From Ford Foundation: “Mellon, Ford, Getty, and Terra Foundations today announced Advancing Latinx Art in Museums (ALAM) – the new initiative represents the second phase of a multi-year funding collaboration seeking to nurture and prioritize US Latinx art. The funding partners have committed a combined $5 million to the initiative, which will provide ten grants of $500,000 to institutions in support of the creation and formalization of ten permanent early and mid-career curatorial positions with expertise in Latinx art.”
“Latinx artists—creatives of Latin American or Caribbean descent who live and work in the US—have made significant and vital contributions to American culture for generations. ALAM is a collaborative initiative that aims to bolster museums and visual art organizations that have shown a commitment to collecting, studying, exhibiting, and engaging with Latinx art and artists by ensuring they have the capacity to employ specialist curators. Funding will support the hiring of five new curators and the promotion of five curatorial staff into permanent roles at institutions across the United States and Puerto Rico. The grant program will also include opportunities to enhance and grow the existing community of curators with expertise in Latinx art, connecting the individuals supported at each participating institution to each other and to a wider circle of museum professionals working in this space.”
“People who identify as Latinx comprise nearly twenty percent of the U.S. population overall and considerably more in some of the country’s largest cities. Yet, Latinx causes and organizations routinely receive less than two percent of philanthropic funding. While annual funding for Latinx arts and culture has seen a gradual annual increase since 2020, Latinx artists remain the largest majority missing from most museum collections, exhibitions, scholarship, and programming. ALAM, and the greater Latinx Art Visibility Initiative, is part of a long overdue effort to support Latinx artists and to ignite a public conversation about the rightful place of Latinx art within American art.”
“ALAM recipients include large institutions, college and university museums, and leading Latinx museums – spanning scale, modality, and location – all aligned in their commitment to building or expanding a curatorial focus on Latinx art and ultimately creating a more inclusive curatorial field.”