Latino Initiatives Pool
Overview

Latino Initiatives Pool
Support

 

 

Download Application Instructions! 

The Center achieves funding of projects through two sources: a Congressional grant of approximately $1 million per year (the Latino Initiatives Pool) and private sector monies.

The Latino Initiatives Pool funding process works as follows: Every year, different Smithsonian units and museums present proposals to the Center that promote Latino achievement or contributions. Proposals range from exhibits, collections, educational initiatives and research to community outreach. The Center, acting on the recommendations of an advisory committee, makes decisions on which programs to fund based on a number of different factors including public impact and cultural and historical significance.

 

 The Center’s goal in this process is to fund only those projects that truly represent significant highlights of Latino culture. In the past ten years, the Center has distributed approximately $10 million in Congressional funds to more than 250 successful projects. In many instances, Center staff provides technical and outreach assistance to these initiatives. A few recent projects include:

 Our Journeys, Our Stories: Portraits of Latino Achievement (OJOS). This bilingual photography exhibition explores the diversity of the Latino experience in the United States through narratives and portraits of Hispanic men and women who have led extraordinary lives in various fields. OJOS premiered at the National Museum of American History in February of 2004 and is now traveling throughout the United States.

 

·        Azucar! The Life and Music of Celia Cruz. This highly acclaimed exhibit at the National Museum of American History highlights the internationally renowned Queen of Salsa through personal objects never publicly seen before, oral testimony, videos and recordings.

·        Retratos: 2000 Years of Latin American Portraiture. This groundbreaking exhibition explores Hispanic art and history through portraiture from renown artists from across Latin America and Spain, including Fernando Botero, Oswaldo Guayasmin, David Alfaro Siquieros, Rufino Tamayo, Jose Campeche, Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera and many others. The exhibit is traveling to 6 sites across the country, among them the International Gallery at the Smithsonian’s Ripley Center in Washington, DC.

·        The Spirit of Ancient Colombian Gold. This exhibition features over 300 pre-Columbian gold artifacts from the Museo del Oro in Bogota, Colombia, which are some of the most important and valuable relics of pre-Hispanic society existing in the world. Many of the pieces have never left Colombia before. The exhibition opens at the National Museum of Natural History in early November.

·        Nuestra Musica: Music in Latino Culture. This four-year program explores and celebrates national and international Latino music artists, including groups that have recorded for the Smithsonian Folkways Recordings acclaimed Tradiciones/Traditions series highlighting regional music such as the son and cumbia.

 

Through the Pool funding process, the Center has also been able to help establish a permanent Latino program coordinator in two of the Smithsonian’s most important museums, the National Museum of American History and the National Museum of Natural History, to ensure that these museums have a constant, focused Latino programming effort. The Center also hopes to help establish similar positions in other Smithsonian museums.

 

 Additionally, the Center seeks to leverage Congressional monies with matching funds from external, private sector sponsors. These efforts have been met with considerable success. For example, the Ford Motor Company Fund donated nearly $2 million in support of OJOS and Retratos. And in the case of ¡Azucar! The Life and Music of Celia Cruz, Morgan Stanley provided over $1 million in response to a proposal that was funded by seed monies provided by the Center.

 

 Many private companies and individuals seeking to reach the Hispanic community have realized the benefits of Smithsonian Latino programming, given the Institution’s scholarship, credibility and national reach. Projects that have been “green-lit†by the Center’s vetting process for Congressional funding often gives these institutions the confidence that a project will meet standards requisite or desired for sponsorship.

 

Click here for Latino Initiatives Pool Guidelines 2009

Click here for Latino Initiatives Pool Guidelines 2008

Click here for Latino Initiatives Pool Instructions 2008

Click here for 2006 Latino Pool funded projects