The Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum has been sponsoring appearances in Chicago by musicians, dancers and other artists for years, but nothing on the order of the Mexican Performing Arts Festival that began Friday and continues over the next five weeks.
There will be classical and folk music, theater, dance and performance art by Mexicans from both sides of the Rio Grande. They will be appearing at the museum, which is in the heart of the Pilsen/Little Village neighborhood at 1852 W. 19th St., as well as six other sites around the city.
“It’s the first time we go big time outside the building,” says Carlos Tortolero, the museum’s executive director.
Actually, there has been no containing this small museum.
Founded in 1982 but without a permanent home until 1987, the museum is now bursting out of its quarters, a converted Chicago Park District boat craft shop in Harrison Park. It already claims to be the largest museum in this country dedicated to Mexican culture, and it is raising funds to triple its space, from 13,200 square feet to about 40,000 square feet, with a new wing and annex. It hopes to break ground as early as next year.
The museum’s leaders, president Helen Valdez and Tortolero, also have been expanding their influence. They often are called upon to counsel counterparts at institutions across the city and country about what it takes to serve a community and to interpret the culture of an ethnic or racial group.
They also speak frequently on the competition between big and small museums for dwindling financial resources. Valdez is scheduled to talk on that topic during a conference in Chicago this month sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts.
They have developed a reputation for a forthright approach that borders on brash. At conferences and workshops, they haven’t been reluctant to express their opinions about the presentation of Mexican and Latino culture by other institutions. And they have criticized mainstream museums in general for doing only the minimum number of ethnic programs required by their foundation grants and for not including more minorities on their staffs and boards.
Tortolero stated his position bluntly in the museum’s catalog for a 1993 exhibit, “Art of the Other Mexico.” He wrote:
“Multiculturalism as it has evolved in the country has become nothing more than a cultural charade in which Eurocentric institutions and foundations have finally determined that the cultures of people of color cannot be ignored and to correct their errors, Eurocentric institutions are being rewarded for their past neglect by receiving the bulk of funding to interpret and present the artwork of people of color. . . .
“Yes, there are some individuals and institutions that are honestly trying to become more inclusive and representative of U.S. society. Unfortunately they are in the minority.”
Valdez and Tortolero are proponents of “first voice,” a conviction that people and institutions of color should be the leading validators, interpreters and presenters of their culture.
Reflecting its neighborhood, the museum sees its primary mission as presenting the culture of Mexico and of people of Mexican descent living in this country. To a lesser degree, it presents the works of other Latino groups.
Valdez and Tortolero believe mainstream organizations have a role, albeit a secondary one, in presenting Latino culture. As such, Mexican Fine Arts has co-sponsored exhibits and artists at Chicago locales such as the Field Museum, Randolph Street Gallery and Performing Arts Chicago.
A museum to watch
Michael Spock, the Field’s director of public programs, says he believes Mexican Fine Arts is one of the best of the emerging, ethnically based museums in the country.
“I’ve watched a lot of startup museums, and it is by far the most sure-footed,” he says.
Susan Lipman, executive director of Performing Arts Chicago, a producer of music and dance shows, says of the museum: “There is integrity in everything it presents.”
The museum also gets high marks from executives at Chicago-based philanthropies such as the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Chicago Community Trust, the Sara Lee Foundation and the Joyce Foundation, all of which have provided grants to the museum. The executives praise the museum for the quality of its exhibitions, its responsiveness to its community, its many school-related programs and its effective management.
“It’s a remarkable institution,” says Sarah Solotaroff, the Trust’s senior staff associate. Ellen Alberding, a program officer at Joyce, observes, “It is as worthy as any midsized institution I know for increased support from all sectors.”
But one foundation executive, who asked not to be identified, says that the museum may be too reliant on foundation money and that it needs to diversify its sources of support.
In the fiscal year that ended last June 30, the museum had operating support of $1.2 million, of which about $509,000 came from foundations and $543,000 from government agencies. Corporations provided about $96,000 and individuals about $90,000. Including sale of memberships and gift-store proceeds, the museum had total revenue of about $1.45 million and an operating profit of about $74,000 last year.
Looking for support
Valdez says the museum is trying to broaden its base of support by seeking more contributions from corporations and establishing an endowment.
Like most small museums, Mexican Fine Arts hasn’t had an endowment, or funds that could be invested to generate income. Last year, it began a campaign to create an endowment of at least $1 million. It already has pledges totaling $900,000 from the Trust, the MacArthur Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.
The museum plays an important role in its neighborhood. Sherry Rontos, who heads the Pilsen Homeowners and Renters Association, notes its economic importance as well as its social significance. “It accents the best of our culture,” she says. “It’s a really special place we have.”
But translating the neighborhood’s appreciation into increased financial support has been difficult for the museum.
Valdez observes that Pilsen-Little Village is a relatively poor community and the museum doesn’t want to change its policy of free admission.
Donations from visitors are, of course, always welcome. But Valdez and Tortolero point out that many members of the community, including the more affluent, confine their charity to the Catholic Church. Tortolero jokes that the museum might do better if renamed “Our Lady of Mexican Fine Arts.”
With the performing arts festival, the museum may be able to raise its Chicago profile higher and market itself aggressively.
Many festival performances will be held at the museum, and museum memberships will be offered in combination with tickets.
Close quarters
Casual visitors to the two-story museum may not realize how cramped it is. Valdez and Tortolero share an office with five other people, and many of the 13 other staff members have no desks or phones. Meetings are held in a lunchroom or in one of the museum’s two galleries. Some of the museum’s collection is stored on the second floor, but the overflow is kept in about a dozen neighborhood locations.
The museum plans to expand by building on its east and north sides, on vacant Park District land in Harrison Park. It is trying to raise $2.9 million for the project, which is separate from the endowment drive.
Valdez and Tortolero say the principal reason the museum needs more space is to accommodate more school group tours. More than 800 school groups a year visit the museum, some from across the Midwest. For the museum’s popular Day of the Dead exhibit each fall, schools have to book months in advance.
Tortolero says the expansion will allow the museum to run tours every half-hour instead of on the hour. The museum also will be able to build classrooms and a library. And with new galleries, the museum can show more of its permanent collection and keep touring exhibits there longer.
Tortolero says the museum has established itself and should survive. “The question is, how big will we get?”
The answer, he believes, depends on whether grants and other money continue to flow to mainstream institutions at the expense of ethnic ones.
“It’s not that we want more of the pie,” Tortolero says, “it’s that we don’t want less.”
