METLIFE FOUNDATION MAKES MAJOR GRANT TO EL MUSEO DEL BARRIO FOR NATIONALLY TRAVELING EXHIBITION

"VOCES Y VISIONES:
HIGHLIGHTS FROM EL MUSEO DEL BARRIO'S PERMANENT COLLECTION"

L-R: Wangsheng Li, Program Manager, MetLife Foundation; Deborah Cullen, Curator, El Museo del Barrio; Kathy Wisniewski, Director of Development & Marketing, El Museo del Barrio; Julian Zugazagoitia, Director, El Museo del Barrio.

NEW YORK, January 27, 2003 - MetLife Foundation awarded El Museo del Barrio a $225,000 grant to sponsor the nationally touring exhibit, Voces y Visiones: Highlights from El Museo del Barrio's Permanent Collection. This traveling exhibition presents and interprets significant works from El Museo del Barrio's wide-ranging collections for the first time, providing access to a broad, national audience. Voces y Visiones, organized by El Museo del Barrio, re-visions El Museo del Barrio's permanent collection, generating increased public interest by providing access to El Museo del Barrio's rich resources.
In addition to the successful pilot showing of this exhibition at the Heckscher Museum of Art (Huntington, New York) in the fall of 2002, The exhibition will travel to at least eight cities over the next two years. Venues include:

Tampa Museum of Art (FL) July 20 - October 19, 2003
Slot Available November 2003-February 2004
Parrish Art Museum (LI) March - May 2004
Slot Available June - September 2004
Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute (NY) October 31, 2004-January 2, 2005
Seton Hall Univ. (NJ) January - March 2005
Thomasville Cultural Center (GA) April 7 - May 31, 2005
Slot Available June 2005 - August 2005

El Museo del Barrio is one of the few Latino museums in the United States that holds a permanent collection and is the most richly varied. This quality and diversity reflects El Museo's mission-to present and preserve the art and culture of Puerto Ricans and all Latin Americans in the United States-and the collection's use lies at the heart of the museum's interpretive programming. There are more than 6,500 objects, ranging from pre-Columbian artifacts to contemporary works by Latino artists and artists from Puerto Rico, the Caribbean, Mexico, Central and South America.

Exhibition Highlights
The Voices traveling exhibition features over 100 works from different cultures and artists in a variety of media that are considered the overall highlights of El Museo's permanent collection.

These highlights showcase the collection in the following four categories: Taíno pre-Columbian materials; Popular Arts (including special groupings of Santos & Devotional Art, Masks, Textiles and Día de los Muertos objects); Graphics (prints and posters); and Modern & Contemporary Art (including works on paper, photography, painting, three-dimensional and mixed-media objects). Some of the artists represented in the permanent collection are Antonio Martorell, Pepón Osorio, Liliana Porter, Ernesto Pujol, and Rafael Tufiño.

Exhibition Sponsor and Organizer
Funding for Voces y Visiones: Highlights from El Museo del Barrio's Permanent Collection is provided by MetLife Foundation, the sole sponsor of this traveling exhibition. MetLife Foundation President & CEO Sibyl Jacobson states, "We are proud to have been a long time supporter of El Museo and to be sponsoring the first major traveling exhibit ever organized by the museum and the accompanying catalogue, which will be a contribution to the field and will be important in documenting the museum's collection."

"We are very excited about the collaboration with MetLife Foundation since this grant allows us to expand our outreach by bringing the best of El Museo del Barrio to a wider audience and allows El Museo's walls to open throughout the United States," says Julian Zugazagoitia, Director of El Museo del Barrio. The exhibition was organized by a curatorial team led by Fatima Bercht, Chief Curator, and Deborah Cullen, Curator, El Museo del Barrio.

Catalogue
The exhibition will be accompanied by a full-color catalogue edited by Fatima Bercht, Chief Curator, and Deborah Cullen, Curator, El Museo del Barrio, and contain a preface by Director Julian Zugazagoitia. It will contain entries by a wide range of scholars and specialists, including Fatima Bercht, Deborah Cullen, Margarita Aguilar, Assistant Curator, and Noel Valentin, Registrar, El Museo del Barrio, as well as Dr. Miriam Basilio, Dr. Arlene Davila, Henry Estrada, Dr. Judith Gleason, Dr. Julia Herzberg, Hope Mohler, Carolina Ponce de Leon, Yasmin Ramirez, Dr. Dicey Taylor, among others. The catalogue will also contain statements by artists, and excerpts from interviews with them.

About El Museo del Barrio
Heralded by The New York Times as "an institution in its ascendancy," El Museo del Barrio was founded in 1969 by a group of Puerto Rican educators, artists, parents and community activists in East Harlem's Spanish-speaking El Barrio, the neighborhood that extends from 96th Street to the Harlem River and from Fifth Avenue to the East River on Manhattan's Upper East Side. Since then, El Museo del Barrio has evolved into New York's leading Latino cultural institution, representing the diversity of art and culture in the Caribbean and Latin America. As the only museum in New York City that specializes in representing these cultures, El Museo del Barrio continues to have a significant impact on the cultural life of New York City and is now a major stop on Manhattan's Museum Mile on Fifth Avenue.

El Museo del Barrio thrives on the sustained excellence of its collections, exhibitions and public programming. El Museo del Barrio serves as a bridge and catalyst between the Latino population, their diverse cultural heritage, and the rich artistic offerings of New York City.

The mission of El Museo del Barrio is to present and preserve the cultural heritage of Puerto Ricans and all Latin Americans in the United States.

To learn more about El Museo del Barrio, please visit us at 1230 Fifth Avenue in New York City or visit our Website at www.elmuseo.org or call 212-831-7272.

About MetLife Foundation
MetLife Foundation was established in 1976 by MetLife to carry on the company's longstanding tradition of corporate contributions and community involvement. Since its inception, MetLife Foundation has contributed over $220 million to support health, educational, civic and cultural organizations and programs throughout the country. Recognizing the vital role the arts play in building healthy communities, MetLife Foundation contributes to arts and cultural organizations across the United States, with an emphasis on increasing opportunities for young people, reaching broader audiences through inclusive programming, and making arts more accessible for all people. For more information about the Foundation, visit its Website at www.metlife.org.