 | Art Museums of Latin America: Structuring Representation Subjects: Museum and Heritage Studies; Arts; Area Studies; Humanities; Politics & International Relations; Latin American & Hispanic Studies; Heritage Management & Conservation; Art & Visual Culture; History; Political Philosophy; Museum Studies; History of Art; Modern History 1750-1945; Contemporary History 1945-; Latin American History; Nationalism; Since the late nineteenth century, art museums have played crucial social, political, and economic roles throughout Latin America because of the ways that they structure representation. By means of their architecture, collections, exhibitions, and curatorial practices, Latin American art museums have crafted representations of communities, including nation states, and promoted particular group ideologies. This collection of essays, arranged in thematic sections, will examine the varying and complex functions of art museums in Latin America: as nation-building institutions and instruments of state cultural politics; as foci for the promotion of Latin American modernities and modernisms; as sites of mediation between local and international, private and public interests; as organizations that negotiate cultural construction within the Latin American diaspora and shape constructs of Latin America and its nations; and as venues for the contestation of elitist and Eurocentric notions of culture and the realization of cultural diversity rooted in multiethnic environments. Michele Greet is associate professor of modern Latin American and European art and director of the art history program at George Mason University . Gina McDaniel Tarver is associate professor of modern and contemporary art history, with a focus on Latin America, at Texas State University. |
