Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

The ICAA’s partners in the Documents Project initiative include documentation centers, research-oriented museums, foundations, and private collections throughout Latin America and the United States. The participating centers provide office space and equipment, staff time to oversee researchers, assistance in locating documents, and/or digitization resources.

 

UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT SAN ANTONIO LIBRARIES SPECIAL COLLECTIONS (2024–PRESENT)

*Collaborating repository, ICAA Latinx Papers project

The University of Texas at San Antonio Libraries Special Collections acquires, preserves, and provides access to distinctive archives and rare books that reflect the diverse histories of San Antonio and South Texas. Advancing knowledge through research and discovery, teaching and learning, community engagement, and public service.

Their collection focus is on material related to San Antonio and South Texas including social activism and politics, Mexican American history, women’s history, Mexican culinary history and cookbooks, African American history, LGBTQ history, the arts, and the history of UTSA. 

 

THE NETTIE LEE BENSON LATIN AMERICAN COLLECTION, THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN (2024–PRESENT)

*Collaborating repository, ICAA Latinx Papers project

The Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection is one of the premier libraries in the world for Latin America and Latina/o Studies. In partnership with the Teresa Lozano Long Institute for Latin American Studies (LLILAS), the Benson is a global destination for research and study, with over a million volumes as well as a wealth of original manuscripts, photographs and various media related to Mexico, Central and South America, and the Caribbean and Latina/Latino presence in the United States.

 

INSTITUTE FOR STUDIES ON LATIN AMERICAN ART (ISLAA), NEW YORK (2021–PRESENT)

The Institute for Studies on Latin American Art (ISLAA) advances scholarship and public engagement with art from Latin America through its program of exhibitions, publications, lectures, and institutional partnerships.

ISLAA partners with universities and art institutions to reach a wider audience. Ariel Aisiks founded ISLAA in 2011 to raise the international visibility of art from Latin America. The pursuit of this goal has led to ISLAA's involvement in more than 400 lectures and conferences, 30 books, and 20 large-scale exhibitions.
 

CARLOS CRUZ-DIEZ FOUNDATION, HOUSTON/PARIS (2020–PRESENT)

The Cruz-Diez Foundation is a non-profit organization whose mission is to foster the study and appreciation of Carlos Cruz-Diez’s life and work.

Created in Houston in 2005 at the artist and his family’s initiative, the Cruz-Diez Foundation ensures the continued existence and the transmission of Cruz-Diez’s legacy through research, exhibitions, and educational programs worldwide.

 

ARCHIVES OF AMERICAN ART, SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, WASHINGTON D.C. (2020–PRESENT)

With over 30 million items and counting, the Archives of American Art (AAA) is the world’s largest repository for documents related to the history of American art. AAA’s mission is to acquire primary sources—letters, diaries, journals, notes, and other unpublished writings, financial records, photographs, sketchbooks, scrapbooks, audio and video recordings, rare printed material, and the like—from artists, critics, collectors, art historians and others. In 2015, AAA hired a Latino Collections Specialist to focus on acquiring papers related to US Latino/a art. Building on AAA’s holdings resulting from past initiatives particularly in south Florida and Texas, the Latino Collections Specialist made further acquisitions of archival collections from New York, Denver, Florida, the Midwest, and the West Coast, including: Cheech Marin (oral history), Paul Ramirez Jonas, Andres Serrano, Kathy Vargas, Victor Zamudio-Taylor, and Tony Ortega.

FUNDACIÓN AMA, SANTIAGO, CHILE (2018–PRESENT)

Fundación AMA (FAMA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to the support and dissemination of contemporary Chilean art. Based in Santiago, FAMA was founded in 2008 by Juan Yarur Torres, its president and a committee member of renowned international museum boards. Fundación AMA generates international networks of contacts for artists, cultural producers, curators, collectors, philanthropists, and art historians, creating collaborative opportunities for the promotion and collecting of art, and it enhances international relations between different cultural agents and institutions. 

THE UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON (2018-PRESENT)

From the classroom to the museum, the University of Houston and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, have joined forces to provide students with extraordinary museum work experience coupled with a tier- one graduate education in art history. The Digital Humanities and Object-Based Learning in the Museum and University Context is an innovative long-term partnership between the ICAA-MFAH and the University of Houston. The collaboration, begun in 2018 and initially aided by grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, promises to create an internationally recognized environment for the study of Latin American and Latinx art and culture.

Learn more about the University of Houston (UH) and ICAA partnership and the Object-Based Learning Initiative. 

ESPIGAS (FUNDACIÓN / CENTRO DE ESTUDIOS, UNSAM), BUENOS AIRES (2004–PRESENT)

In 1993, the Espigas Foundation was created as a non-profit organization with the aim of preserving and providing access to documents and publications in the history of Argentina and Latin American art. Consulted by historians, critics, journalists, antiques dealers, collectors, students, public and private institutions, as well as the general public, Espigas’s collection is essential for the production of exhibitions and research for the dissemination of cultural heritage. Since 2018, the Espigas Foundation’s collection has been under the care of TAREA, the Cultural Heritage Research Institute of the National University of San Martín, forming the new Espigas Study Center. From that year on, the Espigas Foundation and Study Center work together for the preservation and consultation of the largest archive of Argentine and Latin American art.