A Message from The Director
We Can’t Wait to See You This Year!
2023 promises to be another great year, with programs for everyone! Upcoming in February is Totally Cool Totally Art, which is a student exhibition in collaboration with the Parks and Recreation Department, and Alimento para el alma / Food for the soul, the annual Mix ‘n’ Mash art exhibition and auction. Selections from the Arte Popular Collection will open in April, highlighting both cultural traditions and innovation. In July, our 27th annual ELA exhibit, Seguimos Estando y Creciendo/We Are Here and We’re Growing, will be curated by Rigoberto Luna and will highlight emerging Texan Latinx artists and curators. 40 Years of Día de los Muertos in the fall will include works by Jose Guadalupe Posada, community altars, and the Viva la Vida Fest and Parade, showcasing art groups from all over Austin. All year, the Museum will present the Changarrito mobile art program, presenting a behind the scenes look at artists’ work on the museum’s social media and in person. Murals will be commissioned with bilingual messaging and showcased on the 5th St. MeroMuro wall, welcoming the public to visit the Museum. Our robust education programs include Screen It!, AmArte outreach classes, bilingual guided tours, Free Family Sundays, lectures, gallery guides, and internships for university students. Taste of Mexico returns on May 3rd to celebrate the artistry and culinary innovations of Austin and Mexico. The Building Committee and the Board of Directors, in partnership with the City of Austin, will work with Exigo Architects on the schematic design of our new building. The new facility will provide opportunities to expand and implement programs and continue our mission to serve the community. This is an exciting time!
Become a member, enjoy the receptions and programs, meet the artists, and make new friends. We hope to see you at the Mexic-Arte Museum!
Executive Director
Sylvia Orozco
Upcoming
Mix ‘n’ Mash: Alimento para el alma / Food for the soul Opens on March 3
Mexic-Arte Museum is pleased to invite you to our annual Mix ‘n’ Mash Exhibition and Art Sale, which will open on Friday, March 3, 2023. This year’s theme is Alimento para el alma / Food for the soul.
Food has the ability to lift the spirit and bring communities together. Food traditions are often passed from one generation to the next, bringing us closer to our history and our families. Food preparation also has as much creative potential as any traditional media (painting, drawing, sculpting, etc.) Austin is home to people from many countries. Mexic-Arte Museum, located in Central Texas and situated so close to the state’s capitol, has the opportunity to host people from all over the state, country, and world. They bring a variety of tastes and food memories with them. In Alimento para el alma / Food for the soul we celebrate the variety of foods interpreted by artists.
We hope that you will join us!
The Mix ‘n’ Mash Exhibit and Art Sale: Our art sale not only increases awareness about the visual arts and art collecting in the community, but also provides funding for the Museum’s exhibitions, supports educational programming for children and adults, and sustains upkeep and care of the permanent collection.
Drinks provided by Dulce Vida: Dulce Vida is nationally recognized for its tequila heritage, earning top awards in numerous competitions. Dulce Vida has earned accolades as the most decorated and recognized craft tequila – lending claim as The Most Awarded Tequila.™
Music by DJ Guira King: Jason Cuellar is a first-generation Mexican American born and raised in Austin, Texas. His love of cumbia started at a young age when he would sit and write the lyrics to his favorite songs by Los Telez. He went on to play the saxophone in the school band, and later the guitar when his father gifted him one for his birthday. Jason now plays guitar for local cumbia bands and DJ’s all over Austin.
February Changarrito Artist, Sara Palma
During the month of February, our featured Changarrito artist will be Sara Palma. Mexic-Arte Museum Curator of Exhibitions and Director of Programs Isabel Servantez will interview Sara on Thursday, February 23 at 5pm on Mexic-Arte’s Instagram page on Instagram Live.
Palma will also be at the Mexic-Arte Museum featuring their artwork on the Changarrito cart right outside the Museum’s entrance on February 18-19 and February 25-26. Come out and buy Sara’s artwork and get to know her in person!
Follow us on Instagram and Facebook for updates on original work available for purchase and behind the scenes of the artist’s work, space, and creative process.
About The Artist
“I’m a Graphic Designer and Artist, born in the USA and raised in Mexico. An art lover and graduate of La Salle University in Mexico City. I’m about to start my Masters Degree in Branding at LABASAD Barcelona School of Arts & Design, University de Lleida, focusing on Branding. One of my first achievements after I graduated was to work at BAMF! Design, a specialized consulting agency for branding and packaging. I moved to Austin 5 years ago, and I currently work as a Creative Director and Visual Communicator at Mexic-Arte Museum. I am fascinated with art and the natural and built environment. In my philosophy, I am inspired by Ana Mendietta, Leonora Carrington, Dalí and Remedios Varo.”
Exhibitions
Highlighting ELA 26: Histories of Transformation / Historias de Transformación Artists
This month we recognize two of the artists in ELA 26 – Galileo Gonzalez and Fabian Guerrero.
Galileo Gonzalez is a visual artist born and raised in Southeast Los Angeles who currently resides in San Antonio. He has earned his BFA in Drawing and Painting from California State University, Long Beach. Gonzalez’s work focuses on ideas of culture and his surroundings, such as his Salvadoran heritage and how his life falls under the umbrella of Salvadoran history, his upbringing in the Los Angeles area, and how the blending of cultures within his neighborhood has shaped him, as well as documenting his current life in San Antonio.
Fabian Guerrero is a queer, first-generation Mexican American born in Dallas, TX. He works with film and photography to document and create images that reflect on the past, present, and possible futures of his generation. Guerrero’s work both reflects and is inspired by his upbringing as a first-generation immigrant and a queer brown individual. He takes from fashion, film, poems, music, lifestyle, and everyday survival to shed light on his family’s history and the meanders of the brown and queer communities.
ELA Conversations #3: The Practice of Transformation / La Práctica de Transformación
On Thursday, January 19, 2023 at 7:00 pm, ELA curators Isabel Servantez and Luisa Fernanda Perez moderated the final discussion in a series of three panels of ELA artists. This discussion included Christian Cruz, Marcelina Gonzales, Angel Lartigue, Abinadi Meza, Marco Sanchez, and Beatriz Guzman Velasquez. These artists, brought together because of their similar focuses on pushing for change in art-making practices and Latinx culture, discussed their creative practices and this year’s ELA theme of transformation. If you missed this panel discussion, you can watch it on our Facebook page.
January Changarrito Artist, Mauro de la Tierra
On January 26, 2023 at 5:00 pm, Mexic-Arte Museum Curator of Exhibitions and Director of Programs Isabel Servantez interviewed Mauro de la Tierra as part of the monthly Changarrito art cart residency on Mexic-Arte’s Instagram page on Instagram Live.
If you missed the interview, you can watch it here.
About The Artist
Mauro de la Tierra is a first generation Mexican American from San Antonio; he is a self-taught painter, sculptor, and illustrator. What began with street art transitioned into canvas and beyond. With support from his community, and his mentor, Albert Gonzales, he has been self-employed as a full time artist since October 2017. Mauro considers himself community-made and is community-driven. His work focuses on socio-economic challenges and generational struggles, such as the prison industrial complex, poverty, addiction, and the deterioration of the earth. His work captures a side of life that is often vilified and ignored while also making a statement of love for humanity. With the use of spray paint, acrylic, and oil paints, Mauro creates heavy textures on canvas in a modern and raw style of whimsical, surreal, abstract expressionism.
In the same year that Mauro launched himself into art full time, he began leading and collaborating with The Black Sheep Collective, a group of DIY, misfit artist extraordinaires. Together they have put on six pop-up gallery exhibitions and performances. His work thus far has been shown in various zines, such as High Noon, and galleries, which have included Kspace Gallery, Clamplight Gallery, and Presa House Gallery. Mauro has also had three solo shows and is preparing for his fourth to be opened at Blk Wht GRY in March of 2023. He is currently working on his fourth illustration book that will be a bold statement of the realities of addiction and nurturing recovery.
About Changarrito Program:
Changarrito is an art vending cart, conceptualized by artist Maximo Gonzalez as an alternative to the official gallery selection presented by the Mexican cultural authorities.
True to the Mexic-Arte Museum’s mission, the Changarrito is dedicated to the presentation and promotion of contemporary Latinx and Latin American art. Artists have the opportunity to sell their art on the Changarrito cart in front of the Museum (or an offsite location, as a representative for the Museum during various Austin festivals). It expands the reach of the artist by presenting their gallery online, while allowing the option to sell merch over Instagram and receive 100% of the sale. For each Changarrito artist, the Museum acquires a work of art for its permanent collection.
Collections
Charles Peveto’s Donation to the Mexic-Arte Museum Permanent Collection
Mexic-Arte Museum is pleased to announce a new addition to the Permanent Collection, Estudio para el cuadro: La Eterna Historia (Study for the painting, Eternal History), generously donated by Charles Peveto. The piece is a graphite study of model Enrique Candal by Mexican artist Rafael Navarro Barajas. This piece is part of the Rafael Navarro display that accompanies The Origins of Medicine murals. The study presents amazing insight on Navarro’s technical skills and the process of how Navarro created his work.
Navarro was born in 1921 in San Marcos, Jalisco, Mexico. Navarro showed signs of being creatively gifted early in life, and he attended drawing lessons at the Academy of San Carlos when he was fourteen. From 1936 to 1939, he was schooled in Latin and the humanities at the Conciliar de México seminary at Tlalpan and later continued his art training at La Esmerelda from 1944 to 1949. His predilection for art-making brought him back to San Carlos before focusing on philosophy at the Mexican National Seminary at Montezuma, New Mexico. Barajas’s both technically sophisticated and conceptually dense artwork shows his varied artistic and academic training.
Charles Peveto’s donation, Estudio para el cuadro: La Eterna Historia (Study for the painting, Eternal History), can be seen in the Main Gallery, alongside The Origins of Medicine murals, until February 5th.
Education
Totally Cool Totally Art at Mexic-Arte
The Mexic-Arte Museum is very excited to partner, once again, with the City of Austin and the Parks and Recreation Department to present the annual exhibition Totally Cool Totally Art (TCTA), featuring artwork done by youth in grades 7th through 12th – including painting, drawing, sculpture, printmaking, photography y más! The exhibit will be open to the public from February 14-28.
Thank you to all participants and to our friends at the Parks and Recreation Department for their efforts on this wonderful exhibition.
Totally Cool Totally Art (TCTA) has been cultivating creative teens since 1996. TCTA is unique in that the classes are completely free to Austin’s youth teen community. Teens learn various techniques by working directly alongside professional artists. The program reinforces positive choices by offering art appreciation in a mentoring environment. TCTA is built to help give teens new experiences, build respect and trust, keep them out of trouble during high-risk after school hours, and improve their skills in creative expression, communication, teamwork, and arts appreciation.
Tours in the New Year
As the first month of this new year comes to an end, we thank all our visitors who have scheduled a tour. Among the groups that visited us in January, we hosted a tour for 55 docents from across the nation who are part of the Escalera program – Steps to Success with UnidosUS – the nation’s largest Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization.
The Escalera program is a national college and career readiness program that serves students and instructors with a culturally competent curriculum and promotes individualized student support throughout the college and career readiness process. The Escalera program is currently being implemented by 30 affiliate organizations across 17 states and Washington D.C.
We thank our friends from the Escalera program for their interest in the Mexic-Arte Museum!
If you or your organization is interested in scheduling a tour at Mexic-Arte, please fill out a request form through our website. For any questions or comments reach out to .
Mexic-Arte at the 10th Annual Youth Career Fest
Mexic-Arte Education Associates, Jasmine Chock (left) and José Martinez (right), helping students during screen printing activity at the 10th Annual Youth Career Fest.
Mexic-Arte’s Education Department is proud to participate in the 10th Annual Youth Career Fest, organized by the City of Austin’s Youth Initiatives Office. Since 2013, the Austin Youth Council has hosted the Youth Career Fest to provide students with a day to explore their careers and higher educational interests.
With over 2,200 middle/high school students from the greater Austin area and 125+ vendors in attendance, the goal of this event is to provide students with exposure to different career sectors, college opportunities, and connections to find their path after graduation. Mexic-Arte Museum provided an Alebrije screen printing activity, as well as more information about our internships and 2023 summer camps.
If you are interested in learning more about our 2023 summer camps, click here.
Development
Join Mexic-Arte for Amplify Austin Day
Amplify Austin Day is from 6pm March 1st through 6pm March 2nd this year, Mexic-Arte community! If you are unfamiliar, Amplify Austin Day is the biggest giving event in Central Texas, where thousands of people come together to celebrate and support their favorite nonprofits. This year, our goal is to raise $2,000 through 100 donors. Those funds will go towards our award winning ScreenIt! summer programs, run by our amazing education team and select master artists. If we can count on you to donate what you can and share, we’ll reach that in no time! Mexic-Arte is counting on you – we know y’all can make this happen for our community!
Staff
In lieu of a holiday party, Mexic-Arte Museum staff decided to celebrate the accomplishments of 2022 with a holiday field trip to neighboring San Antonio. The vibrant, thriving art scene and myriad galleries and museums to choose from made it a wonderful excursion. One of the exhibitions staff visited was the San Antonio Museum’s Traitor, Survivor, Icon: The Legacy of La Malinche. With a personal guided tour, the staff were able to both learn and teach about the legacy of La Malinche and her depiction across eras and media. We wish you a prosperous and joyous 2023!
Welcome Our New Interns!
Curatorial
My name is Taylor Carmona. I am a native Texan from the Dallas area and currently a senior at the University of Texas at Austin. I am majoring in Art History with a certificate in Museum Studies. Ever since high school, I have had a passion for the arts, specifically the arts of Mexico. My goal is to help shine a light on Mexican artists of the past and present and highlight their achievements in the art canon. My time at school has only fueled my passion for the arts and I am looking forward to the experiences this opportunity will provide me.
Graphic Design
Adrian Nava (he/him) is a recent graduate in graphic design from Western Washington University. He was born in Austin, Texas but has lived in Washington for the past ten years. He recently moved home to be closer to some family. He is passionate about storytelling, art, and community building. His favorite medium to work in is printmaking. Adrian remembers visiting Mexic-Arte many times as a child and is so excited for this opportunity to intern here. He looks forward to learning more about Latinx art and about what it is like to work in a museum. You can see his work at his online portfolio at adriannava.myportfolio.com.
Collections
Hello! My name is Samantha Charboneau, and I’m a Collections Intern here at the Mexic-Arte Museum. I’m transferring to Texas State in the fall to major in European Studies because I have a strong appreciation for cultural interactions and the stories they tell. I am also minoring in Art, with a focus on 3D mediums. I have an interest in archaeological and historical research because I want to contribute to preserving the perspectives that have been lost. That’s why it’s so cool to me to spend time with all the art here; everything has its own little story! This opportunity allows me to gain hands-on experience in an institution that showcases an underrepresented community in the fine arts. Collections are important for that purpose in archaeology, art history, and all the overlap in the middle. I’m so appreciative to start my journey into archives with a place like Mexic-Arte!
Hi! My name is Paisley Polk, and I am a new Collections Intern at the Mexic-Arte Museum. I am a junior at the University of Texas at Austin studying Art History and English. Since childhood, I have always been interested in both studying and creating art. This, paired with my interest in research and teaching, has driven me to pursue an education and career in art history. My studies have helped me discover an appreciation for contemporary performance and painting, especially that of South and Central America. I am very excited and grateful to be working with the Mexic-Arte Museum!
Hi! My name is MiriYam and I’m one of the Collections Interns at the Mexic-Arte Museum. I recently moved to Texas from Connecticut to attend graduate school at UT Austin, where I am concentrating in digital preservation and web archiving. This is my first experience working in a museum, as most of my coursework and experience has been in archival collections, but I love it! I’m so excited for these next few months and I can’t wait to learn more about this community.
Store
Shop for your Valentine at the Mexic-Arte Museum Store!
Want to show your Valentine how much they mean to you? Shop our store and find the perfect gift to share some love! Browse through greeting cards, socks, stickers and more.
Thank you to Our Sponsors
Learn more about the Mexic-Arte Museum
Exhibition and Art Education Programs Support: 3M, Ampersand Art Supply, Applied Materials, Austin Convention Center, Austin Independent School District Creative Classrooms, Michael Best, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Brown Foundation, Brown Distributing Company, City of Austin Community Youth Development Program, Clay Imports, Erwin Cuellar, Endeavor Real Estate Group, Fenix Post Tension, Inc., Fonda San Miguel, Tom Gilliland, Juan J Gutierrez and Rosa K Gutierrez, H-E-B, H-E-B Tournament of Champions, Hendler Flores Law, Humanities Texas, JP Peace Love & Happiness Foundation, Ann McEldowney, Mindpop, National Endowment for the Arts, Ingrid and James Taylor, Serie Print Project, Bettina & Travis Mathis, Elizabeth Rogers, Juan Antonio Sandoval Jr., Rosa Santis & Pedro SS Services, Susto Mezcal, Tito’s Handmade Vodka, Delia Sifuentes, Texas Gas Service, Texas Commission on the Arts, Univision 62, Univision Radio, Lola Wright Foundation, Jane & Manuel Zuniga, and Mark Zuniga.