El Makeover
Museum revamps its public image
By Rebecca Huval
Posted by Our Town on October 15, 2009 · View Comments
“Sometimes, you build and hope that the public will come,” said Julian Zugazagoitia, the director of El Museo del Barrio. “For us, it has been the other way around.”
In the past decade, El Museo’s visitors have grown “exponentially” from 20,000 to 125,000 yearly, according to Zugazagoitia. So the museum’s directors refurbished the building to accommodate the flood of footsteps. For its 40th anniversary as the only museum in New York dedicated to Puerto Rican, Caribbean and Latin American art, El Museo del Barrio has not only remodeled its building, but also revamped its brand and prepared special exhibitions for its Oct. 17 reopening. When rethinking the design, Zugazagoitia said he was mindful of both his traditionally Puerto Rican neighbors and the typical Museum Mile visitor.
The new building includes a courtyard and café to host events that have become popular in recent years, including open mics, book club meetings and slam poetry. The café will serve—you guessed it—tacos and other Latin fare. “I can’t think of anything more powerful than tasting something that reminds you of home when you’ve just spent hours appreciating your art and culture,” Zugazagoitia said.
During the Oct. 17 event, the museum has programmed live music for children and adults, art workshops and a premiere of Soledad O’Brien’s documentary, Latinos in America. Visitors can tour the museum’s new Carmen Ana Unanue Galleries, the first space ever dedicated to its permanent collection.
From opening day until Feb. 28, “Nexus New York: Latin/American Artists” in the Modern Metropolis will show the intersections of Latino and non-Latino art in the avant-garde movements of the early 20th century.
In 1969, the museum and the neighborhood were primarily Puerto Rican. Activists opened El Museo in an old schoolhouse, and as they moved the building from storefront to storefront throughout the years, the neighborhood became more diverse. The exhibit “Vozes y Visiones” will display a parallel 40-year history of the museum and Spanish Harlem with, curator Elvis Fuentes hopes, the intention of teaching visitors about these changes. “We want to create a dialogue between our cultural heritage and what artists are doing today,” Fuentes said.
The artwork is straightforward so that a diverse audience can understand it, he says. For example, Gabriel de la Mora Googled the name “Juan Pérez” and painted the image results to show the diversity of Latinos, despite the stereotype that many of them share the same name.
Zugazagoitia hopes that, in its new incarnation, El Museo’s exhibits and events will cater to a variety of audiences. “We will show artists who haven’t had the recognition they deserve and who have made a difference in our community,” he explains. “At the same time, in our Carmen Ana Unanue Galleries, we’ll show the breadth of our collection to put those new contributions in context. If you visit twice a year, you’ll have a very different experience both times.”
