Mexic-Arte gives voice to Mexican and Latin American culture in Austin.

Words by Janine Stankus Photos by Eric Morales

In the heart of downtown Austin, amidst the wash of hotels and businesses, a swath of bright-colored murals stands as an emblem to the city’s multicultural heritage and marks the location of one of its most important culture hubs.

The Mexic-Arte museum, founded in 1984, is one of the only Mexican and Mexican American museums in the country, with a permanent collection of over 5,000 works of historic and contemporary Mexican, Latino, and Latin American art—mostly donated by artists and collectors.

Sylvia  Orozco, the museum’s co-founder and director, is herself Mexican American. Born in Cuero, Texas, she completed her BFA at UT Austin and was involved in several Chicano student groups, but she didn’t know much about her family’s culture until she traveled to Mexico City in 1978 to work on her master’s. “It’s like another world,” she muses. “There’s a wealth of information, and you live, observe, and see three different time periods: pre-Colombian, colonial, and contemporary, all at once.”

Immersed and enamored, she and co-founder Pio Pulido birthed a vision of bringing this rich culture back to Texas. In 1983, they returned to Austin with a collection of photographs, art, and literature, and connected with master printmaker, Sam Coronado. The three incorporated Mexic-Arte as a nonprofit, renting a tiny space inside the Arts Warehouse on San Antonio Street, before moving to 5th and Brazos.

Mexic-Arte flourished in a flurry of grant writing, exhibitions, education, and community-oriented events. Their long history of community enrichment helped them retain their downtown space. When development ramped up in early 2000, the City of Austin helped Mexic-Arte buy the building in exchange for promised programming: an annual teen exhibition (Totally Cool, Totally Art), free admission on Sundays, and tours and classes for Title 1 schools.

When the pandemic hit, Mexic-Arte proved its resilience by securing several grants that allowed them to keep their small, dedicated team employed—and busy. Jose Martinez, who co-runs their education department, helped the museum find new ways to digitally engage with the community. “I think it pushed us to get up-to-date and on par with other museums and, honestly, even exceed other high-end museums,” he says. The new technology enables augmented and virtual experiences and accessibility features that they can take them into the future, such as online exhibitions that incorporate social media for a behind-the-scenes look at a featured artist’s studio, as well as virtual tours and events.

The museum is currently open for masked visitors to view the current exhibition. “Mexico, the Border and Beyond” features selections from the vast collection of the late Juan Antonio Sandoval Jr., a retired librarian who donated his entire library to Mexic-Arte when he fell ill. The assortment of prints and paintings capture the depth of history and human experience contained in liminal spaces along the border lands.

Sylvia recalls with pride the hard work of her team who put together the exhibit and the excitement of sharing the stories behind each work of art. “I wouldn’t want to do anything else,” she says, confident that the Mexic-Arte will continue to hold space for such stories. “At the end of the day, we all know that this institution is going to last longer than all of us.”

Education Associate Jose Martinez describes what sets Mexic-Arte apart from other museums: “I’d go to an opening and it always felt like more of a family party. It made me feel like I could breathe and relax and be at home. I think that’s a space we need to keep holding. Art doesn’t have to be so intimidating; museums don’t have to be so intimidating. That’s what makes us more approachable.”

Did You Know?
Mexic-Arte worked with the Austin Latino Coalition to create a mural to commemorate COVID victims of Latino descent—a group disproportionately impacted by the pandemic. Painted by artist Christin Apodaca, “Tu Dolor es Nuestro Dolor” features a figure swathed in flowers and sugar skulls. David Figueroa of Augment El Paso created an effect that sends over 200 tiny monarch butterflies in flight when viewed through an app.

Contact:
(512) 480-9373
419 Congress Ave.
info@mexic-artemuseum.org
mexic-artemuseum.org
@mexic_arte