A Call to All Houston Professional Latino Visual Artists
The University of Houston Center for Mexican American Studies, the headquarters of the Inter-University Program on Latino Research, invites you to join the Houston’s Latino Visual Art Registry and become part of an archive of digital artist registries that provide national visibility and a link to one of the IUPLR’s permanent member institutions, the Smithsonian Institute.
The origins of the Houston’s Latino Visual Art Registry
The IUPLR is a national research consortium of 24 university-related centers and institutes that focus on developing the intellectual presence of Latinos in the U.S. The consortium is also a member of the National Hispanic Leadership Agenda, the nation’s oldest and largest collection of Latino civil rights organizations. The IUPLR’s signature event, Latino Art Now!, is the country’s premier national visual art forum that brings collectors, curators, artists, scholars and the public to address the contributions of Latino art to the nation.
In 2017, the IUPLR selected the Center for Mexican American Studies (CMAS) as host of the Latino Art Now! Houston. From the beginning, CMAS conceptualized and proposed a digital registry that would become one of IUPLR’s national archives of digital registries and the first Latino visual artists registry in Houston.
Since 2018 CMAS has engaged in research to create the Houston’s Latino Visual Art Registry. The registry will be released in different stages given that it will provide unique features valuable to art enthusiasts as well as scholars and the public. Currently, the first stage of the registry is available to users. This stage includes a boolean search based on name, gender, self-identification, country, and medium for relevant results.
The final product will be available in the spring of 2020 as a celebration of LAN! Spring of Latino Art. This product will provide a first-of-its-kind visual artist registry. We’re trying to push the envelope and we hope you will be part of this effort.
Why register with the Houston’s Latino Visual Art Registry?
- It is part of a series of national registries produced by the Inter-University Program on Latino Research, a 37-year-old consortium that has a national and international reach. The LAN! has become the signature event of the IUPLR and its digital projects have stimulated increasing interest.
- The LAN! [and the IUPLR] is connected to the Smithsonian Latino Center in Washington DC, an affiliate of the Smithsonian, the world’s largest museum and research complex, with 19 museums, 9 research centers, and affiliates around the world. Given the scope of the digital registries, our reach is substantial and we want to promote Houston’s professional visual artists to the nation.
- IUPLR registries are curated and present professional visual Latino artists.
- Several artists received funding due to the LAN! and some had their work purchased by collectors.
- In 2019 (February-May) 93 news articles featured the LAN! and Houston’s artists. And according to an independent media center, the reach during these four months was 77.2 million!! extending beyond the nation to Spain, Venezuela, Bolivia and Mexico.
- We want you to be part of this national opportunity!
RESEARCH TEAM:
Pamela Anne Quiroz, Maira E. Álvarez, Sarah Cantú, Devon E. Jones, Justin Patera (Intern)
SPONSOR
QUESTIONS? If you have questions and would like more information about the registry contact us at iuplr@central.uh.edu