Latino Art Now Pylon

Espectaculares de Latino Art Now!

Latino Art Now! Houston

Inter University Program on Latino Research

Latinocartographies.org [need the website]

www.iuplr.org

The Latino Art Now national conference is the Inter University Program on Latino Research’s signature event, the country’s premier national visual art forum that brings collectors, curators, artists, scholars and the public to address the contributions of Latino art to the nation. The conference was initiated in 2005 and has been held in such major cities as Los Angeles, New York, Washington DC, and Chicago. The LAN! [and the IUPLR] is connected to the Smithsonian Latino Center in Washington DC, an affiliate of the Smithsonian, the world’s largest museum and research complex, with 19 museums, 9 research centers, and affiliates around the world.

In 2017, the IUPLR selected the Center for Mexican American & Latino/a Studies (CMALS) as host of the Latino Art Now! Houston. From the beginning, CMALS conceptualized and proposed a digital registry that would become one of IUPLR’s national archives of digital registries and the first Latino visual artists registry in Houston.

IUPLR registries are curated and present professional visual Latino artists.

The Center also organized a four-month citywide event to include local Latino artists. With the help of a donation by Clear Channel, the Latino Art Now, and its local extension, the Spring of Latino Art, featured a public billboard display of 56+ Latino art billboards that surrounded the city and was captured on digital billboards across the state during this four-month period.

The LAN! Houston was a resounding success with 70 participating arts organizations, galleries and cultural organizations and more than 200 local artists. LAN Houston! featured more than 108 exhibitions, installations and performances and the media reach was estimated at 77.2 million with 95 magazine and newspaper articles, radio segments and television interviews that reached local, national and international audiences.

LAN! Houston served as a catalyst of Latino art in Houston and paved the way for subsequent efforts such as BIPOC and ALMAAHH, an effort to create a Latino Museum in Houston.