#lmsp2016

Hello, my name is Alma Catalán and this summer I had the opportunity to be a part of the Latino Museum Studies Program, based out of the Smithsonian Latino Center. I am an arts management student at Claremont Graduate University in southern California. I am also a first generation college-goer, a graduate student in hiatus, new American, and Latinx, who is still overcoming adversity while pursuing a career in the arts.

During #LMSP2016, I was based out of the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES) working on Latino Initiatives. I chose this practicum as my first choice because I believe in their mission statement, which is to create access and to start conversations at all levels, among communities and individuals that otherwise wouldn't have them. Most importantly, they want to do more than just put together exhibits, - "SITES' presence changes lives, institutions, and communities" (from their mission statement). Similarly, my personal mission is to provide a space for Latinx artists to share their untold stories of navigating through a bicultural world and to help them create bridges to different communities. By doing so, it offers a new perspective and alternative point of view about the American experience.

For four weeks I had the opportunity to be mentored by Maria del Carmen Cossu, Project Director for Latino Initiatives at SITES. In this very short time, I was able to learn first-hand about exhibit development through being part of several meetings such as project director meetings, SITES staff meetings, and specific project meetings. One of my main tasks was to do research on how museums are engaging with Latinxs. At the conclusion of my practicum, I presented my findings to the SITES staff, as well as the Smithsonian Latino Center staff, and other #LMSP2016 fellows. The biggest takeaways from my conclusions were the following:

1. Museums need to start creating bilingual exhibits or continue if already doing so. 2. Museums should break away from the traditional ways of engaging with audiences. The Latinx audience is multigenerational, and their outings are a family affair. 3. Museums need to secure full-time positions to address the needs of the Latinx audiences.

Four weeks was not enough time, but the experience of being a fellow at SITES/Latino Initiative has been life changing. I would like to thank everyone at the Smithsonian Latino Center and SITES for allowing me to explore, learn, and join the conversation to increase the U.S. Latino presence at the Smithsonian and beyond.

I spoke with Paula Newbaker, Community Engagement Coordinator at SITES about her findings on how museums are engaging with diverse audiences. Are you a Latinx? How would you like museums to engage with you?

One of the most successful bilingual exhibits by SITES has been Bittersweet Harvest. It was extended 3 times! By analyzing the educational posters, it gives me ideas about engagement opportunities with youth to bring back to Los Angeles. 

My awesome mentor Maria del Carmen Cossu always made sure I had plenty of reading materials. I read many reports on museums and engagement practices as well as the connection and disconnection with Latinx audiences.

A perk of being a #LMSP2016 fellow are the opportunities to connect with past fellows and interns. This photo is of the amazing Maria del Carmen Cossu (middle), Patty Arteaga (right), a past SITES intern, also from Los Angeles and myself (left). 

!Saludos, Everyone!

Here I am at the entrance of the Smithsonian American Art Museum (Photo by Abigail Choudbury)

My name is Marietta Fernández Lopez and I was born and raised in Cuba. I am currently based in Buffalo (NY) where I attend the State University of New York and am getting my Masters in Interdisciplinary Humanities with a concentration in Caribbean and Latin@ American Studies. My research interests include Caribbean, Latin American and Latino Art history, curatorial practices and history of exhibitions. I hope you enjoy reading about my practicum experience in my #LMSP2016 #FellowTakeover post! I’ve spent this past month dividing my time between the Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM) Curatorial Department and the Lunder Conservation Center.  My practicum focuses on “Collections Research and On-line content” and I have had the honor to work under the guidance of the Latino Art Curator at SAAM, E. Carmen Ramos, and the Chief of Conservation at Lunder, Tiarna Doherty. At both sites, I have been doing research and writing for the Eye/Level blog to inform readers about recent acquisitions of Latino art and artist information, as well as art conservation.

SAAM Chief of Conservation demonstrates the use of UV light on Braceros by Domingo Ulloa (Photo by Abigail Choudbury)

I produced two blog posts focusing on Latino artworks that have undergone conservation. One of the posts was on Domingo Ulloa’s painting, Braceros (1960), which is regarded as one of the first artworks to depict Mexican migrant laborers by a Mexican-American artist. The other conservation blog post was on the sculpture/installation Pure Plantainum (2006) by Puerto Rican-born artist Miguel Luciano. Research for these blogs not only granted me access to conservation files of these works, but also the opportunity to engage in conversation with the conservators who were involved in the preservation of these beautiful pieces. These experiences allowed me to learn about examination methods, the reason behind various treatment procedures, and how conservation analysis and research can impact art historical research.

Conservator Helen Ingalls and LMSP Fellow Marietta Fernández López examining a photo-macrograph of "Pure Plantainum" corrosion (Photo by Abigail Choudbury) At the SAAM Curatorial Department, Art Curator Dr. E. Carmen Ramos has provided me with research material to conduct interviews with Latino artists Adal Maldonado and Freddy Rodríguez.  I compiled questions for short interviews that Carmen helped revise, and then be able to conduct these interviews with the artists myself. An edited version of both interviews will appear in the SAAM Eye/Level blog at a later date.

Here I am with my Practicum leader Latino Art Curator E. Carmen Ramos and artist Freddy Rodríguez (Photo by Bethany Palkovitz) As an Art Historian and professional interested on Latinx and Caribbean art and culture, it has been an outstanding opportunity to directly exchange with both artists and learn about their life and work experiences from their own perspective. I am thankful for this delivered hands-on experience, the opportunity to become familiar with professional museum settings, and the treasure of learning from excellent professionals whose main efforts are focused on the interpretation and representation of Latino art, history and culture. 

¡Hola!  Thank you for taking the time to check out my #LMSP2016 #fellowtakeover blog post! My name is Raquel Escobar and I am a Doctoral candidate in History at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. I work at the intersections of Latinx Studies, Indigenous Studies, and Latin American Studies to examine mid-twentieth century Inter-American politics alongside the development of hemispheric racial scripts. More specifically, my dissertation examines the struggle to reconcile indigeneity and nationalism during the twentieth century across borders in Mexico and the United States. Given my research interests I am thrilled to work on a practicum that focuses on both Latinx History and American Indian History. For the last month I have been working alongside Dr. Mireya Loza, curator in the division of Political History at the National Museum of American History. 

This poster from the Longest Walk of 1978 is one of the many flat file objects in the Civil Rights portion of the Political History Collection.

One of my tasks over the last four weeks has been to survey the Political History collection, focusing on objects that represent the struggle for Latino and American Indian Civil Rights. The collection includes a wide range of objects ranging from protest signs, posters, and newsletters to larger, more iconic objects like labor leader Caesar Chavez’s jacket.

The collection also contains more traditional museum objects like Caesar Chavez’s jacket.

In addition to surveying the collection I was asked to identify and contextualize existing items within the collection that represent collaborative moments between Latinos and American Indians in their struggle for Civil Rights. Latino activists have often strategically deployed discourses of indigeneity within their activism, but the goal here was to identify objects in the collection that could highlight moments of convergence in which these two groups, Latinos and American Indians, actively worked together or even in same space to achieve a common goal. Some of the items I have identified are objects from The Poor People’s Campaign (PPC). Viewed as a single object, items like the newsletter pictured below do not necessarily point to a moment of collaboration. However, when paired with other items from the collection such as maps of Resurrection City that detail where groups lived, newsletters that provide details on daily life amongst the demonstrators and the co-organized protests and activities it becomes clear that American Indians and Latinos were indeed collaborating. Secondary source research adds to this narrative by providing insight into how Latinos and American Indians experienced similar marginalization within this movement that sought to create economic equality for all.

Objects like this newsletter are invaluable to exhibition research and building a narrative that links multiple objects and voices. In addition to providing me the opportunity to use my skills as a historian within a museum setting, the Latino Museum Studies Program has also allowed me to gain insight and valuable experience in the day-to-day responsibilities of a curator. While the list is too vast to list here, the common tasks focused on project research, exhibit development, creating digital content for the public, as well as planning collection trips for ongoing projects. During my practicum at NMAH I also conducted research for a project Dr. Loza is working on with her colleague Dr. Kathleen Franz, curator in the division of Work and Industry. This project, “Escúchame,” showcases the history and contributions of the Spanish-language television industry in the United States. Through newspaper research I conducted a survey of Los Angeles Spanish-language television programming during the 1980s. My time at NMAH allowed me to gain hands-on experience in the multiple roles a curator plays within the museum world, teaching me indispensable skills that are applicable both within the academy and museum work. In addition, I am grateful that #LMSP2016 provided the opportunity to learn with and from so many established and up-and-coming Latina/o/x Studies scholars!

¡Hola! My name is Verónica Rivera-Negrón, proud jerezana from the Universidad de Puerto Rico, Río Piedras, currently attending The University of Texas at Austin. Thanks for checking my #LMSP 2016  #FellowTakeover post!

As a puertorriqueña in the diaspora, I am interested in how art can help to better understand politics, culture, and social relationships between Latin America, the Caribbean, and its diasporas in the United States. For these reasons, I am very proud to have researched and proposed programming to commemorate the centennial of the Jones Act, the legal document that granted citizenship to Puerto Ricans in 1917, at the National Museum of American History (NMAH).

Under the supervision of Magdalena Mieri, Director of the Program in Latino History and Culture, I had the task of finding objects and archival material at the NMAH that are connected to the Jones Act and/or Puerto Rico. Some materials I found include homemade videos of Puerto Ricans living in New York City in the 1940s (Manuel Quiles Films), a poster promoting a series of orientations for Puerto Ricans who were planning to migrate to the United States in 1950 (Semana del Emigrante, DIVEDCO), and insignia from the 65th Infantry Regiment, better known as The Borinqueneers. What is fascinating is how these materials tell personal stories while simultaneously providing snapshots of broader political issues. My favorite part about this project was imagining ways through which we can communicate these research findings with museum visitors and the general audience. Museum theater and drama-based instruction are the mediums we chose to engage audiences in the history of the Jones Act and its legacy for Puerto Ricans. By telling the story of a particular Puerto Rican through a museum theater piece and how his or her life was influenced by the Jones Act, we can bring a human component to an otherwise plain part of history. Further, I proposed a lesson plan for middle and high school teachers, using drama-based activities, to engage with one of the materials found at the NMAH collections and to teach more on the Jones Act. I am looking forward to seeing how art and arts-based education serve as ways to translate the histories and stories of the political relationship between Puerto Rico and the United States.

Most of my days were spent researching the finding aids at NMAH, a privilege just a few researchers get. However, since the entire collection is not available online, I also met with several curators and archivist and told them about my project to see if they have found anything related to the Jones Act and/or Puerto Rico.

Here, my practicum lead, Magdalena Mieri, Director of the Program in Latino History and Culture at the National Museum of American History, and I discuss DIVEDCO’s Semana del Emigrante poster, and how it represents the legacy of the Jones Act for Puerto Ricans.

Semana del Emigrante or Immigrant’s Week was a series of orientations sponsored by DIVEDCO, or Division of Community Education for Puerto Ricans, who were considering migrating to the United States in 1950. When considering moving to another country, many Puerto Ricans think of the United States first because paperwork is fairly easy for us. This is a legacy that started in 1917 when the Jones Act declared us United States Citizens, making us able to travel to and from Puerto Rico without a passport.

Hello! Gianna May Sanchez here! I hope everyone has enjoyed my #LMSP2016 #fellowtakeover today! I’ll close out the day with a blog post featuring an in-depth discussion of what I’ve been doing at the Smithsonian Latino Center and a feature on a virtual reality event I recently attended with my practicum lead!

But first, I’d like to share a little bit about myself and my work at the University of New Mexico, where I am currently working on my Master’s in the History Department with a minor in Museum Studies. As a historian, I am interested in reproductive health history and women’s healthcare in the West, especially among Latino populations. My thesis, “The Santa Fe Maternal Health Center, Catholicism, and Contraception, 1937 – 1960,” discusses the Santa Fe Maternal Health Center, its patients, founders, provision of contraception, and conflict with the Catholic Church. This study sheds light on an overlooked area and population in the birth control movement and analyzes the negotiation between faith and healthcare that many of the patients of the Center had to contend with on a regular basis. In addition to this more traditional work as a historian, I also am interested in museum education and the use of digital interactive media such as video games as a platform to facilitate educational experiences. I also write about games through a critical, academic lens; make my own education-based games; and am working on a collaborative project to make a game about an Irish Pirate Queen.

It doesn’t look like it, but in this image, I’m currently inside Édouard Manet’s 1882 A Bar at the Folies-Bergère, learning more about the painting through virtual reality immersion. Photo credit: Paola Ramirez.

Édouard Manet’s A Bar at the Folies-Bergère as experienced in virtual reality through WoofbertVR.

In case you couldn’t tell by my Instagram posts, I like most things tech and love to think about and experiment with different ways to improve museum exhibitions and educational experiences through new technology. This interest has fueled most of my work with the LMSP, where I am currently working with Melissa Carrillo, the New Media & Technology Director of the Latino Center, to develop a digital strategy guide that the Center can use in future development of digital immersive elements to encourage audience engagement.

My practicum lead, Melissa Carrillo; Diana Bossa Bastidas, Program Manager of the LMSP; and myself at the Capitol Hill Virtual Reality event on August 2, 2016. Photo credit: Paola Ramirez.

To create this strategy guide, I have done a lot of research on what the Latino Center has done in the past using digital media, such as through the Smithsonian Latino Virtual Museum or with animated shorts, and written on how future projects can build on this progress. I’ve also looked into numerous case studies of what other museums have done, such as Ada and Grace, two responsive virtual museum guides at the Boston Museum of Science, and thought about how the Smithsonian Latino Center can apply these projects to their own work. Last week, I even got to meet with MIT Education Arcade’s Caitlin Feeley, who came to the Latino Center as part of a Digital Summit to talk about potential game-like elements the Center could employ to teach about the diverse Latino experience in America.

Caitlin Feeley during her presentation last week.

Two days ago, I also got to go to a virtual reality event at the Capitol Visitor Center. The day-long event featured two panels that sought to discuss the potential VR poses to enhance education and the need to invest in it and continue developing this technology. All panelists emphasized how VR can boost accessibility to physical locations and experiences that users might not ever get to see on their own, especially when utilized in a classroom setting. It was an exciting event, and was great to see so many people interested in how virtual reality could enhance education in a very meaningful way.

About to begin the Virtual Reality event at Capitol Hill! Photo credit: Paola Ramirez. 

At the end of the event, attendees could go into a separate room and try out new VR technology and see what different companies were developing. Of course I was most interested in WoofbertVR, where you could go inside a painting, providing a truly unique and notable VR experience that could really highlight elements of a work of art that would otherwise go unnoticed. But, there was also a virtual reality experience where users could point out areas on a body to indicate sources of pain to help in treating patients; an interactive jellyfish immersive experience; and a virtual reality world that allowed the user to walk into different scenarios, such as a prehistoric dinosaur scene reminiscent of Jurassic Park, and explore educational graphics, such as a skeleton or muscular structure of a dog, through an interactive, three dimensional view. And, if anyone was wondering, yes, you do look rather silly looking around and moving your arms with a VR headset on. But, at the same time, you can’t deny how cool of an experience it is to be able to swim through the ocean, learn about a painting while exploring inside of it, and walk with dinosaurs all using this educational tool.

VR can be an amazing way to explore areas that you would otherwise never be able to see. In this video, I am at the bottom of an ocean with sharks and fish swimming around me. There is also a transparent shark that highlights it anatomical features, providing a unique educational element and giving a more immersive experience to what would normally be a textbook-based picture.

Regardless, I’m truly excited to be a part of this conversation and work with the Latino Center to think about how we can utilize such technology to improve audience engagement, share narratives about the diverse Latino experience in America, and explore Latino collections at the Smithsonian. I’m very grateful for the time I’ve spent working with Melissa Carrillo in what has become an extremely influential experience that will no doubt influence my career and future work as an academic and in the museum world. Thank you, #LMSP for this opportunity and thank you all for reading! Hope you enjoyed my #fellowtakeover!

I’m interested in recording perspectives and memories through sound and visual art that otherwise would be lost. I’m also very interested on using these interactions as platforms to ignite creativity and allow more people to have access to art and culture, and time for creativity. Some of my efforts include documenting US groups that have been largely in the margins of national histories such as other Ecuadorians who made their home in the United States, like myself.  I also collaborate with visual artists as a powerful tool to exhibit records and shape culture and experiences in shared and public spaces. During the fellowship I am working in the Latino DC History Project doing research on how to create a mural project in Washington DC. My practicum lead is Ranald Woodman, Exhibitions and Public Programs Director at Smithsonian Latino Center.  I also work alongside José Centeno-Meléndez whom you read about last week and is working on interviewing D.C. residents. We usually have a lot to share and learn from each other’s project. My work at the Smithsonian Latino Center started with a lot of local research and reading from the Latino DC History archives to try to understand the stories that might shape the murals. In addition to archival research, and as an oral history practitioner, I also wanted to make sure I was speaking to some of the people doing cultural work in Washington and Latinxs who have been part of this history, but who might not be on the written records. So far, I’ve been able to hear from multiple people and though many times memories might overlap, each person brings another little piece to the puzzle. My job also involves visiting different neighborhoods with Latinx histories and spotting possible mural sites and potential partners around the city. I really enjoy walking around researching and listening to some of the stories of the places we visit and their past and present in relation to local communities.

Different Latinx places and people along the DMV area (photos by Fernanda Espinosa and José Centeno-Meléndez)

I hope you enjoyed the journey! I’ll leave you with some more images of different locations in the DMV area that I’ve visited as part of my research for my practicum in the LMSP. Each place has its own personality and history, but each also possesses a common threat that weaves in with the other Latinx histories and communities in the area. The pictures I took include locations in Chirilagua and Columbia Pike in Virginia, Columbia Heights in D.C., and West Hyattsville in Maryland. To learn more about my practicum, visit http://latino.si.edu/Content/Images/Education/2016_Latino_LMSP_Practicums.pdf

Hi everyone, thanks for checking in on my #lmsptakeover! My name is Robin, and I’m currently working on my Master’s degree in anthropology at Columbia University in New York City. For my LMSP practicum, I have been working at the Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage (CFCH). I am working with curator Sojin Kim on Sounds of California: Music and Migration, a CFCH project in collaboration with the Alliance for California Traditional Arts and Radio Bilingüe. This project was based off the work of ethnomusicologist Sidney Robertson Cowell who travelled through California in the late 1930’s recording the music of various ethnic groups that had settled in the state. Our Sounds of California project hopes to capture a similar sonic snapshot of California today.

Sounds of California was also a program at this year’s Folklife Festival, which featured a wide range of narrative sessions, workshops, and performances by artists from across the state. So far during my practicum, I’ve been reviewing audio and video documentation from the Festival to create short media pieces that make Festival presentations more accessible. I’ve mostly been working with materials from Ray Guzmán, AKA MixteKo, an artist based in the San Joaquin Valley. Ray Guzmán is a dancer in Grupo Nuu Yuku, a dance troupe that performed the traditional Danza de los Diablos de San Miguel Cuevas at the Festival. Outside of the group, Ray is also a rapper, rhyming trilingually in English, Spanish, and Mixteco to bring awareness to issues concerning his community (check him out on SoundCloud: MixteKo!). At CFCH we’re in the process of creating a short video about Ray’s community engagement, and how he bridges the divide between traditional and contemporary music.

Ray Guzmán resting after Danza de los Diablos, photo credit: Prayoon Charoennun.

In my academic career, I’ve done a lot research on music, but I’ve had very little experience actually working with audio and video media, and putting together Ray’s video has been much more work than I would have ever imagined. I started by listening through all of the recordings of his performances and narrative sessions and making transcriptions. From here, we had to decide which sections to include in our video and begin the editing process. We then add the finishing touches, like adding subtitles, overlaying music tracks, and adding special effects. After so much work, it’s very rewarding to see a finish product. I definitely learned a lot from the CFCH video team (thanks Lexi!).

Learning how to edit with video intern Lexi.

Putting together an audio blog with music clips, photo credit: Maya Potter.

Aside from Ray’s video, I also worked on sound and video blogs for other Sounds of California performers like Latin Jazz percussionist John Santos and Afro-Cuban sacred music singer, Bobi Céspedes. Look for my video and sound clips on the Smithsonian Folklife Festival Facebook page and the Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage website! Thanks for joining me for my #LMSP2016takeover!