Negotiating Identity: The Art Museum in Latin America

Session Submission Type: LASA Section Presentation

Abstract

The Art Museum from Boullée to Bilbao has become a core text in art history and museum studies courses. Yet while the title suggests that it will introduce a comprehensive history of the emergence of art museums on the world stage, its content only draws on examples form Europe and the United States, thereby presenting an entirely Eurocentric view of this global phenomenon. This session proposes to address the complex institutional histories of art museums in Latin America, presenting a counterpoint to the standard narrative. Possible topics include national art museums, privately funded museums, transnational projects, bank sponsored museums, thematic or period museums, or museums and political conflict.

Sub Track

• Section Presentation

Chair

• Michele Greet, George Mason University

Individual Presentations

• Becoming Modern, One Museum at a Time: Architectural Style, Cultural Translation and the Dream of an International Art Movement - Mercedes Trelles-Hernandez, University of Puerto Rico

• An Itinerant Institution: Cuba’s Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes - Ingrid W Elliott, Independent Scholar & Curator

• The Love/Hate relationship: MAM-Rio and the Brazilian Government - Aleca Le Blanc, University of California Riverside

• Hacia una historia de los espacios sociales de museos y salas de arte en Bogotá - Nadia X Moreno Moya, UNAM