NEW YORK, NY, December 16, 1999--El Museo del Barrio, one of the nation's leading Latino cultural institutions, announced today that it has received a landmark $1 million grant from The Ford Foundation. This major 30th Anniversary gift is El Museo's first endowment grant and projects the museum to a new stage of growth and stability into the new millennium.

"We are pleased to support the thoughtful plans to develop this important cultural institution and to help ensure its long-term role as a national cultural resource, " said Christine Vincent, Deputy Director of the Ford Foundation. This $1 million gift establishes an endowment for El Museo del Barrio and will also support institutional expansion and capacity growth.

"This splendid $1 million gift from The Ford Foundation marks a new chapter in our history." said Susana Torruella Leval, Executive Director of El Museo. "The Ford Foundation has long recognized the importance of Latino arts and culture in this country, and its generous past support was critical to El Museo's growth and stability. This leading endowment grant will allow the museum to launch an exciting phase of institutional expansion to meet the new century."

One of El Museo's major goals is to match the Ford Foundation's grant through a strategically planned campaign to increase individual giving levels over the next five years. The Ford Foundation gift will also help leverage other major endowment gifts from foundations and corporations interested in helping advance El Museo del Barrio's unique work and mission.

The Ford Foundation grant caps an extraordinary year for El Museo as it launches it 30th Anniversary with: a $100,000 grant from AT&T, leading the newly-formed Millennium Council; a $750,000 grant from the City Council for the renovation of its lobby and courtyard; and a $800,000 grant from the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone for expansion of its museum shop and creation of a ground floor café.

El Museo del Barrio's 30th Anniversary celebrates the evolution from a neighborhood cultural center founded by Puerto Rican educators and artists to a major stop on Manhattan's Museum Mile showcasing the breadth of Latino, Caribbean and Latin American art and culture.

The mission of El Museo del Barrio is to establish a forum that will preserve and project the cultural heritage of Puerto Ricans and all Latin Americans in the United States.

Museum hours: Wed. through Sun. 11 to 5 p.m. Suggested contribution: $4 adults; $2 students and seniors; children under twelve accompanied by adults and members enter free.

El Museo del Barrio may be reached by subway: #6 to 103rd Street station; or by bus: M1, M3, M4 on Madison and Fifth Avenues to 104th Street; local cross-town service between Yorkville or East Harlem and the Upper West Side in Manhattan M96 and M106 or M2.