Exhibit: Latino cARTographies Digital Board

The idea for Latino cARTographies began when Dr. Quiroz organized the city of Houston to host the country’s premier Latino art event, Latino Art Now! Dr. Quiroz conceived the idea for the digital board and viewed it as a way to create a dynamic but permanent tribute to the Latino artists of Houston. She then persuaded the Gibson Group to collaborate with CMALS to achieve this goal. The result is a twenty-first-century mode to access the arts and experience culture – Latino cARTographies – that maps the past, present, and future of Houston’s Latino art. By utilizing technology that preserves, represents, and promotes Houston’s Latino visual arts and communities in an equitable and inclusive manner, CMALS is transforming how we experience art in the twenty-first century.

Latino cARTographies features our commissioned a mural to celebrate the many contributions of our city’s Mexican-American community. In the spirit of the great Mexican muralists, this vibrant collective artwork, Mexican-American History & Culture in 20th Century Houston, highlights the places, personalities, concepts and events that shaped the Mexican-American community and laid the foundation for the multicultural city we live in today. Set in Connally Plaza against a dramatic backdrop of City Hall and the downtown skyline, the mural is a cultural landmark in the historic heart of Houston. This mural spotlights 38 places, personalities, and events that played a key role in the growth of this community and provides recognition for the countless and essential contributions of Mexican Americans to the economy, culture, and vitality of our city in the 1900s. Mural artists Laura López Cano and Jesse Sifuentes, along with key fundraisers and government officials celebrated the unveiling to Houstonians in September 2018 for National Hispanic Heritage Month. Since then, we have several outdoor activities being celebrated around the mural for National Hispanic Heritage Month and host field trips telling the stories behind the mural.  The vibrant mural, located at 1100 Bagby Street, is now complemented by the interactive, digital board that is inside our museum gallery.

About the Exhibitor: Center for Mexican American and Latino Studies, University of Houston

The Center for Mexican American and Latino/a Studies (CMALS) at the University of Houston was established in 1972 as an interdisciplinary academic program encompassing the liberal arts, education and social sciences focusing on the Mexican American and broader Latino experience in the U.S. Its mission is to advance knowledge, promote critical thinking and foster the value of service to the community. This involves designing a broad spectrum of public and scholarly programs. Located within the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, CMALS has evolved into an academic unit with several major components: teaching, research and publications, recruitment and retention, leadership training, academic advising and community service.

Thank you to the following:

Marisela Martinez, Ed.D.  Associate Director

Debbie Z. Harwell, Ph.D. Editor, Houston History https://houstonhistorymagazine.org/ 

IG: @latinocart_uhcmals  FB: @UHCMAS  Website:  www.class.uh.edu/cmas

Press Release by The University of Houston (link)

Imagine traversing Greater Houston’s dynamic and expansive Latino visual art scene with a simple swipe of a finger. Latino cARTographies, a new interactive and portable digital board developed by the University of Houston’s Center for Mexican American and Latino/a Studies, allows users to experience Latino art in seven communities, and other parts of Houston, like never before.

The ease of access is exactly what the creators Pamela Anne Quiroz and Juana Guzman had in mind when they designed the innovative, bilingual public display, which maps more than 180 artists, 2,000 pieces of art, 80 landmarks, 17 arts organizations and other sites of importance to Houston’s Latino communities. True to its name, Latino cARTographies maps the past, present, and future of Houston’s Latino visual art. 

“Latino cARTographies is a permanent yet dynamic visual archive designed to educate and engage the public,” said Quiroz, director of CMALS, UH professor of sociology and director of the Inter University Program on Latino Research. “It merges art with technology to address the historic inequities of Houston’s underserved, underrepresented Latino artists, arts centers and communities. It presents an alternative to the traditional ways in which people have accessed art and culture.”

The board is the creative output of Quiroz, Guzman, the CMALS research graduate team at UH’s College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, and International Gibson Group. It was unveiled on September 29.

“I believe the project will have far-reaching, sustainable benefits for the Latino communities of Houston,” said Guzman, former Vice President of the National Museum of Mexican Art, Bloomberg Philanthropies national arts strategist, and co-founder and former president of the National Association of Latino Arts and Culture. “Not only is this project unique, but it affords an opportunity to fill a knowledge gap and serve Latino communities in one of the most accessible manners that I have encountered in my 40-year arts career.”

The idea for Latino cARTographies sparked when Quiroz organized the city of Houston to host the country’s premier Latino art event, “Latino Art Now!” She wanted to create a tribute to the Latino artists of Houston.

The Gibson Group’s TouchCity platform combines narrative text, images, videos, maps, music and QR codes to provide users an all-encompassing presentation of Houston Latino art. Everything on the board is meant to be touched. When users tap on an art piece, they are presented with information such as location, the inspiration for the work, a video of the artist and/or artist background.

“Latino cARTographies has the potential to increase economic opportunities and visibility for Latino artists who have historically had limited access to mainstream arts opportunities, through placement of QR codes on the board to link visitors to artists and arts organizations,” said Quiroz. “This project will bring the museum to the community and the community to the museum.”

The digital board can be taken to libraries, schools, museums and city and academic events. It can also be frequently updated with new images and information.