Cultural Affairs Office

Press and Communications

October 4, 2018 -- The Mayor announced this week the City’s participation in the “Spring of Latino Art” with a $25,000 grant and $50,000 of additional in- kind support from Houston First to complement the significant investment of the University of Houston for “Latino Art Now! Houston” in 2019.

Led by the University of Houston College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences Center for Mexican American Studies Program, Latino Art Now! Houston is a Latino-founded, Latino-focused, Latino-directed call to action for artists, community leaders, businesses and nonprofits to showcase Houston’s Latino artist to the nation during the “Spring of Latino Art” from February – May 2019.

“This is just one of the strategies of The Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs to invest in Houston’s Latinx artists,” said The Mayor. “From new grant programs for artists through Houston Arts Alliance to utilizing Latinx creative businesses, we have been expanding opportunities for artists and shining a light on our local talent.”

The City’s grant to the University of Houston will support the coordination of exhibitions and programs for the public during the Spring of Latino Art, as well as for attendees to the national Smithsonian Latino Art Now! Houston conference coming to Houston for the first time April 4 - 6, 2019. In addition to the City’s grant, Houston First’s support will provide transportation for visitors to explore the various exhibitions and programs, as well as sponsor the use of Discovery Green for Frida Fest and enhance marketing of the Spring of Latino Art on social media.

“The UH College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences at UH establishes and nurtures community partnerships to further the mission of the university to discover and disseminate knowledge through research, artistic, and scholarly endeavors,” said Provost Paula Myrick Short. “Nobody understands better than The Mayor the magnifying power of working together. The City’s endorsement has not only brought critical resources to this important project but significant attention, which we continue to leverage.”

Under the leadership of Dr. Antonio D. Tillis, Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, where the Center for Mexican American Studies (CMAS) is housed and Dr. Pamela Quiroz, M.D Anderson Professor of Hispanic Studies and director of CMAS, UH is also the new host of the Inter-University Program for Latino Research. The initiative will develop a permanent digital presence showcasing local Latino visual culture through an interactive digital board and a digital registry of Houston’s Latino artists to coincide with Latino Art Now! Houston.

To date, these nonprofit cultural organizations and venues have joined Latino Art Now! Houston and the Spring of Latino Art:

Alabama Song, Art League, Aurora Picture Show, Blaffer Art Museum at UH, Box 13 Art Space, Brazos Bookstore, Catastrophic Theater, Community Artist Collective, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts at UH,  DiverseWorks, East End Studio Gallery, Fotofest, Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, Houston Center for Photography, Gallery Homeland, Houston Museum of African American Culture, Lawndale Art Center, Multicultural Education and Counseling through the Arts,  Museum of Fine Arts Houston/International Center for the Arts of the Americas,  Nameless Sound, Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having their Say, Project Row Houses, Rudolph Blume Fine Art ArtScan Gallery, Sawyer Yards, Sicardi Gallery, Station Museum of Contemporary Art, TransArt Foundation, University of Houston Downtown O’Kane Gallery.

For more information about Latino Art Now! Houston and the Spring of Latino Art visit https://www.iuplr.org/lan-houston.

For more information on the City’s cultural programs, go to www.houstontx.gov/culturalaffairs or follow The Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs on Facebook @HoustonMOCA.