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Established | 1982 |
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Location | 1852 W. 19th Street Chicago, IL 60608 US |
Coordinates | 41°51′22″N87°40′23″W / 41.856162°N 87.672948°W |
Type | Art Museum |
Founder | Carlos Tortelero [1] |
President | Carlos Tortelero |
Public transit access | CTA Bus routes : Routes 9 and 50 CTA 'L' (Pink Line) : Damen or 18th St. |
Website | nationalmuseumofmexicanart.org |
The National Museum of Mexican Art (NMMA), formerly known as the Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum, is a museum featuring Mexican, Latino, and Chicano art and culture. It is located in Harrison Park in the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. The museum was founded in 1982 by Carlos Tortolero and opened on March 27, 1987. It is the only Latino museum accredited by the American Alliance of Museums. The museum describes itself as the largest Latino cultural institution in America. [2]
Admission to the museum is free. [3]
Carlos Tortolero and a group of Mexican-American teachers first formed the Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum in 1982. [4] The museum building in Harrison Park opened in 1987 and was expanded in 2001. The design on the façade of the building was inspired by the friezes of Mitla in Oaxaca, Mexico. [5]
The NMMA ran the radio station WRTE 90.5 FM, called Radio Arte, a non-profit, community station from late 1996 to December 30, 2012. In Spring 2011, the museum announced that the radio station and the building it has been in since the late 1990s had been put up for sale due to financial issues. On June 22, 2012, it was announced that Chicago Public Media had purchased the license of WRTE FM. On December 31, 2012, Chicago Public Media took control of the frequency after FCC approval, thus ending its run as the only Latino-owned broadcast station of any kind in the Chicago area.
The name of the museum was changed to the National Museum of Mexican Art in December 2006. This name change reflects the status of the museum as the only member of the American Alliance of Museums dedicated to Latino culture.
The museum has a permanent collection featuring prominent works by Mexican artists and artifacts from Mexican history. The permanent exhibit "Mexicanidad: Our Past is Present" explores the history of Mexico in five stages: Pre-Cuauhtémoc Mexico, Colonial Mexico, Mexico from Independence to Revolution, Post-Mexican Revolution to Present-day Mexico and The Mexican Experience in the US.
Every October, the museum has a Día de los Muertos ("Day of the Dead") exhibit which features altars and Día de los Muertos-related art by Chicago-area and international artists. This exhibit is the nation's largest.
The NMMA also has a program of arts education, performance and community initiatives. In 1994, the museum created two new festivals, Del Corazon: the Mexican Performing Arts Festival and the Sor Juana Festival, dedicated to an important Mexican scholar and writer, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz. In 1997, the museum created the Yollocalli Arts Reach.
The Day of the Dead is a holiday traditionally celebrated on November 1 and 2, though other days, such as October 31 or November 6, may be included depending on the locality. It is widely observed in Mexico, where it largely developed, and is also observed in other places, especially by people of Mexican heritage. The observance falls during the Christian period of Allhallowtide. Some argue that there are Indigenous Mexican or ancient Aztec influences that account for the custom, and it has become a way to remember those forebears of Mexican culture. The Day of the Dead is largely seen as having a festive characteristic. The multi-day holiday involves family and friends gathering to pay respects and to remember friends and family members who have died. These celebrations can take a humorous tone, as celebrants remember funny events and anecdotes about the departed.
South Lawndale is a community area on the West Side of Chicago, Illinois. Over 80% of the residents are of Mexican descent and the community is home to the largest foreign-born Mexican population in Chicago.
Lower West Side is a community area on the West Side of Chicago, Illinois, United States. It is three miles southwest of the Chicago Loop and its main neighborhood is Pilsen. The Heart of Chicago is a neighborhood in the southwest corner of the Lower West Side.
The University of the Cloister of Sor Juana is a private university located in the former San Jerónimo Convent in the historic center of Mexico City. This convent is best known for having been the home of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz for over twenty five years, she produced many of her writings here. After the convent was closed in the 19th century, the large complex was divided and was home to a number of institutions and businesses, including a large dance hall in the mid 20th century. In the 1970s, the government expropriated the complex, explored it and began the restoration process. In 1979, the current university was founded at this site and it is currently the benefactor and guardian of the complex. The institution offers bachelors, two masters and two certificates, mostly in the humanities. The institution also sponsors or co-sponsors a number of cultural and educational activities, mostly situated in the historic center of the city.
El Muerto, also known as El Muerto: The Aztec Zombie, is a fictional character and comic book superhero created by American comics creator Javier Hernandez and published through his own imprint Los Comex. The comic book follows the story of 21-year-old Diego de la Muerte, who while on his way to a local Dia de los Muertos festival in Whittier, California, is abducted and sacrificed by the Aztec gods of death and destiny only to return to earth one year later with supernatural powers. The character made his first appearance in a xeroxed black-and-white preview comic titled Daze of the Dead: The Numero Uno Edition. The initial series of El Muerto was met with critical success and the character's popularity has led to several adaptations in other media including a live-action award-winning independent film starring Wilmer Valderrama.
Ester Hernández is a California Bay Area Chicana visual artist recognized for her prints and pastels focusing on farm worker rights, cultural, political, and Chicana feminist issues. Hernández' was an activist in the Chicano Arts Movement in the 1960's and also made art pieces that focus on issues of social justice, civil rights, women's rights, and the Farm Worker Movement.
Self-Help Graphics & Art, Inc. is a community arts center in East Los Angeles, California, United States. The building is a mix Beaux-Arts and vernacular architecture built in 1927, and was designed by Postle & Postle. Formed during the cultural renaissance that accompanied the Chicano Movement, or Self Help, as it is sometimes called, was one of the primary centers that incubated the nascent Chicano art movement, and remains important in the Chicano art movement, as well as in the greater Los Angeles community, today. SHG also hosts musical and other performances, and organizes Los Angeles's annual Day of the Dead festivities. Throughout its history, the organization has worked with well-known artists in the Los Angeles area such as Los Four and the East Los Streetscapers, but it has focused primarily on training and giving exposure to young and new artists, many of whom have gone on to national and international prominence.
WRTE is an American radio station broadcasting a public radio / jazz format. It is licensed to Chicago, Illinois, United States, and serves the city of Chicago. The station is owned by Chicago Public Media. WRTE broadcasts in the HD Radio format.
Benito Juarez Community Academy,, is a public 4–year high school in the Pilsen neighborhood on the west side of Chicago, Illinois, United States. Juarez is named for Mexican president Benito Pablo Juárez García. The school is a part of the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) district. As of 2014, it has been recognized as the largest high school in Pilsen. The building was designed by architect Pedro Ramírez Vázquez.
El Museo Latino is a museum featuring Latino and Hispanic art and history that is located at 4701 South 25th Street in South Omaha, Nebraska. Established in 1993, by Magdalena García, it is the first Latino art and history museum and cultural center in the Midwest.
Herminia Albarrán Romero is a Mexican-American artist known for her papel picado and altar-making. She received a National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts in 2005, which is the United States' highest honor in the folk and traditional arts.
Lalo Alcaraz is an American cartoonist most known for being the author of the comic La Cucaracha, the first nationally syndicated, politically themed Latino daily comic strip. Launched in 2002, La Cucaracha has become one of the most controversial in the history of American comic strips.
The Museo Alameda was the largest Latino museum in the United States and the first formal Smithsonian affiliate outside of Washington D.C., located in the historic Market Square in Downtown San Antonio, Texas.
The West Side is one of the three major sections of the city of Chicago, Illinois, United States. It is joined by the North and South Sides. The West Side contains communities that are of historical and cultural importance to the history and development of Chicago. On the flag of Chicago, the West Side is represented by the central white stripe.
Karen Boccalero was an American nun, fine artist, and founder and former director of Self-Help Graphics & Art.
Mónica Lavín is a Mexican author of six books of short stories, notable among them Ruby Tuesday no ha muerto ; Uno no sabe ; and her most recent collection, La corredora de Cuemanco y el aficionado a Schubert. In addition she was awarded the Elena Poniatowska Ibero-American Novel Prize for her work Yo, la peor (2010). Her novel Cuando te hablen de amor (2017) was a finalist for the 2019 Mario Vargas Llosa Biennial Prize for the Novel. She is a member of the Sistema Nacional de Creadores (FONCA), was a teacher for the SOGEM Writers’ School, and is currently a professor in the Creative Writing Department of the Universidad Autónoma de la Ciudad de México in México City.
Maria Cristina Tavera ("Tina") is a contemporary Latino artist, curator, and cultural organizer who lives and works in Minneapolis, MN. Influenced by her dual citizenship, as well as her transnational movement between her residing Minnesota and Mexico families, she combines historical and contemporary texts and images from recognizable Latin American myths, legends, and present news. Tavera uses her prints, paintings, installations, and Dia de los Muertos ofrendas, or altars, to explore the way that national and cultural icons symbolize complex identities and can construct shared communities at home and abroad. Her artwork is both humorous and confrontational as she invites her viewers to question constructs of race, gender, ethnicity and national and cultural identities. She has exhibited her artwork and curated shows all around the world, and has artworks permanently installed in several art exhibits throughout Minnesota.
Maria Gaspar is an American interdisciplinary artist and educator.
Margaret Garcia is a Chicana muralist, educator, and arts-advocate based in Los Angeles.
Zemmoa Covers is the third studio album by Mexican singer Zemmoa, released digitally and on vinyl on 15 June 2018.