Welcome to the University Art Library!

To: Dr. Fan C. Pants

From: Lena

Subject: Welcome to the University Art Library!

Dear Professor Pants:

Please allow me to extend a warm welcome to you as you join us at our esteemed University, on behalf of myself and the entire University Art Library Reference Department staff. I would like to take this opportunity to point out some resources that may be helpful to you as you begin your tenure.

First of all, our Reference Department creates excellent guides, commonly known throughout this and other universities as LibGuides. You will find them listed on the Reference page of our Library website. We have long had one dedicated to Latin American art, which you will find on the list, and we have been updating it busily in anticipation of your arrival. Everything I am about to list you will find there, along with some more basic database links that you and especially your lower-level students might find useful. Here is a screenshot of some particularly relevant ones:
 

 

However, since your focus is on 19th- and 20th-century works, we have also made sure to include some current awareness websites and blogs that should be helpful, not only to your students but also to you. They are updated frequently as of this summer when we compiled the list, so they should provide the most cutting-edge and up-to-date information in your field about artists, exhibitions, and forthcoming scholarly publications. Here are ten highlights, to give you an idea:

1) The incredible Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros (CPPC) contains a vast array of Modern Latin American art. The collection's Modern Art webpage includes links to the most current debates, exhibitions, and events posted about any topic in your field.

2) The website of Fundación TEOR/éTica contains a wide variety of information, available both in English and Spanish, about events and exhibitions around the world that bring attention to non-Euro-centric artists. The foundation focuses mainly on Costa Rica, where it is centered, and includes information about Modern art. It has links to a calendar of events, as well as publications and information about its flagship museum, library, and archives.

3) The International Center for the Arts of the Americas at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, has a digital archives and publications project called Documents of 20th-century Latin American and Latino Art. The Press Room page of this project's website contains a wonderfully diverse but simply organized and frequently updated list of CFPs, award applications, touring exhibitions, publications and talks, and other resources for people in your field. 

4) A page to watch will be that of Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA, a just-launched initiative by the Getty in cooperation with other Southern California institutions to display Latin American and Latino art as it relates to Los Angeles, California. The website already has details of past and present events leading to the exhibition at the heart of the initiative, which may be helpful for coursework since videos and small publications are sometimes included in the announcements.

5) The Americas Society has a page dedicated to visual arts, which details upcoming exhibition tours, publication launches, and other events of interest dealing with Latin American art from the pre-Columbian era to the present day.

6) The news page of the Association for Latin American Art contains CFPs and other news that may be relevant to you, and which is frequently updated.

7) The Blanton Museum of Art at the University of Texas at Austin contains a magnificent collection of Modern Latin American art, with high-quality photos of their artworks online that may be useful for your coursework.

8) The Archives of American Art has a page dedicated to its collections related to Latino and Latin American artists. A sidebar on the webpage gives links to recently digitized collections, which may be helpful resources to you and your students, especially as the numbers of digitized collections grow.

9) The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) has a blog called Unframed about its most recent collection-based news. Its posts are easily searchable and contain frequent mentions of the museum's Latin American art, which spans several centuries in scope.

10) Lastly, the Getty's Iris online magazine has a page that aggregates news about Latin American art, such as a recent announcement about a rare group of photographic negatives, by Chicano artists, to be digitized.

Please feel free to email me with any questions, and I hope we can schedule a time for me or one of my colleagues to come in for an orientation session with you and your freshman classes.

Best wishes,

Lena

Head of Reference

Queen of the Universe

The University Art Library