149 thoughts on “The search for a new Executive Director at el Museo del Barrio. What are the issues?”
RE: RE: RE: REQUIEM for El MUSEO
Dont be so quick to mourn!
Every museum is born out of a peoples experience. Are we any different.
To answer your question more directly, Im willing to wager that we will see more Puerto Rican art involved in the intl art markets, rather than buried in the Permanent Collection Cellar.
Do not glaze too quickly over lack of progress or initiative on the part of previous administrations.
Zugazagoita doesnt want to be anywhere you & I do not want to be in the next 3-5 years: KNOWN TO THE WORLD!
REREQUIEM ? we should really ask this question
It won’t happen just like that, unless we have a lot of pressure from Puerto Ricans in the island and in NY. If the board continues to change and bring in non-Puerto Ricans and the high administration is itself non-Puerto Rican, what whould be a good reason for them to put Puerto Rican art when it is much more marketable to put Frida, Diego and Botero? I’m not saying these artists aren’t important, but we have to think if we really want El Museo to become some sort of mainstream Latin American institution.
As I said in the TownHall meeting, as an art historian I have noticed the alarming truth that we are not included in the major Latin American Art surveys and exhibitions that are used for graduate courses. Jackeline Barnitz recent Latin American Art in the 20th century (which by the way is a very good survey) does not say a word about Puerto Rico, neither is it mentioned in Dawn Ades Art in Latin America: the Modern Era (1820-1980) , neither in major Latin American history books like Mark Burholder and Lyman L. Johnson Colonial Latin America (which has 355 pages and Puerto Rico is just mentioned in one paragraph). I can give you a more extensive bibliography if you want. I would say that Edward Sullivan Latin American Art in the Twentieth Century is an exception to this rule. Even Sullivan notice the great exclusion of Puerto Rican art from Latin American and Caribbean texts, two years ago at the CAA conference in Chicago. Of course, our political status is the reason why we are ofte excluded. What makes you think that you will not be excluded from El Museo if it becomes Latin American?
I am puertorriquena, Caribena and Latin Americana. Nevertheless, I am also for mantaining our own institutions. I sincerely think that we can not “leave it to chance,” y “dormirnos en las pajas,” unless you want to take the risk of being excluded once more.
REQUIEM for el Museo del Barrio
Taina: And my next question to you is: What have YOU done about the omissions you mention in all those books and this on-going problem?
Did you, as an art historian and presumably well acquainted with Puertorican art, WRITE letters to those AUTHORS you mention? Did you write to those PUBLISHERS? Did you redact a letter in petition form and get it signed by artists and others (art critics and art historians) concerend about this gross omission and then SENT it to those AUTHORS and PUBLISHERS?
Did you propose/design to have a forum in an academic forum to rectify that omission? Did you contact a group of peers and suggest they meet at el Museo to discuss the matter and hold a PUBLIC FORUM to discuss these matters of ART HISTORY, of PUERTORICAN ART ?
Are you part of the problem or are you part of the solution?
Interestingly enough Dr. Edward Sullivan, whom you mention is a card-carrying member of el Museo del Barrio’s Advisory Board….from the “Brazil: Body & Soul” literature you can see that he headed the team at the Guggenheim (although he does not work there) and he worked along with Mr. Zugazagoitia. He probably, along with Thomas Krens, RECOMMENDED him to the Board.
So there is, seemingly, a paradox here: the ONLY art historian who does put Puertorican art in equal standing as all the other countries in Latin America (and by the way there is also a chapter on Chicano artists) is someone who believes (we assume) that having Mr. Zugazagoitia as the Executive Direcor is A-OK.
With Dr. Sullivan on Board, you could relax a little.
A Museum for the XXIst Century
After reading many of the posted statements it occurs to me the following pattern is present:
There is an enormous amount of nostalgia for the “old museo”….
I noticed a great deal of sentences with the word: “was”…
It was founded…it used to be like this…the original intent was…and so on.
It is as if the last 10-12 years did not happen at all. The period after Jack Agueros was removed from his position by Marshals…and the doors padlocked and now. This is sheer denial.
During that time Marta Vega, Petra Barreras and Susana Torruella Leval were directors….have we all forgotten?
But above all, the fact remains that el Museo was that way back then. The way it is NOW is over, and the way it is going to BE is the one full of possibilities.
Why not join as a member ($25 for el Barrio residents), submit a proposal for an exhibition, or better yet: Propose a Symposium in which you are the moderator to talk about Puertorican ART and what Puertorican artists are doing today and this to be done at the Teatro Hecksher.
Aurora Flores for Executive Director
I hereby NOMINATE Aurora Flores to be the next Executive Director of el Museo del Barrio.
Sign the petiti on and pass it on…
RE: REREQUIEM ? we should really ask this question
Your comments sounds like a perfect Agenda item for the new director, and quite reasonable (no offense intended).
Perhaps you have the appropriate disposition and credentials to open that discussion with the new leadership.
Based on our history of Puerto Rican adminstrators and the lack of presence of our artists in internatinal markets, Im willing to work with a non-Puerto Rican in reaching that objective.
However, you are quite right, why leave it to chance. As a matter of fact, none of these are ever left to chance. Promotion of art, or anything for that matter, is carefully thought out, planned, and scheduled.
Let me add that I do not intend to seem so harsh on our administrators, but the fact remains that they have not been effective on this matter.
I know of one particular case where one of them was scoured by Prof Kraus (CU), not on being Puerto Rican, but on precisely what youre addressing. The issues were a matter of substance and presentation. Is it possible that the world simply does not know enough about R Colon Morales, J Soto.
Shouldnt Villarini be prominent in the world presentation of ‘naive art’ (pardon me while I bite my tongue) or ‘folkloric art’
I am devastated to learn what you report, that therre is no reference to Puerto Rican are in the important sources you cite. This is absolutely appallling. Somehow, I have to fault the previous leadership for these omissions.
We have to lobby and advocate for our art and artists, everyone does. Have our adminstrators been busy with other so-called priorities in carrying out their duties, while missing the central point of it all — Puerto Rican Art;.
The questions
Red:
I would not lay the blame at the feet of any of the adminsitration(s) of el Museo: they have many other fish to fry too….such as fund-raising to keep the doors open (just one example)….
I lay the blame PRECISELY in those that COMPLAIN about things but they CHOOSE to do nothing about it:
The case of the Puertorican Art historian who does not do anything but complain about el Museo. See previous posts on this…..
I am with you (although still mourning) in that the enemy is US, and unless we are prepared to roll up our sleeves, submit constructive suggestions and become pro-active in helping, we are just part of the problem.
RE: REQUIEM for el Museo del Barrio
I am not part of the problem and bringint the subject to this forum is precisely one strategy to raise the issue. Thank you for all your suggestions. They are actually great and to tell you more, I am already networking for this end. As you may have noticed, this is not a 1 person job. As for Edward Sullivan, I am aware of his relation to el Museo and of course of his role at the Brazil show at the Guggenheim.
In any case, the concern I put forward is still valid.
The revolution is back and this timeÖ it’s cultural. The search for a new director for El Museo del Barrio has begun behind closed doors excluding the community that gave it birth. Notwithstanding, educators, activists and professionals in harmony with Community Board 11 are clamoring for representation in the selection process that has locked them out since the new board took over in 1986.
Sprung from the pain and struggle of heretofore voiceless Puerto Rican artists, activists and educators struggling for identity, history and expression 33 years ago, El Museo del Barrio today enjoys increased funding, personnel, prestige and professionalism over any other Latino arts organization. Yet, there are no Puerto Rican curators or educators employed at El Museo which is housed in a city-owned building. A rehabbed firehouse at 104th between Lexington and Third, founded in 1979 as a community art school once run by local El Museo artists, stands abandoned. The Three Kings Day parade, initiated as an East Harlem tradition since 1978, has not grown in funding, stature or pageantry since El Museo’s new board took over. This is even more telling when not one board member was present for this historically and racially diverse parade into East Harlem even while newly elected Mayor Michael Bloomberg made this his first public appearance.
The bigger issue then becomes how to reconcile the needs of a still marginalized community with the demands of the fine arts world? Without people of color and community artists on this elite and powerful board of “culture vultures” who have excluded the community that created their positions, that issue will remain unresolved. El Museo del Barrio will eventually follow the lead of The Museum of the City of New York to an ìimproved locationî (code word white) unless the City and politicians intervene to revamp this board who doesn’t know anything about our cultural struggle for social identification and whose only concern is their own prestige and power.
Yet, El Barrio is growing so fast culturally that the ìNuBohemianî movement of the cultural corridor will pick up where El Museo leaves off. El Taller Boricua (the Puerto Rican Workshop, Inc.) for example was, ironically enough, instituted in 1969 in response to the elitist exclusion of Nuyorican artists by another, now defunct institution, Friends of Puerto Rico that also placed more value on Eurocentric Latino artists over the urban up and coming Latinos of New York. Today, El Taller Boricua is leading the new movement of community arts organizations committed to establishing a social consciousness for identity. The collective mission of these organizations mirror El Museoís nascent calling to educate, communicate and demonstrate a bond of solidarity that is Puerto Rican in focus and Latin American in scope. Here in the cultural corridor, art doesnít necessarily need to be in galleries as much as it needs to be directly connected to the everyday reality of its people.
On the longest day of the year, June 21st, an ìopen doorî art and cultural showcase took place on 106th and Lexington that recalled the bohemian Village days of the 70s. Led by young artists and poets of Mixta Gallery, artistic doors were flung open to the streets where El Taller brought the gallery outdoors while individual artists opened their studios to the public. Musicians and performers danced and played on the pavements from 104th to 107th while community folks stopped, stared, inquired and participated in the mirth. The Graffiti Hall of Fame sported a brand new tag for the evening. La Fonda and La Cantina restaurants displayed art and artists on their menus while James de la Vegaís chalk scribblings lined the pavements to his shop. Every Thursday, Taller Boricua hosts ìJuliaís Jamî a cultural smorgasbord of art, music, dance, poetry and literature at a formerly abandoned elementary school rescued from ìshelter statusî and salvaged as the Julia de Burgos Cultural Center, sporting art galleries, a theater in the round, and artists residencies.
The mission East of Fifth Avenue is clear for these arts organizations that truly are the ìsouls of the cultural community.î As for El Museo del Barrio, wellÖîlet them eat their cake.î Once inside the lofty gates of the fine arts world, theyíll soon discover they are neither equal in status or funding to the mainstream institutions they so covet that have kept us out for so long.
Aurora Flores
Aurora Flores is a journalist, educator and cultural activist.
— has NEVER included a single Puertorican artist in ANY of his shows…..ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD.
— has NEVER included a single Chicano/a artist in ANY of his shows ….ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD.
–has NEVER included a single Latino/a artist in ANY of his shows …ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD.
How in the world does the Board hand over the keys to a Puertorican & Latino to a curator who knows NOTHING about this art? and the artists that make it?
It is unbelievable when you consider that there WERE Puertorican canditates interviewed for the job who not only KNOW and CURATE shows about Puertorican and Latinos but RUN Puertorican and Latino MUSEUMS!
Its outrageous….
I plan to write a letter to Mr. Zugazagoitia suggesting (and the reaons why) that he should voluntarily decline to take the job.
Old Article Reprinted again, with typos.
This article is an old one. It includes bad spelling and clearly is a self-serving piece.
Ms. Flores made money doing public relations for el Museo for many years, she now has a dispute/vendetta with the museum and its staff.
Now she represents the Taller Boricua and this appears to be part of the marketing campaign of Aurrora Communications on behalf of that institution.
Nothing like OLD news, reprinted yet again. You would think the typos would be corrected by now?
Old Article Reprinted again, with typos.
This article is an old one. It includes bad spelling and clearly is a self-serving piece.
Ms. Flores made money doing public relations for el Museo for many years, she now has a dispute/vendetta with the museum and its staff.
Now she represents the Taller Boricua and this appears to be part of the marketing campaign of Aurrora Communications on behalf of that institution.
Nothing like OLD news, reprinted yet again. You would think the typos would be corrected by now?
RE: Aurora Flores for Executive Director
You’ve got to be kidding…..
RE: Bochinche barato
Some people just love to talk out of the side of their mouths. The issue here is not me or El Taller, an organization I volunteer with. The issue here remains one of class, and you, my dear, are certainly showing your total lack of it.
What you call typos are computer incapatabilities, and again, you continue to spew third hand information and “bochinche barato.”
The facts are that this issue with El Museo has NOTHING to do with ethno- centricity, race or any other smokescreen. It is not even a local issue. It is a national issue affecting many of the nonprofits having to do with the privatization of organizations started by communities historically marginalized. The Museum in San Diego is going through the same crisis with its board and has been in contact offering its help and support. So unlike the hatred and divisive manipulation that you are trying to pepetuate here.
You continue to personalize this issue by pointing to the most vocal opponents with sexist slurs while looking for vendettas that do not exist. The fact that we are insiders that have witnessed first hand the total arrogance and santimonious condencension of people who feel superior to the community that gave them their jobs and positions is truly transparent and shameful.
Your name calling and accusations only illustrate your total hypocrisy and self-hating colonialized mentality. Why are you so scared? Again, the only thing the community wants is representation on a board whose insititution is housed in a City owned building and operated with City, State and Federal funds provided by the working class. Again, let’s stick to the REAL FACTS. No one is saying that El Museo should not be a world class museum, but not at the expense of the community that gave it birth. There must be a way of reconciling the fine arts world and the nuyorican artistic community for whom art is a daily life blood, not a separate chapter housed in an ivory tower reserved for museum hours.
Have some pride in what Boricuas and other Latinos are doing to protest this gross injustice and STOP TALKING ABOUT PEOPLE you do not know just because you are obviously being fed information by El Museo and this board. I challenged you before to call me directly before making acussations but you choose the coward’s way using initials — the same as if you were using a hood. Your “caluñias” are litigigously libelous. Keep sending them to me. They’re making great copy for my file.
BTW, don’t tell me what to wash and I won’t tell you what to kiss.
Aurora Flores
articulo barato
Are you getting minority set-aside projects and contracts?
Again with the ad hominem remarks!
Again with the ad hominem remarks. What if she were?
Reply
k smit: I agree, Aurora Flores represents the voice of reason and wisdom.
Perhaps pasteles buenos was trying to re-direct her considerable verbal/written skills towards a more profitable end which would benefit all of us and el Museo.
The economic tide would lift all boats.
Aurora Flores for Executive Director
It makes perfect sense. It would solve all the issues and problems with the stroke of one pen.
Ms. Flores is “an insider”, a 100-year-old presence in el Barrio, an eloquent and very persuasive leader. Everyone would be very happy.
RE: Old Article Reprinted again, with typos.
EGG, Ms Flores may have a vendetta vs El Museos past administration, but Im tryin gto understand the diatribe youve launched against her.
Ive seen her work over the years, and continue to be impressed by her output and content. As a rule, people who launch your brand of diatribe do not usually have much to offer. Am I wrong in your case.
More importantly, do you really feel that Aurora is either the Problem or part of it.
Give it some thought, Bitter Man.
Reply to Red Planet
My position is simple. Ms. Flores is both: part of the problem and the problem itself.
Her postings speak for themselves.
The Search is OVER; The Issues are…..
To honor the original SUBJECT heading in this forum,
a) The search for the Executive Director is over. That is a done deal.
b) What are the issues now, going forward?
–Many speak of “community representation” on the Board; this begs the question or series of questions: Which community or communities?
–Others speak of “programming” which reflects (again) the community or comunities. How can that be done? Bear in mind that the amount of space (square footage) is fixed at about 8,000 square feet.
–Others worry about the future of the permanent collection. What to do about THAT? What recommendations?
Can others please articulate these issues and other issues which are out there so that they can be clustered by area/subject and then make specific and constructive recommendations?
Lets get beyond the “Lamento Borincano”….on the one hand and past the “Grito de Lares” on the other….
What are the ISSUES? HOW can they be remedied?
Adios, Borinquen querida…..
For Immediate Release
THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES
OF EL MUSEO DEL BARRIO
ANNOUNCES UNANIMOUSLY
NEW DIRECTOR JULIAN ZUGAZAGOITIA
NEW YORK (September 24, 2002) — Tony Bechara, Chair of the Board of Trustees of El Museo del Barrio, today announced that after a thorough search the Board of Trustees has unanimously appointed Julián Zugazagoitia as Director of the Museum. Zugazagoitia is currently a member of the Director’s Office at the Guggenheim Museum serving directly under Thomas Krens. Zugazagoitia is bringing to El Museo extensive experience internationally in both museum administration and curatorial work having held leadership positions at the Getty Conservation Institute, the Spoleto Festival in Italy, and, having served as the cultural attaché to the Mexican delegation to UNESCO.
“We are thrilled with the unanimous selection of Julián Zugazagoitia as our new Director,” stated Bechara. “Julián understands and is dedicated to our mission which serves the local Puerto Rican, Latino and Latin American community, while at the same time he has the vision to lead us forward as a world-class institution.”
El Museo del Barrio is New York’s leading Latino cultural institution, having expanded its mission to represent the diversity of art and culture of Puerto Ricans, Latinos, and Latin Americans. Currently, El Museo features Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera and Twentieth-Century Mexican Art: The Jacques and Natasha Gelman Collection, widely regarded as the most significant private holding of twentieth-century Mexican art, which is comprised of superb examples of works by Kahlo, Rivera and other masters of modern Mexican art. Extended through September 26, the exhibition has drawn record attendance of more than 70,000 visitors.
The selection of Zugazagoitia concludes a five-month international search by the Board of Trustees’ Search Committee in consultation with Russell Reynolds Associates, the international executive search firm. The Board interviewed candidates from the US and Puerto Rico, the Caribbean and Latin America. Estrellita Brodsky, Chair of the Search Committee, said of the appointment, “We are delighted that Julián Zugazagoitia has been selected as the next Director. Julián is not only an intelligent, articulate and energetic leader, he is sensitive to the challenging issues facing El Museo del Barrio as the museum continues its commitment to growth and distinction within its community and beyond.”
Former Director of El Museo, Susana Torruella Leval, states: “Julián’s experience, intelligence, and most importantly, talent for working with diverse communities, make him an ideal next Director to lead El Museo into the 21st century.”
Angela Cabrera, a Trustee of El Museo since the early 1970s comments: “I am impressed by Julián’s commitment to, sensitivity towards, and awareness of the concerns of our community that as Director of El Museo he will fulfill the mission of our founders. I am confident that he will succeed and bring the museum to the next level.”
“El Museo del Barrio is a dynamic and forward-looking institution, and I am thrilled to be joining it at such a decisive moment in its history,” said Zugazagoitia. “I intend to honor its mission as a museum of art and culture of Puerto Ricans, Latinos and Latin Americans, and to maintain its standards of curatorial and educational excellence. At the same time, I will seek new opportunities and cooperative partnerships that have the capacity to widen the scope and influence of its programs. I am looking forward to the Museum’s upcoming exhibitions El Museo’s Bienal and Rafael Tufiño, Pintor del Pueblo/Painter of the People, his first major retrospective in the United States, as well as to future programming to be developed under my directorship.”
At the Guggenheim since 1999, Zugazagoitia has been an organizer and a curator of Brazil: Body and Soul, and was the principal creator of all related programming for the exhibition. His other activities for the Guggenheim have included organizing, in conjunction with the Louvre, Paris, a lecture series entitled “The Total Work of Art”; the presentation of Miguel Rio Branco and Tunga, two commissions for the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice; and the development of the ANY (Architecture New York) Conference. Prior to and during his work for the Guggenheim, Zugazagoitia served as the curator of numerous exhibitions internationally, including the New York section of the “Iconografias Metropolitanas” for the XXVth Sâo Paulo Bienal; Passion for Life, the Revolution of Mexican Art in the XXth Century for the Castel dell’Ovo, Naples, Italy; Par delà les Tropiques for the Maison de l’Amerique Latine, Paris; and, Tamis du Temps for the Musée des Beaux Arts, Lons-Le-Saulnier. During his eight years with the Getty Conservation Institute, Zugazagoitia was in charge of major projects such as the conservation of the Abomey Royal Palaces, Benin, West Africa and curated and organized the exhibition Nefertari Light of Egypt that originated in Rome and traveled throughout Italy. From 1997 – 99, Zugazagoitia served as the Director of Visual Arts for the Spoleto Festival in Italy, where he curated and organized exhibitions, publications and happenings. He was also a cultural correspondent for the Excélsior newspaper in Mexico City. A native of Mexico City, Zugazagoitia holds a Doctorate in Philosophy and Aesthetics from the Sorbonne, Paris, and is a graduate of l’Ecole du Louvre. Zugazagoitia will start at El Museo del Barrio on November 18, 2002. He replaces Susana Torruella Leval, who retired and was named Director Emeritus on June 30, 2002. Patricia Smalley, former Deputy Commissioner of Cultural Affairs, is currently serving as Interim Director.
HISTORY
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 96th Street to the Harlem River and from Fifth Avenue to the East River on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.
In 1994, El Museo broadened its mission, collections, and programs in concert with substantial growth in the Mexican, Central and South American, and Caribbean communities, both in New York and nationally. Also in 1994, El Museo completed an intensive institutional self-study and long range plan in conjunction with the National Arts Stabilization program. Board, staff, and consultants reviewed and re-affirmed El Museo’s mission and program, setting out concrete objectives for institutional and program development. In 1995, El Museo’s staff, in tandem with a board committee, prepared an overview of capital construction priorities to be addressed over the next 10 – 15 years. In addition, El Museo developed its first Long Range Financial and Fundraising Plan. The board and the former Director have established several task forces, composed of board, staff, and advisors, to focus the museum’s efforts and to ensure systematic application of professional standards to each of El Museo’s core programs and special initiatives.
El Museo was made a member of the Cultural Institutions Group of the City of New York in 1977 by an act of public policy of the Mayor of New York. This organization encompasses 34 cultural institutions housed in city-owned buildings, from large, world-famous ones like The Metropolitan Museum of Art, to smaller, community-based ones like El Museo. Through substantial funding, CIG membership acknowledges the importance of the cultural services these institutions render to the population of New York City.
MISSION
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.
Through its extensive collections, varied exhibitions and publications, bilingual public programs, educational activities, festivals and special events, El Museo educates its diverse publics in the richness of Caribbean and Latin American arts and cultural history.
By introducing young people to this cultural heritage, El Museo is creating the next generation of museum-goers, while satisfying the growing interest in Caribbean and Latin American art of a broad national and international audience.
EDUCATION
El Museo’s educational mission continues to drive its collections and programs. The permanent collection remains a treasured resource for developing exhibitions and education programs. In recent years public programs have been developed to address the educational needs of diverse populations-seniors, adults, adolescents, public school students, and very young visitors.
CURRENT PROGRAMMING
The museum maintains an active exhibition program that embraces Puerto Rican, Latino and Latin American art and culture, from the pre-Columbian era through to today. The 2002 – 2003 schedule of exhibitions is as follows:
October 24, 2002 – February 16, 2003
El Museo’s Bienal
The S-Files/The Selected Files
Curated by Deborah Cullen, Curator, and Victoria Noorthoorn, Curator of Museo de Arte Latinoamericano, Colección Costanini, Buenos Aires
El Museo del Barrio’s third biennial showcase of cutting-edge, contemporary art produced by Latino and Latin American artists living and working in the greater New York area-selected (“S”) from unsolicited artist’s files sent to El Museo del Barrio. The S-Files expands the definition of contemporary Latin American art through a broad and exciting sampling of new projects, and keeps El Museo in touch with-and responsive to-current artistic production. Works include traditional media-such as painting, drawing, sculptural works, photography or video-and also many site-specific installations, performative pieces, conceptual works and outdoor projects created specifically for this exhibition.
The 30 artists included in The S-Files 2002 are: María Alós, Isidro Blasco, François Bucher, Margarita Cabrera, Bibi Calderaro, Javier Cambre, Paco Cao, Karlos Carcamo, Alejandro Cesarco, Nicolás Dumit Estévez, Alessandra Exposito, Cari González-Casanova, Julio Grinblatt, Nicolas Guagnini, Claudia Joskowicz, Miguel Luciano, Tristana Maccio, Chico MacMurtrie, Enrique Mendez de Hoyos, Yusef Merhi, Angel F. Nevarez (in collaboration with Valerie Tevere), Vicente Razo, Aixa Requena, Ryan Rivera, Raimundo Rubio Huidobro, Karin Schneider, Alejandra Seeber, Leticia Stella-Serra, Rigoberto Torres, and Judi Werthein.
A lively array of programming builds upon the youthful energy of The S-Files through projects that take place in Teatro Heckscher, the museum lobby and courtyard, the streets of el barrio, and beyond.
March 13 – August 2003
Rafael Tufino, Pintor del Pueblo/Painter of the People
Curated by Dr. Teresa Tío for the Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico, San Juan
This exhibition will be Rafael Tufino’s first major retrospective in the United States, presenting the entire breadth of his work (prints, paintings, drawings and sculpture), as selected from the major retrospective held in Puerto Rico. Tufino was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1922, and is one of the central figures in the history of twentieth-century Puerto Rican art. A member of Generación del Cincuenta (“The Fifties Generation”), Tufino has been of one of the major forces in founding and furthering modern Puerto Rican art-both on the Island and in the Caribbean diaspora of New York. Tufino was one of the founders and leaders of the Island’s print tradition, and has been one of the hemisphere’s most distinguished poster-makers, an illustrator of books and stories, a draftsman and letterist. The expressive and gestural purity of his draftsmanship became a trademark of Puerto Rican graphics of the 1950s and 1960s. Tufino consistently depicted the Puerto Rican people in all their daily expressions, working and celebrating.
Tufino made many images of dance, music, and religious festivals, and El Museo will offer public music and dance programs and folk art demonstrations as programming to accompany the exhibition.
September 2003 – February 2004
MoMA at El Museo (working title)
A joint curatorial team of staff from The Museum of Modern Art and El Museo del Barrio is organizing the exhibition.
This exhibition, to be held at El Museo del Barrio, will present outstanding works from The Museum of Modern Art’s core collection of Modernists works by Latin American artists as well as recent acquisitions in the areas of modern and contemporary art. This exhibition will be an opportunity to display the results of MoMA’s collecting strategy of acquiring contemporary works while acknowledging the historic contributions of individual artists. MoMA began collecting work by Latin American artists in 1931, the first institution to do so outside the region.
Additionally, selections from El Museo’s permanent collection is on view through November 17, 2002 at the Heckscher Museum of Art, Huntington, NY. The exhibition titled Treasures from El Museo del Barrio features work that spans a variety of media and cultures, from pre-Columbian artifacts to contemporary Latino art.
On permanent view
TAÍNO: Ancient Voyagers of the Caribbean
Curated by Dr. Dicey Taylor, Guest Curator
Organized by El Museo, this exhibition is dedicated to the Taíno, an important culture that flourished from 1200 to 1500 AD, on several Caribbean islands. Taíno features approximately 100 works, including outstanding ceremonial and domestic objects finely created in stone, wood, bone, ceramic, and shell. The exhibition includes selected works from El Museo’s Permanent Collection, and loans from other major institutions and private collections. This exhibition-the most comprehensive of its kind in a US museum-provides the public with an overall view of the history, cosmology, art and culture of the Taíno, as well as their legacy to present-day Caribbean culture.
Spanish-language version of media release will be available on Wednesday, September 25th.
Somos plato de segunda mesa….
Artnet News
10/1/02
MORE CUTS AT GUGGENHEIM: NEWSPAPER
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum is bracing for further staff cuts, a possible reduction in hours and may be planning to close its Las Vegas branch next year, according to a report by Rachel Donadio in the New York Sun. Museum director Thomas Krens announced the possible 2003 budget cuts at a meeting with department heads on Friday. Guggenheim deputy director Judith Cox told the Sun that the museum could open an hour later, at 10 a.m. rather than 9 a.m., but denied that the Las Vegas branch would close. The Gugg has recently lost senior staffers — “Brazil: Body and Soul” organizer Julien Zugazagoitia left to head El Museo del Barrio, and Laurie Beckelman, who had been in charge of the future Frank Gehry-designed Guggenheim museum planned for the Wall Street area, left to oversee the move of the American Craft Museum to Columbus Circle. As for the Las Vegas Guggenheim, art-world sources say the staff there has shrunk from 110 to 35, and that director Barbara Bloeminck is on her way to the Cooper-Hewitt in New York.
RE: Somos plato de segunda mesa….
Ready for the attacks…But really, did anyone ever think that puertoriquenos or any Latinos (U.S. born artists not authenticated by institutions and embassies and galleries etc. for that matter) would ever be first plate to any Latino/Latin American institutions or curators or directors? That’s exactly why the museo was built for: To contrast this kind of thinking. Where are we now?
New Director’s Credentials
It’s OUTRAGEOUS!
The new director of el Museo del Barrio has NEVER included a single Puertorican artist (P.R. nor U.S. born) in ANY exhibition ANYWHERE in the world.
Furthermore, he has NEVER included a single Latino nor Chicano (US born)in ANY exhibition ANYWHERE in the world.
Anyone who can show the contrary; do so here. In depth research has turned up NOTHING.
This person does not have the knowledge, nor the expertise to exhibit our artists and culture in NYC. The emperor has no clothes!
It’s an OUTRAGE.
RE: New Director
Dear Outraged
I can certainly appreciate your outrage, but think of the myriad instances in history where a leader with a plainly unremarkable past enters the history texts as an excellent or outstanding leader.
The point it, while Zugazagoita may not have included Puerto Rican artists in his curatorial assignments, he will have to now. Not only that, he is a player on that intl market that will make it possible for PR artists to gain new exposure, where perhaps his predecessors did not have that access.
Also, you point brings us back to the earlier part of the discussion, viz: what have previous administrations done to get puertorriquen artists known to the world.
I am still having trouble accepting that if serious efforts had been made all along, that our artists would still be as obscured as they are.
Let me make anothe point. I know of Puerto Rican artists who have worked, exhibited, sold and are in international collections. Do these not count. Are we only talking about the Bienal circuses or other mega art events.
RE: RE: New Director
Sorry I didnt ID myself (LOL). “The Emperors Hidden Wardrobe” is from Red Planet.
The New Mexican/Brazilian Embassy
Naming a Mexican to el Museo del Barrio will now open the floodgates of money and arts from the much larger countries (such as Mexico, Brazil, etc.) of Latin America and finally snuff the little Puertorican museum that could.
Sustained as a noble and heroic outpost at the top of museum mile, as a veritable platform for Puertorican artists and art during 30 years, the handing over the keys to another culture and art is cultural genocide.
It is a scandal of major proportions.
To The New Director
Since when do “art markets” determine what is shown in museums?
If that were part of the job description (“to take Puertorican artists to world art markets” to paraphrase you) then naming an art dealer from Sotheby’s or Christie’s with Latin American credentials would have done THAT trick.
A museum’s job is not about taking our artists and making them world famous. It has to do more with education, collecting, showcasing, presenting and interpreting ALL about our art (notwithstanding what the art market says) to our children, to us, and to others beyond our community.
Out of previous administrations artists such as Pepon Osorio and Antonio Martorell were “taken to the wporld art markets”…but in addition to them many, many shows were done which were educational and meaningful to us, the Puertoricans who founded it and wanted to see ourselves reflected on the walls.
But that is not what we are talking about here: The new director has NO TRACK RECORD WHATSOEVER of knowing about, understanding of, presenting, educating about, promoting, collecting, nor showcasing ANY Latino/Puertorican art or artist. Given that track record more likely he will present MORE MEXICAN, BRAZILIAN and other cultures BIGGER, MORE POWERFUL THAN our own.
Our Latino/Puertorican culture, in that context, becomes a footnote–see what the art historian Taina Caragol has found out.
Given the past track record I do not think, for a moment that he would, given a choice, do a retrospective show on Myrna Baez, Juan Sanchez, Campeche or Oller, when he could show more succesfully (if measured by $$$ and crowds) Frida Kahlo, Botero, Siqueiros, Neto, Kuitca. Those would be an easier sell. With the latter he can get huge grants from governments, embassies, Cemex, Brazil-Connects and all the rest.
But el Museo was not founded to do the big, easy, blockbuster shows on the rest of Latin America. This is a travesty and an immoral betrayal of the founder’s vision.
Unfortunately, the patterns I do detect in Mr. Zugazagoitia’s career are, nomadic rootlessness, disregard for local communities, and a constant chasing of global art world trendiness. It is the behaviour of a cultural gigolo.
RE: To The New Director
By world markets, I mean commerical and non-commercial enities as well. Market to mean wherever the idea is currency or art traded in tender or concept.
I am also not ready to accept that the major art production of other culturas — the Brazilian, Mexican you cite — are BIGGER. On scale, perhaps…massiveness of catholic art in N. Brazil alone is daunting. Of course, for goodness sake, look at the size of Brazil. How many times would Puerto Rico fit in that that geographical mass.
I dont think we need to lose sight of ‘equability’; ie, where the idea of the art would be the thing, not its sheer volume. You cited important Puerto Rican artists that, that ‘en conjunto’ with other artists would easily mount a major exposition outlining art movements in Puerto Rico.
I will not concede for one moment that see this possibility and exposing it to the ‘world mark’ is beyond Zugazagoita. “Cultural gigilo’ is an epithet, nothing more. Im not interested in parsing that or letting you get stuck there for the sake of this discussion.
Ms Caragol made some interesting suggestions that i resonded to accordingly. Another contributer ‘le descargo con epitetos’ What that helpful. No! No more so than you calling Zugazagoita names.
I feel somewhat uncomfortable defending someone I do not know; and frankly, someone I may never really meet. However, if thats what it comes down to, so be it. Im interested in the possibility the future presents.
Earlier, I questioned the effectiveness of previous [Puerto Rican] administrations, and whether the fault for the obscurity of Puerto Rican art cannot be significantly placed at their feet.
Even if that were not entirely the case, it is not untrue enough to argue against a non-Puerto Rican taking the reigns.
Incidentally, I wonder who you would have wanted to become the new adminstrator of El Museo.
RE: The New Mexican/Brazilian Embassy
“The little museum that could” Shame on you.
I begin to see that what we are hearing from some contributors to this conversation is a profound sense of inferiority.
It has not occured to me for one moment that El Museo cannot be a player on a world scale — in showing the art of its own, as well as that of other ethno-racial groups.
Your historical assessment contradicts you classification. “Nobel and Heroic” connotes to me something more along the lines of David & Goliath, than “the little tug that could”
To The New Director
Are you, Red Planet, inferring that:
There were NO Puertorican candidates capable of doing the job?
There are NO Puertoricans who have administered museums before?
There are NO Puertorican candidates with the ability to fund raise?
There are NO Puertorican candidates with experience in curating/mounting succesful exhibitions on other artists and other cultures; here and beyond?
The fact is that there were PLENTY of candidates who are Puertorican and have done all of the above. They were interviewed. They were shown the back door.
If anyone suffers from inferiority complex it is the Search Committee of the Board of Trustees el Museo del Barrio and the rest of the Board of Trustees for following the party line without thinking: They sold out. They have handed the keys to the “verdugo” to slaughter our culture at the altar of “world art markets” in order to create a “Latin American Museum”.
You just don’t let in the FOX into the CHICKEN coop. We know what happens later…..its OUTRAGEOUS.
I say it again: the loud and clear pattern discernible in Mr. Zugazagoitia’s trajectory is of curating anything, everything, anywhere–an indiscrimate curatorial orgy. If that was needed at el Museo all you need to get are independent curators (who could be of any nationality) but not the Executive Director …Its all there in the press releases. What does this have to do with el Museo? An institution BORN of a culturally specific community and for a culturally specific community about a culturally specific community….
In the same roster of his shows you can find the following artists: Honore Daumier, Shirin Neshat, Vanessa Beechcroft, Mexican “Masters” of the XXth Cent., young video artists from Spain, etc. These are the garments you claim he has in the closet.
The fact remains: He knows NOTHING of LATINOS nor PUERTORICANS. Knows NOTHING of our community.
Finally, the job description (widely disseminated) made HUGE noises about fundraising for el Museo’s contemplated new facility (either next door or somewhere) WHERE in the credentials of this curatorial gigolo of the jet-set age does it show he did ANY actual fundraising at all? Where? He was hardly anywhere for more than a couple of years before shifting to another continent or institution.
The pattern again is clear: By choice, he is most at home in very large, very rich, very “establishment” institutions (The Getty, The Guggenheim, et. al.) which did not require any fundraising at all…. Now he will “lead” el Museo into the XXIst Cent.? Is it going to be by spending its miniscule endowment? Selling the Puertorican paintings in the permanent collection?
Again, its a travesty and a betrayal of el Museo. Others plan to ask him for his resignation; others will be watching him and will report on what we see. We do not want any ethnic cleansing at el Museo del Barrio.
It is unbelievable that in spite of the worst case scenario that we could ever imagine and after we decided we needed to demonstrate as a community to send a message to the Board that we were watching them: they choose to do exactly what we warned them they should not do. Our worst fears have come true. To make matters worse we KNOW there were well-qualified Puertorican candidates–and plenty of them.
I heard the Tufin~o show is going to get cancelled as a result of this travesty. It should be. What was that board thinking? We were just going to grin and bear it?
The New Mexican/Brazilian Embassy
RP:
I am very proud of the physically little museum that moved to, and stayed open on, Fifth Avenue, a.k.a. Museum Mile. This is a practical description not a sign of an “inferiority complex”. Other museums were already born rich and big….we do not have to worry about them. But the factual history of el Museo is one of struggle and finally, “redemption” metaphorically speaking, to make us all proud. Some thought it would not “make it” but it did–it was a labor of love, sweat, and tears. I am very proud of “our” child.
The millions of Mexicans in Mexico are now celebrating that they have “one of their own” at the helm of a museum on Museum Mile. Ditto the millions of Brazilians who can see that one their biggest show in the world has now, fortunately for them, landed one of their proteges into a museum on Museum Mile on Fifth Avenue….
According to you that is all wonderful. But to the thousands of people of el Barrio who were there at the birth of THIS museum, to the Puertoricans in the island, the news of this appointment is APPALLING.
The outpost of Puertorican art & culture on Fifth Avenue is no longer headed by a Puertorican–after 33 years. Like the death of Christ at the same age, this is a grave moment, of grief and death.
It IS like El Velorio:
Some are celebrating while others are mourning.
The celebrants are the Mexicans and the Brazilians and other Latin Americans who now have their own Cultural Embassy on Fifth Avenue, their NEW Museum finally purged of the Puertorican presence and its Puertorican essence.
EVOLUCIONATE L.M.
I actually tried my best not to submit another response, but your frame of mind on this is very disturbing..
Societies evolve, social system and patterns evolved too,L.M., in case you have not noticed.
I think this debate is important, but I also think it is important that we dont allow our puerile or hysterical impulses drive us to misrepresent what is being said.
I didnt say that I was ecstatic over the current develoment. My view, in fact, is more realistic than that. There simply are new ethnic groups in what had been traditionally Puerto Rican areas. L.M., migration is a fact of life.
Tell me what sense it makes to deny that Mexicans, Dominicans, Central Americans, Haitians, and others flood into this country. It doesnt even matter what drove them here. You and i were driven here (even if you are from a priveleged class, you might still have been driven here).
The challenges is, what do we do with each other now that we are all here. Imagine the explosive, no…volcanic possibilities of all of these Latinos blending their richness together.
What on earth can you possibly be so fearful of, L.M.: your mirror images. Did you & I go away when we were rejected by this society. No! Will they. No!
El Museo will be shared by us all. What I would recommend you pay a little more attention to; rather than discharging these primitive impulses, is the role Puerto Ricans will play in formulating Museo programs.
Evolucionate, Mi Hermano/a.
Pa’ Lante siempre Pa’Lante: el Museo es NUESTRO
Red Planet:
I do not change my hair cut every Monday morning to fit the new fashion. Nor do I think Museums are like weathervanes shifting direction everytime the population compositon blows in a different direction.
It is called INTEGRITY.
We progress more by retaining those values which are meaningful to us and discharge those attitudes which impair our progress. We move forward because we know where we have been and where we come from.
It appears from your comments that you too have sold out. The sad part is that you may not recognize it. El Museo has a certain Puertoricanness essence which cannot be duplicated, transferred nor sold.
Having a Mexican lead the institution today (when in fact there were Puertorican candidates) is like letting a Catholic priest take over a Pentecostal church.
You are either being fed the hubris of the Board of Trustees, and swallowing whole the press releases or you are divorced from the original struggle that gave birth to the institution.
Not knowing history is a crime.
el Museo Chihuahua
Before the announcement is made I predict that el Museo del Barrio will have a name change to reflect its new direction and emphasis:
el Museo Chihuahua
Salud!
Speech delivered at the Townhall Meeting, 9/26/02
Speech delivered at the Townhall Meeting
Good Evening. My thanks to Community Board #11 for having arranged this town hall meeting, this community dialogue with El Museo del Barrio. I am Yolanda Sanchez and speak on behalf of two major organizations: PRACA, the Puerto Rican Association of Community Affairs, and the National Latina Caucus. I was born and raised in El Barrio. I left and for many years lived in the Bronx. But now, I am back home.
And, after many years with an office in Midtown Manhattan, PRACA is now also back in El Barrio. So that for both professional and personal reasons I welcome this opportunity to share my thoughts on the current controversy. I look at El Museo as an errant child which has strayed from the path set for it at birth. El Museo, as its name implies, is just that: The People’s Museum. And the people it refers to are the Boricuas del Barrio and Puerto Rican New Yorkers in general.
Others I am sure will touch on the history of El Museo. The fantastic vision brought to life by Marta Moreno Vega and those other creative and dynamic people who as a group established El Museo del Barrio against great odds.
The controversy focused on El Museo del Barrio comes in different shapes and sizes, depending on who is explaining and defining the issue. I see it simply as a matter of self-identification and our role as Puerto Ricans in this very racist and quite undemocratic society. El Museo del Barrio was created at a time of major change and upheaval in this country and city. A time when “question authority” was the slogan and a major eruption was about to explode over the question of self-identity and the historical and current status of citizens of non-European descent.
The questions raised in the 1960’s are questions which are still valid today. Will we, the people of the diaspora from places other than Europe, continue to be marginalized? The answer obviously has to be a resounding NO! But that requires that Puerto Ricans themselves accept that this society seeks to impose other values and negate those that define us as a people, our culture, ethnicity, language and values. Virtually 100% of the cultural institutions in this city, though supported by public funds, my taxes and yours, are controlled by and programmed on a Eurocentric model. Most board members are WASP–White Anglo Saxon Protestants and their holdings and shows reflect their conviction that quality for the most part was a European invention. They speak of their treasures from Asia, Africa and Latin America as uniquely primitive and usually in the past tense. They speak of our arts as remnant left-overs to be taken out every now and then. But their basic mission remains the same: To retain control of those institutions, and have them serve as a showcase for European artists and to foster and develop their new artists.
Those were the very same ideals and mission set forth by the founders of El Museo del Barrio but applied to Puerto Ricans–development of a Puerto Rican institution controlled by us and dedicated to the identification and support and nurturing of Puerto Rican artists and the showcasing of the work produced by past and present Boricuas.
If Puerto Ricans and others who now serve as members of the Board of Directors of El Museo del Barrio no longer accept the founding principles and mission of El Museo then it is time for you to move on, if you have bought into the notion that a Puerto Rican group can not develop and operate a quality museum, that to foucs on Puerto Rican creativity in some way diminshes the museum, then it is time for those Puerto Ricans and other like-thinking members to resign from the Museo’s Board of Directors and turn it over to those of us secure in our identity. Secure in the knowlege that development of a Puerto Rican museum only enhances the quality of the art world.
For the very reasons cited by the founders of El Museo del Barrio, other ethnic, racial and religious communities that do not fit the “WASP” model have also created and established their own institutions: the Studio Museum in Harlem and the Jewish Museum. It is an accepted philosophy and concept.
Why should we, Puerto Ricans, abandon that concept? It is a tried and true model that worked for many years, Why was it necessary to change? To redirect the Museo’s efforts and resources in a direction that would make it just another in a line-up of museums that grace this city but takes us off track in the development of something uniquely Puerto Rican.
El Museo del Barrio is clear in its premise and mission. The circumstances of the 1960’s which made the establishment of El Museo del Barrio necessary, still exist today, viturally nothing has changed. Why is the Board of Directors of EL Museo willing to abandon thirty years of struggle and successes? Why is this current Board of Directors giving in to mediocrity? Why doesn’t this current Board of Directors resign?
Give El Museo back to the people who gave it life. Give it back to Puerto Ricans who have no hang-ups about their “Puertoricanism”. El Museo should be in the hands of and under the direction and control of those who accept its primary and founding mission and have no bias as to who is capable of producing great art. Give it back to those of us who care.
Just this afternoon I learned that a new director has been appointed. I was shocked that on the very day of this atempt to engage in a dialogue: to bring together voices on opposite sides of this issue, to work towards resolving an issue that has split this community, we are told “up yours!” We will do what we want to do. No need to listen to dissenting opinions. As I read the announcement, I felt the sting of a slap across my face. That appointment of a new director is for me a clear reflection of the arrogance of El Museo’s Board and its disdain for my community–Boricuas del Barrio.
In the balance
In the balance, Ms. Sanchez is right in what she delineates. But she also errs in saying that things have not much changed since El Museo was founded. It has indeed changed. For one El Barrio is nolonger simply a Puerto Rican community but a diverse Latino community that includes a large Mexican population and to a lesser extent Dominicans and Central Americans. This is a major change.
Although it is indeed a fact that what has not changed is the marginalization of Puerto Rican and other stateside Latino artists.
I think the fear that the Museo would lose is Puerto Rican identity is a valid one but for me what is most critical is having the permanent exhibition of Puerto Rican art established and maintaining the actual name Puerto Rican in the mission even if it includes other Latino and Latin American artists.
Ms. Sanchez
Now what do you plan to do about it, Ms. Sanchez?
RE: Speech delivered at the Townhall Meeting, 9/26/02
While I agree w/ most of Yolanda Sanchez’s speech, I would place greater emphasis on the notion of El Museo del Barrio as “The People’s Museum.” A museum—or any other institution—can be “owned and operated” by Puerto Ricans and still fail to meet the needs of the people (read marginalized communities); such has been the case for much of the past decade. I am less interested in the ethnicity of those who control the institutions that Puerto Ricans struggled to create, and much more concerned with the class perspective(s) of those who parachute in–with all the cultural capital of their privileged lives in Latin American– to tell us the “right way” to do things. Their way invariably excludes the poor and powerless; such was the case 30 years ago and, despite the demographic changes that El Barrio is undergoing, it is still the case. In a similar vein, the newly named director may have Mexican nationality, but he has little in common with those Mexicans who actually live in El Barrio—-or any of the world’s other barrios.
Class issue and some thoughts about it
While there is definitely a class issue in the case of El Museo, I would venture to say that all art–at least the art that hangs in most museums, including El Museo–is elitist. And elitism, invariably involves class, although class itself is conceptually complex and vague.
While the proverbial artist starves, the art patron enriches himself through his acquisition, until that artist is nolonger starving but well-established and represented. Art is by its nature elitist, however humble an artist’s beginnings may be.
Most artists, let’s face it, are middle-class in background, upbringing or education. That’s the reality.
If we surveyed the residents of El Barrio–Puerto Rican, Latino and whatnot–how many do you think possess works by the original, Puerto Rican artists who founded El Museo and toiled away to produce their art work. How many do you think own a Soto, or Montanez, or a Tufiño, etc.?
And how many of those owners are college-educated or professional or middle-class?
RE: Ms. Sanchez
Good question. What can be done?
Dear Mr. Zugazagoitia:
Dear Mr. Zugazagoitia:
For all the reasons presented in this forum we urge you to decline to accept and/or not assume the position of Executive Director of el Museo del Barrio.
Your appointment to the helm of a Puertorican institution is causing a great deal of friction. This appointment as you can see was made without any community input nor consultation. In fact it was made–by the Search Committe and the rest ofd the Board of Trustees– in spite of growing and very strong opposition to naming anyone who did not have history with the community and/or connection to the Puertorican experience in New York City.
While you may have the support of the Board, you do not have any support from the community that gave birth to this institution.
We believe that the honorable thing for you, at this juncture, would be to let the Board know that you choose not to assume such a position in light of everything that has been discussed and disseminated in this and other public forums.
Thank you,
RE: Dear Mr. Zugazagoitia:
It is the job of the Board of Trustees to select the successor in any institution, whether they do it themselves or hire a ‘head hunter’
It is silly, to put it mildly, to ask Mr Zugazagoita to resign — as a matter of honor, no less.
What I derived from this Forum is an outline of the issues related to a cultural institution and how it will meet the challenge of a changing (well, expanding) ethnic demographic.
This is not the end of El Museo; Mr Zugazagoita will not, nor should he, resign.
This silly appeal to the man’s honor, when Honor has nothing to do with this, is an embarrassment to any thinking person.
What we should want in due time is a Position Paper by the new director pronouncing his long and short term plans for the institution. (Of course, there are probably exposition commitments that should take El Museo a few years to honor — made by a Puerto Rican administrator.
Offensive remarks by Mr. Zugazagoitia
October 16, 2002 On NY1
Hispanic Heritage: El Museo Del Barrio Undergoes A Transition
OCTOBER 11TH, 2002
As East Harlem is transformed by immigration, its institutions are changing as well. In the following report, Rebecca Spitz takes a look at the problems being caused by the evolution of El Museo Del Barrio, as NY1’s coverage of Hispanic Heritage Month continues.
East Harlem is a neighborhood in transition. Once predominantly Puerto Rican, it’s more and more Mexican and Dominican. And now, a Mexican is taking the reins of an institution founded by Puerto Ricans.
Julian Zugazagoitia – born in Mexico and educated in Paris – is the new director of El Museo Del Barrio. He is the first non-Puerto Rican to hold the job.
“For me it is a great honor to be appointed to be the director of this institution, and I will carry forward what has been the mission that has been entrusted to me,” he says.
Zugazagoitia comes to El Museo from the Guggenheim Museum, and has a long track record at fine arts institutions. He says this provides him with a refreshing change.
“This position allows me to be myself,” says Zugazagoitia. “Being Latin-American myself – I was born in Mexico and trained all over the world – here it’s where you can really be yourself, explore your roots and the richness and variety and the concerns of our communities.”
El Museo packs a lot into its tiny galleries, and its permanent exhibition of Taino art, created by the indigenous people of Puerto Rico, is true to the spirit of the museum’s founders.
While the new director doesn’t officially start until November, many in this historically Puerto Rican community are already expressing concerns over the direction of the museum, fearing it will deviate from its role as a traditionally Puerto Rican institution.
“As they went through the process of selecting a new director, many people in the community realized the community had nothing to do with that decision,” says Juan Flores, a professor at Hunter College.
Flores is a professor of Black and Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter. He says it wasn’t that the new director had to be Puerto Rican, it was more that the institution needed to renew its commitment to its roots, even while including newer Latino immigrants.
“There’s also a reason, historically, to bring emphasis to the Puerto Rican, because they have no other place,” says Flores. “They have no government that’s supporting their stuff, and they have no consulate and no cultural attaches because of the political status of Puerto Rico.”
The new director says he understands the need to improve communication and to represent Puerto Rican culture. But says El Museo also must have a wider vision.
“This institution is not an institution that closes itself,” says Zugazagoitia. “On the contrary, we’re open to all of the communities. Some communities have had more dialogue and have more vested interest, and we’re here to serve them too, but not exclusively.”
And that’s what he has in mind for an upcoming multimedia exhibition of local Latino artists:
“All of those identities are something that shaping a new identity, a new voice, and I think this place – El Museo Del Barrio – will be the think-tank and also the place where ideas will be debated and will be enriched to create the new identity – a strong voice for all of our differences and yet our similarities.”
RE: Offensive remarks by Mr. Zugazagoitia
Ive read your last submission four times already,trying to find what you refer to as Mr Zugazagoitas offensive remarks.
Can you please tell me what you found offensive: that he would be able to be himself as a Latin American (Im of Puerto Rican origin, viz: Latin American); that he would be able to delve into his roots — we all look toward El Museo for that as well; that we must have a wider vision. Is this it…that he feels that El Museo has to continue expanding its vision to include all Latin American cultures, as opposed to the zenophobic position that you postulate in your remarks.
Ms. Sanchez
She can write a letter or circulate a petition asking Mr. Zugazagoitia to decline the appointment.
Community Board 11 Demands
Community Board #11
Cultural Affairs Committee’s
Recommendations to the Museo del Barrio
These recommendations must be transformed into Board polices so that the new director can implement them. A community-working group will be established to continue follow up this process and will come back to keep the community informed!
The following recommendations have been developed from a system impact perspective with outcome goals that can be integrated into the current structure of the Museo del Barrio.
The systems identified are the Board of Trustees, Programs, Exhibitions, Community Education, Public Relations, and Capital Growth. We believe that working towards the implementation in partnership with the Board of Directors, to develop policies will assist in the development of a productive relationship with administration of the Museo. It is their task to implement policy. We propose that these items be placed on the agenda of upcoming Board meetings and assigned to the various corresponding committees for resolution. We seek to transition from “We are Watching You” to “We Are Working with You”
Board of Trustees
The reconfiguration of the Board of trustees by the creation of 5 – 6 community representative seats with full voting capacity though an amendment to the existing by-laws. We mean that there should be members representing the grassroots, working class, Latino constituency, be it through residence, expertise, length of engagement in local advocacy…etc.
Policy developed for unwanted catalogues
-Term limits in the Board: to make sure accountability is maintained through diversified representation
-Annual reports, newsletters, and the convening of an annual town hall meeting for delivering annual report, and fostering dialogue.
-Increase the number of Puerto Ricans and Latinos in Upper Management positions.
Programs
– Artist in resident programs with a focus on US born Latinos
– Senior citizen artist search and exhibitions
– Art programs for developmentally disabled
– Resource Research and Study Library: a national/international resource for students, scholars worldwide on Puerto Rican Latino and Latin American art.
– Artists in Residence Program like that of Studio Museum and the Bronx, where Puerto Rican and Latino artists are offered a one year artist’s studio residency, while utilizing them to conduct outreach programs for community.
– A similar program to train, mentor and develop future Puerto Rican Latino and Latin American curators and art researchers and administrators.
– Academic symposia with panel discussions.
Exhibitions
– Permanent multimedia installation space of the history of El Museo del Barrio that accounts for its history in civil and human rights struggles.
– Permanent Evolving Exhibition Space: An exhibition space on relating basis would represent the works of Puerto Rican art and artifacts that contributed to founding of El Museo del Barrio and the start of its permanent collection.
-Thematic formats
-Afro-Latino collaborations
Public Relations
Community Newsletters, annual community forums, reports lectures, on the state of US born Latinos
Partnerships with community agencies through development initiatives
Membership drives
Community Education
-Institute an Acquisition and Dissemination Policy of Works of Puerto Rican and Latino artists.
-A similar program to train, mentor and develop future Puerto Rican Latino and Latin American curators and art researchers and administrators
-The creation of a staff position and departments of PR Art and LA Art
-These future curators can work together with artists in residence to develop and conduct outreach programs and lectures within community and museum constituency at large.
Capital Growth
Renovate the Firehouse
Offensive remarks by Mr. Zugazagoitia
Red Planet:
Words by Mr. Zugazagoitia such as:
[el Museo]”must have a wider vision”…
“open to all of the communities”…
“to serve them [communities with a “vested” interest] too but not exclusively”…
are all code words for diluting and denying the institution’s Puertoricaness, for blurring its original founding vision, for calling his new appointment a form of ethnic cleansing.
It is an ominous harbinger of things to come. To pretend now that he is NOT openly calling for a wholesale change of a well-established and strong identity–Puertorican–is to bury your head in the sand like an ostrich.
Did you NOT see the anger, frustration and vitriol at the Community Board 11 meeting? That same community is demanding that Mr. Zugazagoitia decline to take the position.
If el Barrio became populated, suddenly, by a predominantly Jewish and Middle European culture would you change the mission of el Museo too? I don’t think so.
Again, and do not ever forget this, el Museo was founded by Puertoricans, for Puertoricans, about Puertoricans. The other cultures were presented/showcased as our guests–NOT as our landlords, directors, curators, or gatekeepers.
Museum directors do not prepare “position papers”…they speak publicly and privately…you can read it and hear about it. These are the first printed words since the official announcement. Those words are offensive in that they already convey the message of erasing the Puertorican presence and essence of the institution as it has existed and was conceived.
You may live in another planet but this museum is ours, it does not need to be re-positioned nor re-branded by an effete, Eurocentric cultural gigolo.
RE: RE: RE: REQUIEM for El MUSEO
Dont be so quick to mourn!
Every museum is born out of a peoples experience. Are we any different.
To answer your question more directly, Im willing to wager that we will see more Puerto Rican art involved in the intl art markets, rather than buried in the Permanent Collection Cellar.
Do not glaze too quickly over lack of progress or initiative on the part of previous administrations.
Zugazagoita doesnt want to be anywhere you & I do not want to be in the next 3-5 years: KNOWN TO THE WORLD!
REREQUIEM ? we should really ask this question
It won’t happen just like that, unless we have a lot of pressure from Puerto Ricans in the island and in NY. If the board continues to change and bring in non-Puerto Ricans and the high administration is itself non-Puerto Rican, what whould be a good reason for them to put Puerto Rican art when it is much more marketable to put Frida, Diego and Botero? I’m not saying these artists aren’t important, but we have to think if we really want El Museo to become some sort of mainstream Latin American institution.
As I said in the TownHall meeting, as an art historian I have noticed the alarming truth that we are not included in the major Latin American Art surveys and exhibitions that are used for graduate courses. Jackeline Barnitz recent Latin American Art in the 20th century (which by the way is a very good survey) does not say a word about Puerto Rico, neither is it mentioned in Dawn Ades Art in Latin America: the Modern Era (1820-1980) , neither in major Latin American history books like Mark Burholder and Lyman L. Johnson Colonial Latin America (which has 355 pages and Puerto Rico is just mentioned in one paragraph). I can give you a more extensive bibliography if you want. I would say that Edward Sullivan Latin American Art in the Twentieth Century is an exception to this rule. Even Sullivan notice the great exclusion of Puerto Rican art from Latin American and Caribbean texts, two years ago at the CAA conference in Chicago. Of course, our political status is the reason why we are ofte excluded. What makes you think that you will not be excluded from El Museo if it becomes Latin American?
I am puertorriquena, Caribena and Latin Americana. Nevertheless, I am also for mantaining our own institutions. I sincerely think that we can not “leave it to chance,” y “dormirnos en las pajas,” unless you want to take the risk of being excluded once more.
REQUIEM for el Museo del Barrio
Taina: And my next question to you is: What have YOU done about the omissions you mention in all those books and this on-going problem?
Did you, as an art historian and presumably well acquainted with Puertorican art, WRITE letters to those AUTHORS you mention? Did you write to those PUBLISHERS? Did you redact a letter in petition form and get it signed by artists and others (art critics and art historians) concerend about this gross omission and then SENT it to those AUTHORS and PUBLISHERS?
Did you propose/design to have a forum in an academic forum to rectify that omission? Did you contact a group of peers and suggest they meet at el Museo to discuss the matter and hold a PUBLIC FORUM to discuss these matters of ART HISTORY, of PUERTORICAN ART ?
Are you part of the problem or are you part of the solution?
Interestingly enough Dr. Edward Sullivan, whom you mention is a card-carrying member of el Museo del Barrio’s Advisory Board….from the “Brazil: Body & Soul” literature you can see that he headed the team at the Guggenheim (although he does not work there) and he worked along with Mr. Zugazagoitia. He probably, along with Thomas Krens, RECOMMENDED him to the Board.
So there is, seemingly, a paradox here: the ONLY art historian who does put Puertorican art in equal standing as all the other countries in Latin America (and by the way there is also a chapter on Chicano artists) is someone who believes (we assume) that having Mr. Zugazagoitia as the Executive Direcor is A-OK.
With Dr. Sullivan on Board, you could relax a little.
A Museum for the XXIst Century
After reading many of the posted statements it occurs to me the following pattern is present:
There is an enormous amount of nostalgia for the “old museo”….
I noticed a great deal of sentences with the word: “was”…
It was founded…it used to be like this…the original intent was…and so on.
It is as if the last 10-12 years did not happen at all. The period after Jack Agueros was removed from his position by Marshals…and the doors padlocked and now. This is sheer denial.
During that time Marta Vega, Petra Barreras and Susana Torruella Leval were directors….have we all forgotten?
But above all, the fact remains that el Museo was that way back then. The way it is NOW is over, and the way it is going to BE is the one full of possibilities.
Why not join as a member ($25 for el Barrio residents), submit a proposal for an exhibition, or better yet: Propose a Symposium in which you are the moderator to talk about Puertorican ART and what Puertorican artists are doing today and this to be done at the Teatro Hecksher.
Aurora Flores for Executive Director
I hereby NOMINATE Aurora Flores to be the next Executive Director of el Museo del Barrio.
Sign the petiti on and pass it on…
RE: REREQUIEM ? we should really ask this question
Your comments sounds like a perfect Agenda item for the new director, and quite reasonable (no offense intended).
Perhaps you have the appropriate disposition and credentials to open that discussion with the new leadership.
Based on our history of Puerto Rican adminstrators and the lack of presence of our artists in internatinal markets, Im willing to work with a non-Puerto Rican in reaching that objective.
However, you are quite right, why leave it to chance. As a matter of fact, none of these are ever left to chance. Promotion of art, or anything for that matter, is carefully thought out, planned, and scheduled.
Let me add that I do not intend to seem so harsh on our administrators, but the fact remains that they have not been effective on this matter.
I know of one particular case where one of them was scoured by Prof Kraus (CU), not on being Puerto Rican, but on precisely what youre addressing. The issues were a matter of substance and presentation. Is it possible that the world simply does not know enough about R Colon Morales, J Soto.
Shouldnt Villarini be prominent in the world presentation of ‘naive art’ (pardon me while I bite my tongue) or ‘folkloric art’
I am devastated to learn what you report, that therre is no reference to Puerto Rican are in the important sources you cite. This is absolutely appallling. Somehow, I have to fault the previous leadership for these omissions.
We have to lobby and advocate for our art and artists, everyone does. Have our adminstrators been busy with other so-called priorities in carrying out their duties, while missing the central point of it all — Puerto Rican Art;.
The questions
Red:
I would not lay the blame at the feet of any of the adminsitration(s) of el Museo: they have many other fish to fry too….such as fund-raising to keep the doors open (just one example)….
I lay the blame PRECISELY in those that COMPLAIN about things but they CHOOSE to do nothing about it:
The case of the Puertorican Art historian who does not do anything but complain about el Museo. See previous posts on this…..
I am with you (although still mourning) in that the enemy is US, and unless we are prepared to roll up our sleeves, submit constructive suggestions and become pro-active in helping, we are just part of the problem.
RE: REQUIEM for el Museo del Barrio
I am not part of the problem and bringint the subject to this forum is precisely one strategy to raise the issue. Thank you for all your suggestions. They are actually great and to tell you more, I am already networking for this end. As you may have noticed, this is not a 1 person job. As for Edward Sullivan, I am aware of his relation to el Museo and of course of his role at the Brazil show at the Guggenheim.
In any case, the concern I put forward is still valid.
A Museum for the People
A Museum for the People
By Aurora Flores
© July, 2002
The revolution is back and this timeÖ it’s cultural. The search for a new director for El Museo del Barrio has begun behind closed doors excluding the community that gave it birth. Notwithstanding, educators, activists and professionals in harmony with Community Board 11 are clamoring for representation in the selection process that has locked them out since the new board took over in 1986.
Sprung from the pain and struggle of heretofore voiceless Puerto Rican artists, activists and educators struggling for identity, history and expression 33 years ago, El Museo del Barrio today enjoys increased funding, personnel, prestige and professionalism over any other Latino arts organization. Yet, there are no Puerto Rican curators or educators employed at El Museo which is housed in a city-owned building. A rehabbed firehouse at 104th between Lexington and Third, founded in 1979 as a community art school once run by local El Museo artists, stands abandoned. The Three Kings Day parade, initiated as an East Harlem tradition since 1978, has not grown in funding, stature or pageantry since El Museo’s new board took over. This is even more telling when not one board member was present for this historically and racially diverse parade into East Harlem even while newly elected Mayor Michael Bloomberg made this his first public appearance.
The bigger issue then becomes how to reconcile the needs of a still marginalized community with the demands of the fine arts world? Without people of color and community artists on this elite and powerful board of “culture vultures” who have excluded the community that created their positions, that issue will remain unresolved. El Museo del Barrio will eventually follow the lead of The Museum of the City of New York to an ìimproved locationî (code word white) unless the City and politicians intervene to revamp this board who doesn’t know anything about our cultural struggle for social identification and whose only concern is their own prestige and power.
Yet, El Barrio is growing so fast culturally that the ìNuBohemianî movement of the cultural corridor will pick up where El Museo leaves off. El Taller Boricua (the Puerto Rican Workshop, Inc.) for example was, ironically enough, instituted in 1969 in response to the elitist exclusion of Nuyorican artists by another, now defunct institution, Friends of Puerto Rico that also placed more value on Eurocentric Latino artists over the urban up and coming Latinos of New York. Today, El Taller Boricua is leading the new movement of community arts organizations committed to establishing a social consciousness for identity. The collective mission of these organizations mirror El Museoís nascent calling to educate, communicate and demonstrate a bond of solidarity that is Puerto Rican in focus and Latin American in scope. Here in the cultural corridor, art doesnít necessarily need to be in galleries as much as it needs to be directly connected to the everyday reality of its people.
On the longest day of the year, June 21st, an ìopen doorî art and cultural showcase took place on 106th and Lexington that recalled the bohemian Village days of the 70s. Led by young artists and poets of Mixta Gallery, artistic doors were flung open to the streets where El Taller brought the gallery outdoors while individual artists opened their studios to the public. Musicians and performers danced and played on the pavements from 104th to 107th while community folks stopped, stared, inquired and participated in the mirth. The Graffiti Hall of Fame sported a brand new tag for the evening. La Fonda and La Cantina restaurants displayed art and artists on their menus while James de la Vegaís chalk scribblings lined the pavements to his shop. Every Thursday, Taller Boricua hosts ìJuliaís Jamî a cultural smorgasbord of art, music, dance, poetry and literature at a formerly abandoned elementary school rescued from ìshelter statusî and salvaged as the Julia de Burgos Cultural Center, sporting art galleries, a theater in the round, and artists residencies.
The mission East of Fifth Avenue is clear for these arts organizations that truly are the ìsouls of the cultural community.î As for El Museo del Barrio, wellÖîlet them eat their cake.î Once inside the lofty gates of the fine arts world, theyíll soon discover they are neither equal in status or funding to the mainstream institutions they so covet that have kept us out for so long.
Aurora Flores
Aurora Flores is a journalist, educator and cultural activist.
Email: aurora@aurora-communications.com
The New Director
The New Director of el Museo del Barrio:
— has NEVER included a single Puertorican artist in ANY of his shows…..ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD.
— has NEVER included a single Chicano/a artist in ANY of his shows ….ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD.
–has NEVER included a single Latino/a artist in ANY of his shows …ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD.
How in the world does the Board hand over the keys to a Puertorican & Latino to a curator who knows NOTHING about this art? and the artists that make it?
It is unbelievable when you consider that there WERE Puertorican canditates interviewed for the job who not only KNOW and CURATE shows about Puertorican and Latinos but RUN Puertorican and Latino MUSEUMS!
Its outrageous….
I plan to write a letter to Mr. Zugazagoitia suggesting (and the reaons why) that he should voluntarily decline to take the job.
Old Article Reprinted again, with typos.
This article is an old one. It includes bad spelling and clearly is a self-serving piece.
Ms. Flores made money doing public relations for el Museo for many years, she now has a dispute/vendetta with the museum and its staff.
Now she represents the Taller Boricua and this appears to be part of the marketing campaign of Aurrora Communications on behalf of that institution.
Nothing like OLD news, reprinted yet again. You would think the typos would be corrected by now?
Old Article Reprinted again, with typos.
This article is an old one. It includes bad spelling and clearly is a self-serving piece.
Ms. Flores made money doing public relations for el Museo for many years, she now has a dispute/vendetta with the museum and its staff.
Now she represents the Taller Boricua and this appears to be part of the marketing campaign of Aurrora Communications on behalf of that institution.
Nothing like OLD news, reprinted yet again. You would think the typos would be corrected by now?
RE: Aurora Flores for Executive Director
You’ve got to be kidding…..
RE: Bochinche barato
Some people just love to talk out of the side of their mouths. The issue here is not me or El Taller, an organization I volunteer with. The issue here remains one of class, and you, my dear, are certainly showing your total lack of it.
What you call typos are computer incapatabilities, and again, you continue to spew third hand information and “bochinche barato.”
The facts are that this issue with El Museo has NOTHING to do with ethno- centricity, race or any other smokescreen. It is not even a local issue. It is a national issue affecting many of the nonprofits having to do with the privatization of organizations started by communities historically marginalized. The Museum in San Diego is going through the same crisis with its board and has been in contact offering its help and support. So unlike the hatred and divisive manipulation that you are trying to pepetuate here.
You continue to personalize this issue by pointing to the most vocal opponents with sexist slurs while looking for vendettas that do not exist. The fact that we are insiders that have witnessed first hand the total arrogance and santimonious condencension of people who feel superior to the community that gave them their jobs and positions is truly transparent and shameful.
Your name calling and accusations only illustrate your total hypocrisy and self-hating colonialized mentality. Why are you so scared? Again, the only thing the community wants is representation on a board whose insititution is housed in a City owned building and operated with City, State and Federal funds provided by the working class. Again, let’s stick to the REAL FACTS. No one is saying that El Museo should not be a world class museum, but not at the expense of the community that gave it birth. There must be a way of reconciling the fine arts world and the nuyorican artistic community for whom art is a daily life blood, not a separate chapter housed in an ivory tower reserved for museum hours.
Have some pride in what Boricuas and other Latinos are doing to protest this gross injustice and STOP TALKING ABOUT PEOPLE you do not know just because you are obviously being fed information by El Museo and this board. I challenged you before to call me directly before making acussations but you choose the coward’s way using initials — the same as if you were using a hood. Your “caluñias” are litigigously libelous. Keep sending them to me. They’re making great copy for my file.
BTW, don’t tell me what to wash and I won’t tell you what to kiss.
Aurora Flores
articulo barato
Are you getting minority set-aside projects and contracts?
Again with the ad hominem remarks!
Again with the ad hominem remarks. What if she were?
Reply
k smit: I agree, Aurora Flores represents the voice of reason and wisdom.
Perhaps pasteles buenos was trying to re-direct her considerable verbal/written skills towards a more profitable end which would benefit all of us and el Museo.
The economic tide would lift all boats.
Aurora Flores for Executive Director
It makes perfect sense. It would solve all the issues and problems with the stroke of one pen.
Ms. Flores is “an insider”, a 100-year-old presence in el Barrio, an eloquent and very persuasive leader. Everyone would be very happy.
RE: Old Article Reprinted again, with typos.
EGG, Ms Flores may have a vendetta vs El Museos past administration, but Im tryin gto understand the diatribe youve launched against her.
Ive seen her work over the years, and continue to be impressed by her output and content. As a rule, people who launch your brand of diatribe do not usually have much to offer. Am I wrong in your case.
More importantly, do you really feel that Aurora is either the Problem or part of it.
Give it some thought, Bitter Man.
Reply to Red Planet
My position is simple. Ms. Flores is both: part of the problem and the problem itself.
Her postings speak for themselves.
The Search is OVER; The Issues are…..
To honor the original SUBJECT heading in this forum,
a) The search for the Executive Director is over. That is a done deal.
b) What are the issues now, going forward?
–Many speak of “community representation” on the Board; this begs the question or series of questions: Which community or communities?
–Others speak of “programming” which reflects (again) the community or comunities. How can that be done? Bear in mind that the amount of space (square footage) is fixed at about 8,000 square feet.
–Others worry about the future of the permanent collection. What to do about THAT? What recommendations?
Can others please articulate these issues and other issues which are out there so that they can be clustered by area/subject and then make specific and constructive recommendations?
Lets get beyond the “Lamento Borincano”….on the one hand and past the “Grito de Lares” on the other….
What are the ISSUES? HOW can they be remedied?
Adios, Borinquen querida…..
For Immediate Release
THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES
OF EL MUSEO DEL BARRIO
ANNOUNCES UNANIMOUSLY
NEW DIRECTOR JULIAN ZUGAZAGOITIA
NEW YORK (September 24, 2002) — Tony Bechara, Chair of the Board of Trustees of El Museo del Barrio, today announced that after a thorough search the Board of Trustees has unanimously appointed Julián Zugazagoitia as Director of the Museum. Zugazagoitia is currently a member of the Director’s Office at the Guggenheim Museum serving directly under Thomas Krens. Zugazagoitia is bringing to El Museo extensive experience internationally in both museum administration and curatorial work having held leadership positions at the Getty Conservation Institute, the Spoleto Festival in Italy, and, having served as the cultural attaché to the Mexican delegation to UNESCO.
“We are thrilled with the unanimous selection of Julián Zugazagoitia as our new Director,” stated Bechara. “Julián understands and is dedicated to our mission which serves the local Puerto Rican, Latino and Latin American community, while at the same time he has the vision to lead us forward as a world-class institution.”
El Museo del Barrio is New York’s leading Latino cultural institution, having expanded its mission to represent the diversity of art and culture of Puerto Ricans, Latinos, and Latin Americans. Currently, El Museo features Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera and Twentieth-Century Mexican Art: The Jacques and Natasha Gelman Collection, widely regarded as the most significant private holding of twentieth-century Mexican art, which is comprised of superb examples of works by Kahlo, Rivera and other masters of modern Mexican art. Extended through September 26, the exhibition has drawn record attendance of more than 70,000 visitors.
The selection of Zugazagoitia concludes a five-month international search by the Board of Trustees’ Search Committee in consultation with Russell Reynolds Associates, the international executive search firm. The Board interviewed candidates from the US and Puerto Rico, the Caribbean and Latin America. Estrellita Brodsky, Chair of the Search Committee, said of the appointment, “We are delighted that Julián Zugazagoitia has been selected as the next Director. Julián is not only an intelligent, articulate and energetic leader, he is sensitive to the challenging issues facing El Museo del Barrio as the museum continues its commitment to growth and distinction within its community and beyond.”
Former Director of El Museo, Susana Torruella Leval, states: “Julián’s experience, intelligence, and most importantly, talent for working with diverse communities, make him an ideal next Director to lead El Museo into the 21st century.”
Angela Cabrera, a Trustee of El Museo since the early 1970s comments: “I am impressed by Julián’s commitment to, sensitivity towards, and awareness of the concerns of our community that as Director of El Museo he will fulfill the mission of our founders. I am confident that he will succeed and bring the museum to the next level.”
“El Museo del Barrio is a dynamic and forward-looking institution, and I am thrilled to be joining it at such a decisive moment in its history,” said Zugazagoitia. “I intend to honor its mission as a museum of art and culture of Puerto Ricans, Latinos and Latin Americans, and to maintain its standards of curatorial and educational excellence. At the same time, I will seek new opportunities and cooperative partnerships that have the capacity to widen the scope and influence of its programs. I am looking forward to the Museum’s upcoming exhibitions El Museo’s Bienal and Rafael Tufiño, Pintor del Pueblo/Painter of the People, his first major retrospective in the United States, as well as to future programming to be developed under my directorship.”
At the Guggenheim since 1999, Zugazagoitia has been an organizer and a curator of Brazil: Body and Soul, and was the principal creator of all related programming for the exhibition. His other activities for the Guggenheim have included organizing, in conjunction with the Louvre, Paris, a lecture series entitled “The Total Work of Art”; the presentation of Miguel Rio Branco and Tunga, two commissions for the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice; and the development of the ANY (Architecture New York) Conference. Prior to and during his work for the Guggenheim, Zugazagoitia served as the curator of numerous exhibitions internationally, including the New York section of the “Iconografias Metropolitanas” for the XXVth Sâo Paulo Bienal; Passion for Life, the Revolution of Mexican Art in the XXth Century for the Castel dell’Ovo, Naples, Italy; Par delà les Tropiques for the Maison de l’Amerique Latine, Paris; and, Tamis du Temps for the Musée des Beaux Arts, Lons-Le-Saulnier. During his eight years with the Getty Conservation Institute, Zugazagoitia was in charge of major projects such as the conservation of the Abomey Royal Palaces, Benin, West Africa and curated and organized the exhibition Nefertari Light of Egypt that originated in Rome and traveled throughout Italy. From 1997 – 99, Zugazagoitia served as the Director of Visual Arts for the Spoleto Festival in Italy, where he curated and organized exhibitions, publications and happenings. He was also a cultural correspondent for the Excélsior newspaper in Mexico City. A native of Mexico City, Zugazagoitia holds a Doctorate in Philosophy and Aesthetics from the Sorbonne, Paris, and is a graduate of l’Ecole du Louvre. Zugazagoitia will start at El Museo del Barrio on November 18, 2002. He replaces Susana Torruella Leval, who retired and was named Director Emeritus on June 30, 2002. Patricia Smalley, former Deputy Commissioner of Cultural Affairs, is currently serving as Interim Director.
HISTORY
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 96th Street to the Harlem River and from Fifth Avenue to the East River on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.
In 1994, El Museo broadened its mission, collections, and programs in concert with substantial growth in the Mexican, Central and South American, and Caribbean communities, both in New York and nationally. Also in 1994, El Museo completed an intensive institutional self-study and long range plan in conjunction with the National Arts Stabilization program. Board, staff, and consultants reviewed and re-affirmed El Museo’s mission and program, setting out concrete objectives for institutional and program development. In 1995, El Museo’s staff, in tandem with a board committee, prepared an overview of capital construction priorities to be addressed over the next 10 – 15 years. In addition, El Museo developed its first Long Range Financial and Fundraising Plan. The board and the former Director have established several task forces, composed of board, staff, and advisors, to focus the museum’s efforts and to ensure systematic application of professional standards to each of El Museo’s core programs and special initiatives.
El Museo was made a member of the Cultural Institutions Group of the City of New York in 1977 by an act of public policy of the Mayor of New York. This organization encompasses 34 cultural institutions housed in city-owned buildings, from large, world-famous ones like The Metropolitan Museum of Art, to smaller, community-based ones like El Museo. Through substantial funding, CIG membership acknowledges the importance of the cultural services these institutions render to the population of New York City.
MISSION
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.
Through its extensive collections, varied exhibitions and publications, bilingual public programs, educational activities, festivals and special events, El Museo educates its diverse publics in the richness of Caribbean and Latin American arts and cultural history.
By introducing young people to this cultural heritage, El Museo is creating the next generation of museum-goers, while satisfying the growing interest in Caribbean and Latin American art of a broad national and international audience.
EDUCATION
El Museo’s educational mission continues to drive its collections and programs. The permanent collection remains a treasured resource for developing exhibitions and education programs. In recent years public programs have been developed to address the educational needs of diverse populations-seniors, adults, adolescents, public school students, and very young visitors.
CURRENT PROGRAMMING
The museum maintains an active exhibition program that embraces Puerto Rican, Latino and Latin American art and culture, from the pre-Columbian era through to today. The 2002 – 2003 schedule of exhibitions is as follows:
October 24, 2002 – February 16, 2003
El Museo’s Bienal
The S-Files/The Selected Files
Curated by Deborah Cullen, Curator, and Victoria Noorthoorn, Curator of Museo de Arte Latinoamericano, Colección Costanini, Buenos Aires
El Museo del Barrio’s third biennial showcase of cutting-edge, contemporary art produced by Latino and Latin American artists living and working in the greater New York area-selected (“S”) from unsolicited artist’s files sent to El Museo del Barrio. The S-Files expands the definition of contemporary Latin American art through a broad and exciting sampling of new projects, and keeps El Museo in touch with-and responsive to-current artistic production. Works include traditional media-such as painting, drawing, sculptural works, photography or video-and also many site-specific installations, performative pieces, conceptual works and outdoor projects created specifically for this exhibition.
The 30 artists included in The S-Files 2002 are: María Alós, Isidro Blasco, François Bucher, Margarita Cabrera, Bibi Calderaro, Javier Cambre, Paco Cao, Karlos Carcamo, Alejandro Cesarco, Nicolás Dumit Estévez, Alessandra Exposito, Cari González-Casanova, Julio Grinblatt, Nicolas Guagnini, Claudia Joskowicz, Miguel Luciano, Tristana Maccio, Chico MacMurtrie, Enrique Mendez de Hoyos, Yusef Merhi, Angel F. Nevarez (in collaboration with Valerie Tevere), Vicente Razo, Aixa Requena, Ryan Rivera, Raimundo Rubio Huidobro, Karin Schneider, Alejandra Seeber, Leticia Stella-Serra, Rigoberto Torres, and Judi Werthein.
A lively array of programming builds upon the youthful energy of The S-Files through projects that take place in Teatro Heckscher, the museum lobby and courtyard, the streets of el barrio, and beyond.
March 13 – August 2003
Rafael Tufino, Pintor del Pueblo/Painter of the People
Curated by Dr. Teresa Tío for the Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico, San Juan
This exhibition will be Rafael Tufino’s first major retrospective in the United States, presenting the entire breadth of his work (prints, paintings, drawings and sculpture), as selected from the major retrospective held in Puerto Rico. Tufino was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1922, and is one of the central figures in the history of twentieth-century Puerto Rican art. A member of Generación del Cincuenta (“The Fifties Generation”), Tufino has been of one of the major forces in founding and furthering modern Puerto Rican art-both on the Island and in the Caribbean diaspora of New York. Tufino was one of the founders and leaders of the Island’s print tradition, and has been one of the hemisphere’s most distinguished poster-makers, an illustrator of books and stories, a draftsman and letterist. The expressive and gestural purity of his draftsmanship became a trademark of Puerto Rican graphics of the 1950s and 1960s. Tufino consistently depicted the Puerto Rican people in all their daily expressions, working and celebrating.
Tufino made many images of dance, music, and religious festivals, and El Museo will offer public music and dance programs and folk art demonstrations as programming to accompany the exhibition.
September 2003 – February 2004
MoMA at El Museo (working title)
A joint curatorial team of staff from The Museum of Modern Art and El Museo del Barrio is organizing the exhibition.
This exhibition, to be held at El Museo del Barrio, will present outstanding works from The Museum of Modern Art’s core collection of Modernists works by Latin American artists as well as recent acquisitions in the areas of modern and contemporary art. This exhibition will be an opportunity to display the results of MoMA’s collecting strategy of acquiring contemporary works while acknowledging the historic contributions of individual artists. MoMA began collecting work by Latin American artists in 1931, the first institution to do so outside the region.
Additionally, selections from El Museo’s permanent collection is on view through November 17, 2002 at the Heckscher Museum of Art, Huntington, NY. The exhibition titled Treasures from El Museo del Barrio features work that spans a variety of media and cultures, from pre-Columbian artifacts to contemporary Latino art.
On permanent view
TAÍNO: Ancient Voyagers of the Caribbean
Curated by Dr. Dicey Taylor, Guest Curator
Organized by El Museo, this exhibition is dedicated to the Taíno, an important culture that flourished from 1200 to 1500 AD, on several Caribbean islands. Taíno features approximately 100 works, including outstanding ceremonial and domestic objects finely created in stone, wood, bone, ceramic, and shell. The exhibition includes selected works from El Museo’s Permanent Collection, and loans from other major institutions and private collections. This exhibition-the most comprehensive of its kind in a US museum-provides the public with an overall view of the history, cosmology, art and culture of the Taíno, as well as their legacy to present-day Caribbean culture.
INFORMATION
http://www.elmuseo.org
Spanish-language version of media release will be available on Wednesday, September 25th.
Somos plato de segunda mesa….
Artnet News
10/1/02
MORE CUTS AT GUGGENHEIM: NEWSPAPER
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum is bracing for further staff cuts, a possible reduction in hours and may be planning to close its Las Vegas branch next year, according to a report by Rachel Donadio in the New York Sun. Museum director Thomas Krens announced the possible 2003 budget cuts at a meeting with department heads on Friday. Guggenheim deputy director Judith Cox told the Sun that the museum could open an hour later, at 10 a.m. rather than 9 a.m., but denied that the Las Vegas branch would close. The Gugg has recently lost senior staffers — “Brazil: Body and Soul” organizer Julien Zugazagoitia left to head El Museo del Barrio, and Laurie Beckelman, who had been in charge of the future Frank Gehry-designed Guggenheim museum planned for the Wall Street area, left to oversee the move of the American Craft Museum to Columbus Circle. As for the Las Vegas Guggenheim, art-world sources say the staff there has shrunk from 110 to 35, and that director Barbara Bloeminck is on her way to the Cooper-Hewitt in New York.
RE: Somos plato de segunda mesa….
Ready for the attacks…But really, did anyone ever think that puertoriquenos or any Latinos (U.S. born artists not authenticated by institutions and embassies and galleries etc. for that matter) would ever be first plate to any Latino/Latin American institutions or curators or directors? That’s exactly why the museo was built for: To contrast this kind of thinking. Where are we now?
New Director’s Credentials
It’s OUTRAGEOUS!
The new director of el Museo del Barrio has NEVER included a single Puertorican artist (P.R. nor U.S. born) in ANY exhibition ANYWHERE in the world.
Furthermore, he has NEVER included a single Latino nor Chicano (US born)in ANY exhibition ANYWHERE in the world.
Anyone who can show the contrary; do so here. In depth research has turned up NOTHING.
This person does not have the knowledge, nor the expertise to exhibit our artists and culture in NYC. The emperor has no clothes!
It’s an OUTRAGE.
RE: New Director
Dear Outraged
I can certainly appreciate your outrage, but think of the myriad instances in history where a leader with a plainly unremarkable past enters the history texts as an excellent or outstanding leader.
The point it, while Zugazagoita may not have included Puerto Rican artists in his curatorial assignments, he will have to now. Not only that, he is a player on that intl market that will make it possible for PR artists to gain new exposure, where perhaps his predecessors did not have that access.
Also, you point brings us back to the earlier part of the discussion, viz: what have previous administrations done to get puertorriquen artists known to the world.
I am still having trouble accepting that if serious efforts had been made all along, that our artists would still be as obscured as they are.
Let me make anothe point. I know of Puerto Rican artists who have worked, exhibited, sold and are in international collections. Do these not count. Are we only talking about the Bienal circuses or other mega art events.
RE: RE: New Director
Sorry I didnt ID myself (LOL). “The Emperors Hidden Wardrobe” is from Red Planet.
The New Mexican/Brazilian Embassy
Naming a Mexican to el Museo del Barrio will now open the floodgates of money and arts from the much larger countries (such as Mexico, Brazil, etc.) of Latin America and finally snuff the little Puertorican museum that could.
Sustained as a noble and heroic outpost at the top of museum mile, as a veritable platform for Puertorican artists and art during 30 years, the handing over the keys to another culture and art is cultural genocide.
It is a scandal of major proportions.
To The New Director
Since when do “art markets” determine what is shown in museums?
If that were part of the job description (“to take Puertorican artists to world art markets” to paraphrase you) then naming an art dealer from Sotheby’s or Christie’s with Latin American credentials would have done THAT trick.
A museum’s job is not about taking our artists and making them world famous. It has to do more with education, collecting, showcasing, presenting and interpreting ALL about our art (notwithstanding what the art market says) to our children, to us, and to others beyond our community.
Out of previous administrations artists such as Pepon Osorio and Antonio Martorell were “taken to the wporld art markets”…but in addition to them many, many shows were done which were educational and meaningful to us, the Puertoricans who founded it and wanted to see ourselves reflected on the walls.
But that is not what we are talking about here: The new director has NO TRACK RECORD WHATSOEVER of knowing about, understanding of, presenting, educating about, promoting, collecting, nor showcasing ANY Latino/Puertorican art or artist. Given that track record more likely he will present MORE MEXICAN, BRAZILIAN and other cultures BIGGER, MORE POWERFUL THAN our own.
Our Latino/Puertorican culture, in that context, becomes a footnote–see what the art historian Taina Caragol has found out.
Given the past track record I do not think, for a moment that he would, given a choice, do a retrospective show on Myrna Baez, Juan Sanchez, Campeche or Oller, when he could show more succesfully (if measured by $$$ and crowds) Frida Kahlo, Botero, Siqueiros, Neto, Kuitca. Those would be an easier sell. With the latter he can get huge grants from governments, embassies, Cemex, Brazil-Connects and all the rest.
But el Museo was not founded to do the big, easy, blockbuster shows on the rest of Latin America. This is a travesty and an immoral betrayal of the founder’s vision.
Unfortunately, the patterns I do detect in Mr. Zugazagoitia’s career are, nomadic rootlessness, disregard for local communities, and a constant chasing of global art world trendiness. It is the behaviour of a cultural gigolo.
RE: To The New Director
By world markets, I mean commerical and non-commercial enities as well. Market to mean wherever the idea is currency or art traded in tender or concept.
I am also not ready to accept that the major art production of other culturas — the Brazilian, Mexican you cite — are BIGGER. On scale, perhaps…massiveness of catholic art in N. Brazil alone is daunting. Of course, for goodness sake, look at the size of Brazil. How many times would Puerto Rico fit in that that geographical mass.
I dont think we need to lose sight of ‘equability’; ie, where the idea of the art would be the thing, not its sheer volume. You cited important Puerto Rican artists that, that ‘en conjunto’ with other artists would easily mount a major exposition outlining art movements in Puerto Rico.
I will not concede for one moment that see this possibility and exposing it to the ‘world mark’ is beyond Zugazagoita. “Cultural gigilo’ is an epithet, nothing more. Im not interested in parsing that or letting you get stuck there for the sake of this discussion.
Ms Caragol made some interesting suggestions that i resonded to accordingly. Another contributer ‘le descargo con epitetos’ What that helpful. No! No more so than you calling Zugazagoita names.
I feel somewhat uncomfortable defending someone I do not know; and frankly, someone I may never really meet. However, if thats what it comes down to, so be it. Im interested in the possibility the future presents.
Earlier, I questioned the effectiveness of previous [Puerto Rican] administrations, and whether the fault for the obscurity of Puerto Rican art cannot be significantly placed at their feet.
Even if that were not entirely the case, it is not untrue enough to argue against a non-Puerto Rican taking the reigns.
Incidentally, I wonder who you would have wanted to become the new adminstrator of El Museo.
RE: The New Mexican/Brazilian Embassy
“The little museum that could” Shame on you.
I begin to see that what we are hearing from some contributors to this conversation is a profound sense of inferiority.
It has not occured to me for one moment that El Museo cannot be a player on a world scale — in showing the art of its own, as well as that of other ethno-racial groups.
Your historical assessment contradicts you classification. “Nobel and Heroic” connotes to me something more along the lines of David & Goliath, than “the little tug that could”
To The New Director
Are you, Red Planet, inferring that:
There were NO Puertorican candidates capable of doing the job?
There are NO Puertoricans who have administered museums before?
There are NO Puertorican candidates with the ability to fund raise?
There are NO Puertorican candidates with experience in curating/mounting succesful exhibitions on other artists and other cultures; here and beyond?
The fact is that there were PLENTY of candidates who are Puertorican and have done all of the above. They were interviewed. They were shown the back door.
If anyone suffers from inferiority complex it is the Search Committee of the Board of Trustees el Museo del Barrio and the rest of the Board of Trustees for following the party line without thinking: They sold out. They have handed the keys to the “verdugo” to slaughter our culture at the altar of “world art markets” in order to create a “Latin American Museum”.
You just don’t let in the FOX into the CHICKEN coop. We know what happens later…..its OUTRAGEOUS.
I say it again: the loud and clear pattern discernible in Mr. Zugazagoitia’s trajectory is of curating anything, everything, anywhere–an indiscrimate curatorial orgy. If that was needed at el Museo all you need to get are independent curators (who could be of any nationality) but not the Executive Director …Its all there in the press releases. What does this have to do with el Museo? An institution BORN of a culturally specific community and for a culturally specific community about a culturally specific community….
In the same roster of his shows you can find the following artists: Honore Daumier, Shirin Neshat, Vanessa Beechcroft, Mexican “Masters” of the XXth Cent., young video artists from Spain, etc. These are the garments you claim he has in the closet.
The fact remains: He knows NOTHING of LATINOS nor PUERTORICANS. Knows NOTHING of our community.
Finally, the job description (widely disseminated) made HUGE noises about fundraising for el Museo’s contemplated new facility (either next door or somewhere) WHERE in the credentials of this curatorial gigolo of the jet-set age does it show he did ANY actual fundraising at all? Where? He was hardly anywhere for more than a couple of years before shifting to another continent or institution.
The pattern again is clear: By choice, he is most at home in very large, very rich, very “establishment” institutions (The Getty, The Guggenheim, et. al.) which did not require any fundraising at all…. Now he will “lead” el Museo into the XXIst Cent.? Is it going to be by spending its miniscule endowment? Selling the Puertorican paintings in the permanent collection?
Again, its a travesty and a betrayal of el Museo. Others plan to ask him for his resignation; others will be watching him and will report on what we see. We do not want any ethnic cleansing at el Museo del Barrio.
It is unbelievable that in spite of the worst case scenario that we could ever imagine and after we decided we needed to demonstrate as a community to send a message to the Board that we were watching them: they choose to do exactly what we warned them they should not do. Our worst fears have come true. To make matters worse we KNOW there were well-qualified Puertorican candidates–and plenty of them.
I heard the Tufin~o show is going to get cancelled as a result of this travesty. It should be. What was that board thinking? We were just going to grin and bear it?
The New Mexican/Brazilian Embassy
RP:
I am very proud of the physically little museum that moved to, and stayed open on, Fifth Avenue, a.k.a. Museum Mile. This is a practical description not a sign of an “inferiority complex”. Other museums were already born rich and big….we do not have to worry about them. But the factual history of el Museo is one of struggle and finally, “redemption” metaphorically speaking, to make us all proud. Some thought it would not “make it” but it did–it was a labor of love, sweat, and tears. I am very proud of “our” child.
The millions of Mexicans in Mexico are now celebrating that they have “one of their own” at the helm of a museum on Museum Mile. Ditto the millions of Brazilians who can see that one their biggest show in the world has now, fortunately for them, landed one of their proteges into a museum on Museum Mile on Fifth Avenue….
According to you that is all wonderful. But to the thousands of people of el Barrio who were there at the birth of THIS museum, to the Puertoricans in the island, the news of this appointment is APPALLING.
The outpost of Puertorican art & culture on Fifth Avenue is no longer headed by a Puertorican–after 33 years. Like the death of Christ at the same age, this is a grave moment, of grief and death.
It IS like El Velorio:
Some are celebrating while others are mourning.
The celebrants are the Mexicans and the Brazilians and other Latin Americans who now have their own Cultural Embassy on Fifth Avenue, their NEW Museum finally purged of the Puertorican presence and its Puertorican essence.
EVOLUCIONATE L.M.
I actually tried my best not to submit another response, but your frame of mind on this is very disturbing..
Societies evolve, social system and patterns evolved too,L.M., in case you have not noticed.
I think this debate is important, but I also think it is important that we dont allow our puerile or hysterical impulses drive us to misrepresent what is being said.
I didnt say that I was ecstatic over the current develoment. My view, in fact, is more realistic than that. There simply are new ethnic groups in what had been traditionally Puerto Rican areas. L.M., migration is a fact of life.
Tell me what sense it makes to deny that Mexicans, Dominicans, Central Americans, Haitians, and others flood into this country. It doesnt even matter what drove them here. You and i were driven here (even if you are from a priveleged class, you might still have been driven here).
The challenges is, what do we do with each other now that we are all here. Imagine the explosive, no…volcanic possibilities of all of these Latinos blending their richness together.
What on earth can you possibly be so fearful of, L.M.: your mirror images. Did you & I go away when we were rejected by this society. No! Will they. No!
El Museo will be shared by us all. What I would recommend you pay a little more attention to; rather than discharging these primitive impulses, is the role Puerto Ricans will play in formulating Museo programs.
Evolucionate, Mi Hermano/a.
Pa’ Lante siempre Pa’Lante: el Museo es NUESTRO
Red Planet:
I do not change my hair cut every Monday morning to fit the new fashion. Nor do I think Museums are like weathervanes shifting direction everytime the population compositon blows in a different direction.
It is called INTEGRITY.
We progress more by retaining those values which are meaningful to us and discharge those attitudes which impair our progress. We move forward because we know where we have been and where we come from.
It appears from your comments that you too have sold out. The sad part is that you may not recognize it. El Museo has a certain Puertoricanness essence which cannot be duplicated, transferred nor sold.
Having a Mexican lead the institution today (when in fact there were Puertorican candidates) is like letting a Catholic priest take over a Pentecostal church.
You are either being fed the hubris of the Board of Trustees, and swallowing whole the press releases or you are divorced from the original struggle that gave birth to the institution.
Not knowing history is a crime.
el Museo Chihuahua
Before the announcement is made I predict that el Museo del Barrio will have a name change to reflect its new direction and emphasis:
el Museo Chihuahua
Salud!
Speech delivered at the Townhall Meeting, 9/26/02
Speech delivered at the Townhall Meeting
Good Evening. My thanks to Community Board #11 for having arranged this town hall meeting, this community dialogue with El Museo del Barrio. I am Yolanda Sanchez and speak on behalf of two major organizations: PRACA, the Puerto Rican Association of Community Affairs, and the National Latina Caucus. I was born and raised in El Barrio. I left and for many years lived in the Bronx. But now, I am back home.
And, after many years with an office in Midtown Manhattan, PRACA is now also back in El Barrio. So that for both professional and personal reasons I welcome this opportunity to share my thoughts on the current controversy. I look at El Museo as an errant child which has strayed from the path set for it at birth. El Museo, as its name implies, is just that: The People’s Museum. And the people it refers to are the Boricuas del Barrio and Puerto Rican New Yorkers in general.
Others I am sure will touch on the history of El Museo. The fantastic vision brought to life by Marta Moreno Vega and those other creative and dynamic people who as a group established El Museo del Barrio against great odds.
The controversy focused on El Museo del Barrio comes in different shapes and sizes, depending on who is explaining and defining the issue. I see it simply as a matter of self-identification and our role as Puerto Ricans in this very racist and quite undemocratic society. El Museo del Barrio was created at a time of major change and upheaval in this country and city. A time when “question authority” was the slogan and a major eruption was about to explode over the question of self-identity and the historical and current status of citizens of non-European descent.
The questions raised in the 1960’s are questions which are still valid today. Will we, the people of the diaspora from places other than Europe, continue to be marginalized? The answer obviously has to be a resounding NO! But that requires that Puerto Ricans themselves accept that this society seeks to impose other values and negate those that define us as a people, our culture, ethnicity, language and values. Virtually 100% of the cultural institutions in this city, though supported by public funds, my taxes and yours, are controlled by and programmed on a Eurocentric model. Most board members are WASP–White Anglo Saxon Protestants and their holdings and shows reflect their conviction that quality for the most part was a European invention. They speak of their treasures from Asia, Africa and Latin America as uniquely primitive and usually in the past tense. They speak of our arts as remnant left-overs to be taken out every now and then. But their basic mission remains the same: To retain control of those institutions, and have them serve as a showcase for European artists and to foster and develop their new artists.
Those were the very same ideals and mission set forth by the founders of El Museo del Barrio but applied to Puerto Ricans–development of a Puerto Rican institution controlled by us and dedicated to the identification and support and nurturing of Puerto Rican artists and the showcasing of the work produced by past and present Boricuas.
If Puerto Ricans and others who now serve as members of the Board of Directors of El Museo del Barrio no longer accept the founding principles and mission of El Museo then it is time for you to move on, if you have bought into the notion that a Puerto Rican group can not develop and operate a quality museum, that to foucs on Puerto Rican creativity in some way diminshes the museum, then it is time for those Puerto Ricans and other like-thinking members to resign from the Museo’s Board of Directors and turn it over to those of us secure in our identity. Secure in the knowlege that development of a Puerto Rican museum only enhances the quality of the art world.
For the very reasons cited by the founders of El Museo del Barrio, other ethnic, racial and religious communities that do not fit the “WASP” model have also created and established their own institutions: the Studio Museum in Harlem and the Jewish Museum. It is an accepted philosophy and concept.
Why should we, Puerto Ricans, abandon that concept? It is a tried and true model that worked for many years, Why was it necessary to change? To redirect the Museo’s efforts and resources in a direction that would make it just another in a line-up of museums that grace this city but takes us off track in the development of something uniquely Puerto Rican.
El Museo del Barrio is clear in its premise and mission. The circumstances of the 1960’s which made the establishment of El Museo del Barrio necessary, still exist today, viturally nothing has changed. Why is the Board of Directors of EL Museo willing to abandon thirty years of struggle and successes? Why is this current Board of Directors giving in to mediocrity? Why doesn’t this current Board of Directors resign?
Give El Museo back to the people who gave it life. Give it back to Puerto Ricans who have no hang-ups about their “Puertoricanism”. El Museo should be in the hands of and under the direction and control of those who accept its primary and founding mission and have no bias as to who is capable of producing great art. Give it back to those of us who care.
Just this afternoon I learned that a new director has been appointed. I was shocked that on the very day of this atempt to engage in a dialogue: to bring together voices on opposite sides of this issue, to work towards resolving an issue that has split this community, we are told “up yours!” We will do what we want to do. No need to listen to dissenting opinions. As I read the announcement, I felt the sting of a slap across my face. That appointment of a new director is for me a clear reflection of the arrogance of El Museo’s Board and its disdain for my community–Boricuas del Barrio.
In the balance
In the balance, Ms. Sanchez is right in what she delineates. But she also errs in saying that things have not much changed since El Museo was founded. It has indeed changed. For one El Barrio is nolonger simply a Puerto Rican community but a diverse Latino community that includes a large Mexican population and to a lesser extent Dominicans and Central Americans. This is a major change.
Although it is indeed a fact that what has not changed is the marginalization of Puerto Rican and other stateside Latino artists.
I think the fear that the Museo would lose is Puerto Rican identity is a valid one but for me what is most critical is having the permanent exhibition of Puerto Rican art established and maintaining the actual name Puerto Rican in the mission even if it includes other Latino and Latin American artists.
Ms. Sanchez
Now what do you plan to do about it, Ms. Sanchez?
RE: Speech delivered at the Townhall Meeting, 9/26/02
While I agree w/ most of Yolanda Sanchez’s speech, I would place greater emphasis on the notion of El Museo del Barrio as “The People’s Museum.” A museum—or any other institution—can be “owned and operated” by Puerto Ricans and still fail to meet the needs of the people (read marginalized communities); such has been the case for much of the past decade. I am less interested in the ethnicity of those who control the institutions that Puerto Ricans struggled to create, and much more concerned with the class perspective(s) of those who parachute in–with all the cultural capital of their privileged lives in Latin American– to tell us the “right way” to do things. Their way invariably excludes the poor and powerless; such was the case 30 years ago and, despite the demographic changes that El Barrio is undergoing, it is still the case. In a similar vein, the newly named director may have Mexican nationality, but he has little in common with those Mexicans who actually live in El Barrio—-or any of the world’s other barrios.
Class issue and some thoughts about it
While there is definitely a class issue in the case of El Museo, I would venture to say that all art–at least the art that hangs in most museums, including El Museo–is elitist. And elitism, invariably involves class, although class itself is conceptually complex and vague.
While the proverbial artist starves, the art patron enriches himself through his acquisition, until that artist is nolonger starving but well-established and represented. Art is by its nature elitist, however humble an artist’s beginnings may be.
Most artists, let’s face it, are middle-class in background, upbringing or education. That’s the reality.
If we surveyed the residents of El Barrio–Puerto Rican, Latino and whatnot–how many do you think possess works by the original, Puerto Rican artists who founded El Museo and toiled away to produce their art work. How many do you think own a Soto, or Montanez, or a Tufiño, etc.?
And how many of those owners are college-educated or professional or middle-class?
RE: Ms. Sanchez
Good question. What can be done?
Dear Mr. Zugazagoitia:
Dear Mr. Zugazagoitia:
For all the reasons presented in this forum we urge you to decline to accept and/or not assume the position of Executive Director of el Museo del Barrio.
Your appointment to the helm of a Puertorican institution is causing a great deal of friction. This appointment as you can see was made without any community input nor consultation. In fact it was made–by the Search Committe and the rest ofd the Board of Trustees– in spite of growing and very strong opposition to naming anyone who did not have history with the community and/or connection to the Puertorican experience in New York City.
While you may have the support of the Board, you do not have any support from the community that gave birth to this institution.
We believe that the honorable thing for you, at this juncture, would be to let the Board know that you choose not to assume such a position in light of everything that has been discussed and disseminated in this and other public forums.
Thank you,
RE: Dear Mr. Zugazagoitia:
It is the job of the Board of Trustees to select the successor in any institution, whether they do it themselves or hire a ‘head hunter’
It is silly, to put it mildly, to ask Mr Zugazagoita to resign — as a matter of honor, no less.
What I derived from this Forum is an outline of the issues related to a cultural institution and how it will meet the challenge of a changing (well, expanding) ethnic demographic.
This is not the end of El Museo; Mr Zugazagoita will not, nor should he, resign.
This silly appeal to the man’s honor, when Honor has nothing to do with this, is an embarrassment to any thinking person.
What we should want in due time is a Position Paper by the new director pronouncing his long and short term plans for the institution. (Of course, there are probably exposition commitments that should take El Museo a few years to honor — made by a Puerto Rican administrator.
Offensive remarks by Mr. Zugazagoitia
October 16, 2002 On NY1
Hispanic Heritage: El Museo Del Barrio Undergoes A Transition
OCTOBER 11TH, 2002
As East Harlem is transformed by immigration, its institutions are changing as well. In the following report, Rebecca Spitz takes a look at the problems being caused by the evolution of El Museo Del Barrio, as NY1’s coverage of Hispanic Heritage Month continues.
East Harlem is a neighborhood in transition. Once predominantly Puerto Rican, it’s more and more Mexican and Dominican. And now, a Mexican is taking the reins of an institution founded by Puerto Ricans.
Julian Zugazagoitia – born in Mexico and educated in Paris – is the new director of El Museo Del Barrio. He is the first non-Puerto Rican to hold the job.
“For me it is a great honor to be appointed to be the director of this institution, and I will carry forward what has been the mission that has been entrusted to me,” he says.
Zugazagoitia comes to El Museo from the Guggenheim Museum, and has a long track record at fine arts institutions. He says this provides him with a refreshing change.
“This position allows me to be myself,” says Zugazagoitia. “Being Latin-American myself – I was born in Mexico and trained all over the world – here it’s where you can really be yourself, explore your roots and the richness and variety and the concerns of our communities.”
El Museo packs a lot into its tiny galleries, and its permanent exhibition of Taino art, created by the indigenous people of Puerto Rico, is true to the spirit of the museum’s founders.
While the new director doesn’t officially start until November, many in this historically Puerto Rican community are already expressing concerns over the direction of the museum, fearing it will deviate from its role as a traditionally Puerto Rican institution.
“As they went through the process of selecting a new director, many people in the community realized the community had nothing to do with that decision,” says Juan Flores, a professor at Hunter College.
Flores is a professor of Black and Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter. He says it wasn’t that the new director had to be Puerto Rican, it was more that the institution needed to renew its commitment to its roots, even while including newer Latino immigrants.
“There’s also a reason, historically, to bring emphasis to the Puerto Rican, because they have no other place,” says Flores. “They have no government that’s supporting their stuff, and they have no consulate and no cultural attaches because of the political status of Puerto Rico.”
The new director says he understands the need to improve communication and to represent Puerto Rican culture. But says El Museo also must have a wider vision.
“This institution is not an institution that closes itself,” says Zugazagoitia. “On the contrary, we’re open to all of the communities. Some communities have had more dialogue and have more vested interest, and we’re here to serve them too, but not exclusively.”
And that’s what he has in mind for an upcoming multimedia exhibition of local Latino artists:
“All of those identities are something that shaping a new identity, a new voice, and I think this place – El Museo Del Barrio – will be the think-tank and also the place where ideas will be debated and will be enriched to create the new identity – a strong voice for all of our differences and yet our similarities.”
– Rebecca Spitz
Copyright © 2002 NY1 News. All rights reserved.
RE: Offensive remarks by Mr. Zugazagoitia
Ive read your last submission four times already,trying to find what you refer to as Mr Zugazagoitas offensive remarks.
Can you please tell me what you found offensive: that he would be able to be himself as a Latin American (Im of Puerto Rican origin, viz: Latin American); that he would be able to delve into his roots — we all look toward El Museo for that as well; that we must have a wider vision. Is this it…that he feels that El Museo has to continue expanding its vision to include all Latin American cultures, as opposed to the zenophobic position that you postulate in your remarks.
Ms. Sanchez
She can write a letter or circulate a petition asking Mr. Zugazagoitia to decline the appointment.
Community Board 11 Demands
Community Board #11
Cultural Affairs Committee’s
Recommendations to the Museo del Barrio
These recommendations must be transformed into Board polices so that the new director can implement them. A community-working group will be established to continue follow up this process and will come back to keep the community informed!
The following recommendations have been developed from a system impact perspective with outcome goals that can be integrated into the current structure of the Museo del Barrio.
The systems identified are the Board of Trustees, Programs, Exhibitions, Community Education, Public Relations, and Capital Growth. We believe that working towards the implementation in partnership with the Board of Directors, to develop policies will assist in the development of a productive relationship with administration of the Museo. It is their task to implement policy. We propose that these items be placed on the agenda of upcoming Board meetings and assigned to the various corresponding committees for resolution. We seek to transition from “We are Watching You” to “We Are Working with You”
Board of Trustees
The reconfiguration of the Board of trustees by the creation of 5 – 6 community representative seats with full voting capacity though an amendment to the existing by-laws. We mean that there should be members representing the grassroots, working class, Latino constituency, be it through residence, expertise, length of engagement in local advocacy…etc.
Policy developed for unwanted catalogues
-Term limits in the Board: to make sure accountability is maintained through diversified representation
-Annual reports, newsletters, and the convening of an annual town hall meeting for delivering annual report, and fostering dialogue.
-Increase the number of Puerto Ricans and Latinos in Upper Management positions.
Programs
– Artist in resident programs with a focus on US born Latinos
– Senior citizen artist search and exhibitions
– Art programs for developmentally disabled
– Resource Research and Study Library: a national/international resource for students, scholars worldwide on Puerto Rican Latino and Latin American art.
– Artists in Residence Program like that of Studio Museum and the Bronx, where Puerto Rican and Latino artists are offered a one year artist’s studio residency, while utilizing them to conduct outreach programs for community.
– A similar program to train, mentor and develop future Puerto Rican Latino and Latin American curators and art researchers and administrators.
– Academic symposia with panel discussions.
Exhibitions
– Permanent multimedia installation space of the history of El Museo del Barrio that accounts for its history in civil and human rights struggles.
– Permanent Evolving Exhibition Space: An exhibition space on relating basis would represent the works of Puerto Rican art and artifacts that contributed to founding of El Museo del Barrio and the start of its permanent collection.
-Thematic formats
-Afro-Latino collaborations
Public Relations
Community Newsletters, annual community forums, reports lectures, on the state of US born Latinos
Partnerships with community agencies through development initiatives
Membership drives
Community Education
-Institute an Acquisition and Dissemination Policy of Works of Puerto Rican and Latino artists.
-A similar program to train, mentor and develop future Puerto Rican Latino and Latin American curators and art researchers and administrators
-The creation of a staff position and departments of PR Art and LA Art
-These future curators can work together with artists in residence to develop and conduct outreach programs and lectures within community and museum constituency at large.
Capital Growth
Renovate the Firehouse
Offensive remarks by Mr. Zugazagoitia
Red Planet:
Words by Mr. Zugazagoitia such as:
[el Museo]”must have a wider vision”…
“open to all of the communities”…
“to serve them [communities with a “vested” interest] too but not exclusively”…
are all code words for diluting and denying the institution’s Puertoricaness, for blurring its original founding vision, for calling his new appointment a form of ethnic cleansing.
It is an ominous harbinger of things to come. To pretend now that he is NOT openly calling for a wholesale change of a well-established and strong identity–Puertorican–is to bury your head in the sand like an ostrich.
Did you NOT see the anger, frustration and vitriol at the Community Board 11 meeting? That same community is demanding that Mr. Zugazagoitia decline to take the position.
If el Barrio became populated, suddenly, by a predominantly Jewish and Middle European culture would you change the mission of el Museo too? I don’t think so.
Again, and do not ever forget this, el Museo was founded by Puertoricans, for Puertoricans, about Puertoricans. The other cultures were presented/showcased as our guests–NOT as our landlords, directors, curators, or gatekeepers.
Museum directors do not prepare “position papers”…they speak publicly and privately…you can read it and hear about it. These are the first printed words since the official announcement. Those words are offensive in that they already convey the message of erasing the Puertorican presence and essence of the institution as it has existed and was conceived.
You may live in another planet but this museum is ours, it does not need to be re-positioned nor re-branded by an effete, Eurocentric cultural gigolo.
el Museo es NUESTRO.