Mint teams with LaCa Projects, McColl Center
Latin American Contemporary Art (LaCa) Projects, The Mint Museum, and McColl Center for Visual Art are proud to announce a new cultural collaboration, Perspectives on Latin American Art & Design.
Perspectives on Latin American Art & Design, or PLAAD, will offer a traveling series of educational and social events in Charlotte to build awareness, appreciation, and support around Latin American contemporary art and design. The collaboration kicked off with LaCa Projects’ March 13 opening of its exhibition Cuba: Art of the Fantastic, featuring close twenty works by four emerging Cuban artists. This is the first exhibition of Cuban art in the region. Additionally, the curator of the exhibition, Abelardo Mena, will serve as a visiting curator with McColl Center’s Artists-in-Residence.
As part of the collaboration, these three organizations will also partner with ArtSi’s Con A de Arte, an annual, collective effort to showcase the excellence and diversity of Latin American arts, artists, and art supporters in the region. This year’s event will take place at Mint Museum Uptown on June 13, 2014 and will be a key highlight of the partnership. Additional programming, including panel discussions and events tied to each of the organization’s artistic projects, are planned throughout 2014.
“The Latin American community has doubled in the past ten years in our region, and with that growth we now have rich cultural diversity and strong artist development,” says Neely Verano, director of LaCa Projects. “It is time to change the perceptions that exist here about Latin Americans, and art is an excellent context for this conversation and education to occur. This collaboration has the potential for far-reaching and significant impact toward building stronger ties in our community.”
Brad Thomas, Director of Residencies and Exhibitions, says: “McColl Center for Visual Art is honored to participate in this important series of events with The Mint Museum and LaCa Projects. Our institution greatly values the contributions of the Latin American community to the advancement of our cultural scene; these events and programs collectively celebrate the Latin American creative spirit. For the Center’s Artists-in-Residence to meet with a curator of Abelardo Mena’s stature is a distinct privilege and is only made possible due to our shared support for advancing our partners’ programs and missions.”
Adds Cheryl Palmer, Director of Learning & Engagement for the Mint: “The Mint has a longstanding track record of collaboration with Latin American cultural groups across the greater Charlotte community, which was enhanced by a Latino Initiative last year thanks to funding from Duke Energy. We are pleased to take this partnership to the next level by collaborating with such esteemed institutions on this project, and to be able to offer these events and educational experiences to the wider community.”
Media inquiries and interviews may be directed to Bek Mitchell-Kidd (bekmk@mccollcenter.org); Leigh Dyer (leigh.dyer@mintmuseum.org or 704.337.2009), or Neely Verano (neely@lacaprojects.com or 704.837.1688).
About LaCa Projects
LaCa Projects opened on March 21, 2013 with poetics of erratic materialism, a solo exhibition featuring the works of pop-surrealist artist Juan Dolhare (Argentina). Located in the heart of the revitalized FreeMoreWest neighborhood, LaCa Projects is a platform dedicated to the presentation, development, and promotion of Latin American art and culture within the United States. The gallery encourages cross-cultural dialogue by representing a small group of influential and thought-provoking contemporary, emerging, and mid-career artists, as well as exhibiting a broader range of work by established and Master Latin American artists. The gallery is part of a larger planned expansion that includes artist studios and a cafe concept.
About McColl Center for Visual Art
Located in uptown Charlotte, North Carolina, McColl Center for Visual Art is a nationally respected urban artist-in-residence program that engages artists from the U.S. and around the world in its programs. The Studios and Galleries are free and open to the public, Thursday and Friday from 3 to 9 PM and Saturday from 11 AM to 6 PM. McColl Center for Visual Art facilitates the creative process through ten Spheres of Impact including Social Justice, Environment, Education and Craft.
McColl Center for Visual Art is supported, in part, with a Basic Operating Grant from the Arts and Science Council as well as the North Carolina Arts Council with funding from the state of North Carolina and the National Endowment for the Arts, which believes that a great nation deserves great art and the generosity of corporate and individual donors.
About The Mint Museum
As the first art museum in North Carolina, with one of the largest collections in the Southeast, The Mint Museum offers its visitors inspiring and transformative experiences through art and design from around the world via innovative collections, groundbreaking exhibitions, and riveting educational programs. The Mint Museum is a non-profit, visual arts institution comprised of two dynamic facilities: Mint Museum Uptown and Mint Museum Randolph. Located in what was the original branch of the United States Mint, Mint Museum Randolph opened in 1936 in Charlotte’s Eastover neighborhood as the state’s first art museum. Today, in a beautiful park setting, intimate galleries invite visitors to engage with the art of the ancient Americas, ceramics and decorative arts, fashion, European and African art, among other collections. Mint Museum Uptown houses the internationally renowned Craft + Design collection, as well as outstanding collections of American, modern & contemporary, and European art. Located in the heart of Charlotte’s burgeoning center city, Mint Museum Uptown is an integral part of the Levine Center for the Arts, a cultural campus that includes the Bechtler Museum of Modern Art, the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts and Culture, the Knight Theater, and the Duke Energy Center. For more information, visit mintmuseum.org.
About ArtSi
ArtSí is a community initiative that advances the Latino arts and culture in Charlotte and that facilitates connections with the Charlotte arts community at large. ArtSí will be woven into the entire community’s cultural life, providing the platform for Latinos in the arts to be a larger voice in Charlotte. ArtSí is run by volunteers and serves a membership base of over 200 individuals, and is supported in part by a group of cultural and educational institutions.
ArtSi Charlotte offers opportunities for professional development, informal networking, social events, a resource center, cultural collaborations, Con a de Arte, and an online artistic directory featuring artists from various disciplines.
For more information and to contact an ArtSi volunteer, please visit www.artsicharlotte.org.