Triennial. The exhibit Cambios: 50 años de transformación en la vida puertorriqueña organized by the Puerto Rico Federal Affairs Administration and containing photographs by Jack Delano is also on view at La Galería.
Vertical file materials: artist files, brochures, pamphlets, clippings:
Two linear feet
The artist files are part of PR Dream’s files covering the institution’s history and operation. They contain artist biographies, clippings, and images of the work of artists who have been showcased at MediaNoche.
Recorded lectures and symposia pertaining to Latino visual arts:
Approximately 150 hours of videotape
Since 2000 PR Dream has been filming most of the lectures and symposia organized by The Center for Puerto Rican Studies (El Centro). Among those that are relevant to the arts is the two-part panel discussion, The Making of Modern New York: Puerto Rican Architects and Their Contributions to New York, organized by the architect Warren James in the spring and fall of 2004.
In the spring panel architects Raymond Plumey, Luis Salazar, and María Antonia Rosselló (Salazar & Roselló) and Warren James spoke about their architectural practice in New York. The moderator of this panel was Dr. Jesús Escobar of Fairfield University. Carlos Rodríguez Infanzón, from Rodríguez + Ayuso, Daniel Rodríguez, from Montoya-Rodríguez, and Madeleine Sánchez participated in the fall panel. The moderator of this panel was Warren James, architect.
PR Dream has also filmed many symposiums organized at El Museo del Barrio. They have three to four boxes, or fifteen to twenty hours of videotape. These recordings include all the public programs organized for the Rafael Tufiño retrospective in 2003.
These items are recorded on mini-DV.
In 2006 PR Dream started producing Webcasts in conjunction with cultural events. Their first featured a discussion of the landmark exhibition of Diógenes Ballester held in 2006 at the Museum of the History of Ponce. The Webcast was done in cooperation with the Museum and the Caribbean University and the Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College. More recently they produced a second webcast with with Prinardi Galleries in Puerto Rico and West Palm Beach that took place during the San Juan-based CIRCA 2007.
Holdings–Finding Aids
There are no finding aids available. Digital material on the PR Dream website and on their computers is easily searched. Other holdings such as ZIP disks have to be researched individually in order to sort their contents.
Accessibility
The research material on the web is permanently accessible at www.PRdream.com. Those without computer access can use the computer lab free of charge at PR Dream’s office on 106 Street.
There is no space specifically set-aside for researchers who want to consult hard copies and materials that are not online, but there is often an empty desk where they can work. The staff at PR Dream is willing to assist researchers who want to consult the archival material that is not online, as there is no finding aid or clear classification system for the records.
Restrictions
Most interviews (ninety-five percent) are available and have been released by the interviewee to PR Dream. There are a few materials (particularly interviews and oral histories) that have not been approved by the interviewee to be released to the public and may be available only for future generations.
General Assessment
The visual arts archive of PR Dream constitutes a great and unique resource thanks to the variety of primary sources it contains on the art of Puerto Ricans from the island and the diaspora. Outstanding among its holdings is its collection of Nuyorican films, which include films written or directed by Puerto Ricans on the subject of the diaspora. A list of these films can be viewed at www.PRdream.com.
Another valuable asset of PR Dream’s archive is its collection of interviews with Puerto Rican artists from the island and the mainland, and also its videotaped symposia and lectures on Puerto Rican and Nuyorican art. The Forum discussions on Puerto Rican art and the cultural politics of New York’s Puerto Rican community are also great resources, as they include the participation of community artists, activists, and intellectuals.
PR Dream’s use of the web as its primary medium to publicize the history, culture, and politics of the Puerto Rican diaspora makes their material reachable to anyone with Internet access.
Relations to other Latino and Latin American organizations
PR Dream collaborates with El Centro de Estudios Puertorriqueños (Center for Puerto Rican Studies) in the production and filming of the Centro Talks. Centro Talks presents a digest of the scholarly talks given at the Centro each academic year.
Recently, PR Dream partnered with the Ateneo Puertorriqueño, the oldest and one of the most prestigious cultural institutions of Puerto Rico, with plans to survey Puerto Rican cinema from its beginning to the present in a permanent online exhibition.
PR Dream has also filmed many symposia and lectures on Puerto Rican art and culture organized by El Museo del Barrio. PR Dream also has a partnership with Manhattan Neighborhood Network for film, editing, and TV production workshops.
PR Dream has collaborated with other organizations including the Museum of The City of New York, in which it organized a lecture on Nuyorican cinema and screened film clips. In Puerto Rico, PR Dream worked with the Museo de la Historia de Ponce in a tribute to the late Nuyorican poet Pedro Pietri on April 23, 2005. PR Dream has partnered with Columbia University’s Center for Ethnic and Racial Studies Conferences to organize “Latinos Inside” and “Sovereignty Matters,” which PR Dream has made available on DVD.
A main goal of PR Dream is to see the US-Puerto Rican and Latino communities in a global context. The organization’s international collaborations are integral to its strategy of fostering dialogue between the Latino art community and other artists worldwide, while building new audiences and peers through technological means like the Internet. PR Dream’s program of public interventions in White Park, located in East Harlem, is a means to this end. The first of these interventions was RNC Redux OPEN DOC project, held in 2004 in collaboration with Screensavers. It connected the Netherlands, Ohio, and Oregon to the community of El Barrio in NY, gauging views on the Republican National Convention. The second intervention, titled The Digital Block Party, launched Medianoche_WiFi in 2006, presenting music being streamed from Chile and virtual gaming. This was a collaboration with Feedtank (Full Body Games) and Digital DJ Mz. That same year, a third intervention involved screening San Yuan Li: A village trapped within a city, a digital video produced by twelve Chinese artists, critiquing the urban sprawl and displacement of people in the Chinese city of Guangzhou. People’s Architecture collaborated with PR Dream in framing the international issue of gentrification within the Spanish Harlem context. A fourth intervention took place in 2007 with Transvoyeur exploring the role of gender in art and architecture by facing off two artists, one from the US and the other from the UK, in a transatlantic dialogue. Based in Liverpool, England, Transvoyeur utilizes the BBC Big Screen in a manner similar to PR Dream’s use of the White Park handball court wall.
Taller Boricua
Taller Boricua was established in 1970 in East Harlem as a non-profit arts organization. Taller Boricua/Puerto Rican Workshop Inc. has expanded into a multicultural institution by providing a variety of programs that stimulate the social, cultural, and economic development of the community. El Taller’s workshops offer artists the opportunity to share ideas and inspiration with colleagues and to enhance productivity and collaboration with other non-profit organizations, schools, artists, public service providers, private corporations, and the community. El Taller Boricua/Puerto Rican Workshop has evolved into a highly respected community arts organization that continues to be a proactive resource for the promotion of the arts.
Contact Information
Taller Boricua
Puerto Rican Workshop
1680 Lexington Avenue
New York, NY 10029
Tel. (212) 831-4333
Fax (212) 831-6274
http://www.tallerboricua.org
Contact
Marcos Dimas, Artistic Director
[email protected]
Hours open to the public
Office: Monday–Friday 10:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.
Gallery: Tuesday–Saturday 12:00–6:00 p.m., Thursday 1:00 p.m.–7:00 p.m.
Hours are subject to change
History of the Institution
Taller Boricua was established in 1970 in East Harlem as a non-profit arts organization. Taller Boricua/Puerto Rican Workshop Inc. has expanded into a multicultural institution by providing a variety of programs that stimulate the social, cultural, and economic development of the community. El Taller’s workshops offer artists the opportunity to share ideas and inspiration with colleagues and to enhance productivity and collaboration with other non-profit organizations, schools, artists, public service providers, private corporations, and the community. El Taller Boricua/Puerto Rican Workshop has evolved into a highly respected community arts organization that continues to be a proactive resource for the promotion of the arts.
Scope and Content
Following the mission of El Taller Boricua, the artist files focus on contemporary art by artists of all ethnicities. El Taller Boricua accepts all unsolicited artist file materials. The majority of its archives and research materials document the history of El Taller Boricua and the Nuyorican artistic community.
Overall holdings of archives and research material: Twenty-five linear feet
Overall holdings of archives and research material on Latino art: Twenty linear feet
Inclusive dates of files: Pre-Columbian–present
Bulk dates: 1970s–present
Languages in which records are written:
English, Spanish
Holdings–Primary Sources
Archives of institution’s history and operation related to Latino art:
Eighteen linear feet
El Taller has lost an estimated 35% of its institutional archives due to improper storage and lack of space over the past decade.
Recorded interviews and performances:
Forty items
Videocassettes of poetry readings at Julia’s Jam (a monthly literary and musical event organized at El Taller since 2001); openings of exhibitions (including Rafael Tufiño’s retrospective); cultural performances; educational workshops; and panel discussions. Videotaped writers include poets Tato Laviera, The Welfare Poets, Papoleto Meléndez, Sandra Estevez, and novelist Nicholasa Mohr. El Taller will soon acquire a copy of the entire Realidades TV series, the first television cultural program produced by Puerto Ricans for PBS from 1974 to 1978.
Slides and photographs:
600 items
El Taller has hundreds of photographs taken by Marcos Dimas and Tito Martín Pérez documenting the history of the institution and the Nuyorican art movement of the seventies. Julia’s Jams are also documented in these photographs. In addition, there are slides documenting the work of the artists of El Taller (e.g. Marcos Dimas, Fernando Salicrup, Nitza Tufiño, and Manuel Neco Otero). Some artist files contain slides.
Digital images:
Fourteen items
The only digitized images are those of the Thirtieth Anniversary of El Taller Portfolio. This portfolio contains a series of prints from Nuyorican artists that have worked with El Taller, including Rafael Tufiño, Marcos Dimas, Fernando Salicrup, Nitza Tufiño, Juan Sánchez, Diógenes Ballester, Gloria Rodríguez accompanied by poems by Mary Boncher, Mariposa, Pedro Pietri, Jesús Meléndez, Héctor Rivera, and Tania Ramírez.
Art objects and artifacts available for researhc:
100 items
Most of the collection is comprised of works on paper created by the artists that started or joined El Taller (Marcos Dimas, Fernando Salicrup, Rafael and Nitza Tufiño, and Jorge Soto). Drawing on the Puerto Rican tradition of using printmaking to advertise events, the artists of El Taller used silkscreen to print many invitations to art exhibitions, poetry readings, or community dances.
Exhibition catalogues published in-house that include work by Latino artists:
El Taller Boricua has published only a few catalogues. Most of the publications accompanying their shows are brochures and other educational materials. Some of the Nuyorican and Puerto Rican artists featured in these brochures are Marina Gutiérrez, Diógenes Ballester, Néstor Otero, and Miguel Trelles. Some Latino, non-Puerto Rican artists include Kukuli Velarde and Mary Valverde-Vélez.
Holdings–Secondary Sources
Exhibition catalogues, books and periodicals related to Latino art:
Seventy-five items
Catalogues on Rafael Tufiño, the artists of El Taller, Carlos Osorio (with essays by Jorge Soto and Rafael Colon Morales), Jose Rosa, and Miguel Trelles, among others. During its tenure at the Heckscher Building (104 St. and Fifth Ave.), El Taller had a library with books on international visual arts as well as books on the civil rights movement, which served as an inspiration for the Nuyorican movement of the late 1960s. Most of these books perished due to a lack of adequate storage.
Vertical file materials related to Latino art: artist files, brochures, pamphlets, clippings:
Three linear feet
The artist files contain clippings, résumés and slides/photographs of the artists that have exhibited their work at El Taller. Three linear feet of El Taller’s vertical file materials are stored onsite and accessible to visiting researchers. The remainder of El Taller’s vertical files are stored offsite and are therefore inaccessible to the public and not included in this survey.
Holdings–Finding Aids
El Taller Boricua has no finding aids.
Accessibility
Materials are not catalogued and are dispersed throughout several buildings. El Taller does not currently employ anyone to assist researchers in finding materials. Consequently, El Taller does not frequently grant appointments to view the archives.
Restrictions
The archives are not currently organized in a systematic way or assembled in one place. Records remain uncatalogued and spread throughout the office of El Taller’s Artistic Director, the basement of El Taller’s annex, and private offsite storage. There is no space reserved for research.
General Assessment
Despite El Taller Boricua’s loss of research material from over thirty-five years of operation, the administrative files, photographs, videos, and few publications that remain are of great value in understanding the interaction of the artistic and social movements of the 1960s and 1970s and the history of pioneering Puerto Rican art institutions in New York.
Artist Files are currently inaccessible to researchers.
Relations to other Latino and Latin American organizations
Since its founding in 1970, El Taller has collaborated in the organization of exhibitions, public programs, and print portfolios with numerous Latino and Latin American organizations in the city, including The Association of Hispanic ARts (AHA!), The Bronx Museum of the Arts, The Center for Puerto Rican Studies, Friends of Puerto Rico, El Museo del Barrio, and The New Museum of Contemporary Art.
In July 2003 the Metropolitan New York Library Council (METRO) sub-contracted The Museum of Modern Art Library to survey archives documenting Latino art in greater New York as part of METRO’s Documentary Heritage Project. The project was long overdue in this region, an epicenter of U.S. Latino and Latin American cultural production since the nineteenth century.
Through the decades artists from Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, and South America have come to New York attracted by the city’s freedom, dynamism, and cosmopolitan flair. New York has also been the cradle of its own U.S. Latino art movement. Inspired by the Civil Rights movement and decolonization struggles of the 1950s and 60s, New York-Puerto Rican or Nuyorican artists worked in conjunction with activists to make art a means for social change.
Nuyoricans, Latinos, and Latin Americans have been—and still are—instrumental in the establishment of a multicultural art scene in New York. They have not only participated as artists, but also as sociocultural agents. Through the establishment of museums and alternative spaces such as The Bronx Museum of the Arts, El Museo del Barrio, El Taller Boricua, and Exit Art, among many others, Latino and Latin American artists in New York have diversified and enriched the metropolitan art scene.
The intensity of their activity and breadth of their contributions have not guaranteed that the documentation of Latino and Latin American art is accessible or has even survived. This is due to numerous factors, among them the strict boundaries of the modern art canon. An equally important but more palpable reason has been the lack of archival practices in institutions whose resources serve only to maintain an active exhibition program.
MoMA Library’s Survey of Archives of Latino and Latin American Art aims to document the archives of New York Latino institutions and establish a network of repositories. Thanks to the support of METRO for three consecutive years, the survey team documented the archival and bibliographic holdings of thirty institutions that have showcased or promoted Latino and Latin American art, including community centers, galleries, museums, and academic research centers.
The scope and research resources of each surveyed archive are described in detail on this website and in a more concise manner on the Archival Collections Guide. Despite the limited lifespan of the survey project and uncertain future of some of the archives and institutions, we hope that this guide will provide researchers, scholars, curators and the interested public with a general idea of the documents they are likely to find at each repository. In the long term, we also hope that the guide and this website will promote individual and institutional responsibility in the preservation and accessibility of these archives.
Sharing and transparency are the key in this process. We are grateful for the model of the Archives of American Art and their Papers for Latino and Latin American Artists. At the same time, we note the emergence of a nationwide movement. Projects and visions in different parts of the country, under the auspices of the Chicano Studies Research Center at UCLA, and the Institute for Latino Studies at Notre Dame University, and the International Center for the Arts of the Americas at The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, among others, are parallel efforts which strengthen our goal of documenting the history of Latino and Latin American art in the United States.
The Survey of Latino and Latin American Art Archives was possible thanks to funding provided by the Metropolitan New York Library Council (METRO) from monies it receives through the New York State Archives’ Documentary Heritage Program.
The Survey of Latino and Latin American Art Archives is the result of a collective effort among individuals at many institutions. Milan Hughston and Donald Woodward conceived the project. Taína Caragol, Project Coordinator, and intern Jessica Hankey worked closely to refine and implement the survey during its first year. Orlando Hernández Ying and Kimberly Randall provided invaluable assistance as the second and third-year interns to the project. Bill Saffady acted as the Consultant Archivist on the project, personally visiting some of the institutions surveyed. The Survey’s Advisory Committee consistently supported the project, offering guidance throughout its execution. The members of the Advisory Committee include Michelle Elligott, Liza Kirwin, Jay Levenson, Deborah Perotti, Edward Sullivan, Susana Torruella-Leval, and Tomás Ybarra-Frausto. Allegra Burnette, Maggie Lederer D’Errico, K Mita, and Zhiyu Wang, of The Museum of Modern Art’s Information Technology and Digital Media Departments, worked closely with the survey team on the design of the website. Martin Fox proofread and edited its contents.
The Survey of Archives of Latino and Latin American Art is greatly indebted to all the archives surveyed during the project’s three years of existence. We would also like to thank all the institutions that due to limited staff and infrastructure preferred not to have their resources publicized on this website. Taína Caragol would also like to thank Marc Neumann for his moral support throughout the project.
Please direct any inquiries on the Survey of Archives of Latino and Latin American art to [email protected]