We are featuring an exhibit with the University of Houston that features Latin artists through an art digital board that also features our mural. Under the leadership of Dr. Pamela Anne Quiroz, Director of the University of Houston’s (UH) Center for Mexican American and Latino Studies (CMALS) launched the groundbreaking digital board, Latino cARTographies: Mapping the Past, Present, and Future of Houston’s Latino Visual Art. The exhibit is on display from Friday, April 26 to December 31, 2024.
This portable, bilingual, and interactive digital board funded by the University of Houston is the result of a three-year collaboration led by Dr. Pamela Anne Quiroz, with the curatorial leadership of former vice president of the National Mexican Museum of Art in Chicago, Juana Guzman, the CMALS Research Team, and the International Gibson Group.
Tickets at the door are only $5 and include two other exhibits!
Click HERE to read an article about the exhibit in Houston History Magazine.
The idea for Latino cARTographies began when Dr. Quiroz organized the city of Houston to host the country’s premier Latino art event, Latino Art Now! Dr. Quiroz conceived the idea for the digital board and viewed it as a way to create a dynamic but permanent tribute to the Latino artists of Houston. She then persuaded the Gibson Group to collaborate with CMALS to achieve this goal. The result is a twenty-first-century mode to access the arts and experience culture – Latino cARTographies – that maps the past, present, and future of Houston’s Latino art. By utilizing technology that preserves, represents, and promotes Houston’s Latino visual arts and communities in an equitable and inclusive manner, CMALS is transforming how we experience art in the twenty-first century.
Latino cARTographies features our commissioned a mural to celebrate the many contributions of our city’s Mexican-American community. In the spirit of the great Mexican muralists, this vibrant collective artwork, Mexican-American History & Culture in 20th Century Houston, highlights the places, personalities, concepts and events that shaped the Mexican-American community and laid the foundation for the multicultural city we live in today. Set in Connally Plaza against a dramatic backdrop of City Hall and the downtown skyline, the mural is a cultural landmark in the historic heart of Houston. This mural spotlights 38 places, personalities, and events that played a key role in the growth of this community and provides recognition for the countless and essential contributions of Mexican Americans to the economy, culture, and vitality of our city in the 1900s. Mural artists Laura López Cano and Jesse Sifuentes, along with key fundraisers and government officials celebrated the unveiling to Houstonians in September 2018 for National Hispanic Heritage Month. Since then, we have several outdoor activities being celebrated around the mural for National Hispanic Heritage Month and host field trips telling the stories behind the mural. The vibrant mural, located at 1100 Bagby Street, is now complemented by the interactive, digital board that is inside our museum gallery.
About the Exhibitor: Center for Mexican American and Latino Studies, University of Houston
The Center for Mexican American and Latino/a Studies (CMALS) at the University of Houston was established in 1972 as an interdisciplinary academic program encompassing the liberal arts, education and social sciences focusing on the Mexican American and broader Latino experience in the U.S. Its mission is to advance knowledge, promote critical thinking and foster the value of service to the community. This involves designing a broad spectrum of public and scholarly programs. Located within the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, CMALS has evolved into an academic unit with several major components: teaching, research and publications, recruitment and retention, leadership training, academic advising and community service.
Thank you to the following:
Marisela Martinez, Ed.D. Associate Director
Debbie Z. Harwell, Ph.D. Editor, Houston History https://houstonhistorymagazine.org/
IG: @latinocart_uhcmals FB: @UHCMAS Website: www.class.uh.edu/cmas