For the past 10 years, the Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum has operated on park land off 19th Street in the Pilsen neighborhood.
School buses full of elementary school children are carted in daily to view exhibits on Mexican arts and artists. Arts educators at the museum work with high school students, painting murals in the neighborhood. This year, the museum organized an outdoor mass and a block party for the neighbors.
The museum has become a centerpiece of Mexican culture in the city, showcasing the work of Mexican artists from both sides of the border.
As the museum celebrates its anniversary, it embarks on a $7 million expansion plan that will more than quadruple the 15,000-square-foot brick building it calls home in Harrison Park.
“We have exceeded our capacity. This spring and fall we had to turn away school groups,” Carlos Tortolero, co-founder and executive director of the museum, said after a groundbreaking ceremony Thursday at the museum.
Annual attendance at the museum now exceeds 95,000, including visits by more than 900 school groups, Tortolero said.
The expansion includes plans for a new 6,000-square-foot wing to house the museum’s permanent collection, a performing arts theater, a local artist gallery, a library and additional office and storage space. The museum also will expand to two stories and double the size of the gift shop.
Next to the museum, a national park plaza dedicated to Mexican veterans of U.S. wars will be built. It will feature a memorial to the 25 Mexican and Mexican-American veterans who earned Medals of Honor.
“This will be the first memorial of its kind in the nation,” said Alfred Galvan of the American GI Forum, a Latino veteran organization. “It will honor veterans from the Spanish-American War on.”
The expansion comes at a time when the museum is garnering national attention.
This year, it became the first Latino museum in the country to receive accreditation from the American Association of Museums. Only 10 percent of the nation’s museums receive accreditation, and the Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum is the second culturally-specific museum to receive this designation. The other is the Studio Museum in Harlem.
The museum also is strengthening ties with the Smithsonian Institution. There are discussions under way to borrow pieces from the Smithsonian’s permanent collection of Mexican art to display in Chicago, said Tortolero.
J. Dennis O’Connor, provost of the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C., commended museum officials for their work.
“It’s a vision that I think will propel the kind of inclusion Mexican-Americans and Latinos throughout the country really deserve,” said O’Connor, in Chicago Thursday for the groundbreaking ceremony.
Many of the neighbors support the museum expansion, even though it would take up park space in a neighborhood in need of more green space.
“It’s good for them to expand, especially for the kids,” said Janet Rosario, 30, a Pilsen resident strolling through the park Thursday. “It helps the children develop pride.”
When plans went before the Chicago Park District in 1995, there were some residents who complained about a loss of park space. Tortolero said the museum staff has worked with the neighbors on a regular basis since then.
“We talk to our neighbors about what is going on,” said Tortolero. “The neighbors are involved.”
One of the challenges of expanding is creating sufficient parking space. Street parking in the area between 18th and 19th Streets near Damen Avenue is already at a premium, said Tortolero.
“Everybody is looking at ways to increase parking in Pilsen,” Tortolero said. “We need to find a solution without disrupting the neighborhood.”
Funds for the expansion have come from corporate, foundation and government sources. About $1.3 million still is needed to meet the $7 million fundraising goal.
