Project History
photos courtesy of flickr creative commons: "jplpagan" and "ahealthiermi"
In 2009, Maria Cotera, an associate professor in the Latina/o Studies Program at the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor, formed a partnership with Elena Herrada and Fronteras Norteñas, a Public History organization in Southwest Detroit. Cotera and Herrada applied for and received funding from the University of Michigan Arts of Citizenship Program to explore the possibility of creating a museum and cultural center that could document the historical presence of Latina/os in Michigan and thereby establish their key role in the life of the State. This initial year-long exploration involved the formation of an exploratory task force comprised of Latina/o arts and culture advocates, representatives from social service agencies, and educators. task force members visited area cultural institutions (Charles Wright Museum, Arab American Museum in Dearborn, the Ziibiwiing Center in Mount Pleasant) and lead community conversation about the role of museums in public life and the centrality of history/storytelling to cultural citizenship and belonging. In 2010, task force members gathered for a retreat at the DIA and decided to pursue a unique vision for the museum project. Given the financial realities of the economic downturn in Michigan, and the consequent reduction in funding for arts and humanities initiatives statewide, undertaking the design, construction, and management of a major museum seemed unlikely in the near term. However, we felt strongly that models did exist for a long-term strategy that could build community interest across the state and lay the groundwork for a future institution.
We proposed a vision for El Museo del Norte as a “museum without walls” that performs the essential functions of a traditional museum without the benefits (and liabilities) of owning a building. In a “museum without walls” the community develops and curates exhibits, and teaches and shares with its members their history, art and culture. As a “museum without walls,” El Museo del Norte can sponsor oral history projects, speaker series, art walks, movie nights, musical performances, and “pop-up museums” throughout the city (and even the State). We can also co-curate exhibits with established institutions that are eager to diversify their content and audiences. The most important capacity-building aspect of our “museum without walls” approach is that it catalyzes partnerships between El Museo del Norte and already-existing arts, culture, and social service organizations in Detroit (CLAVE, Comite Patriotico Mexicano, Peoples Community Services, La Sed), as well as potential partnerships with K-12 schools and institutions of higher education. The greatest benefit of the “museum without walls” strategy for El Museo del Norte, is that it enables us to establish an identity for the project, even as we raise awareness about the need for a permanent museum documenting the lives and legacies of Latina/os in Michigan and the Midwest. We believe a successful “museum without walls” program stands at the center of any future capital campaign for a “brick and mortar” museum.
Extending Our University Community Collaboration
Our first major University of Michigan partnership involved the A. Alfred Taubman School of Architecture and Urban Planning. Professor Mick Kennedy, who teaches graduate and undergraduate design and construction classes, decided to tailor his Fall 2011 Graduate studio to the design needs of the El Museo del Norte project. Students in his studio were first asked to come with design ideas for mobile or “pop-up” exhibits/displays. On October 23rd, University of Michigan graduate design studio students presented 11 proposals for traveling displays at an El Museo del Norte “design showcase” held at the Mexicantown Mercado and International Welcome Center in Detroit. Kennedy’s design studio also created proposals for museum designs on sites throughout Southwest Detroit that were suggested by our community task force. Some of the very best designs will be on permanent display at El Museo del Norte’s new home: the Boulevard House.
The Boulevard House is a partnership between the University of Michigan School of Social Work, Peoples Community Services, and El Museo del Norte. The house was launched in the summer of 2012 in a vacant building owned by People’s Community Services. The purpose of Boulevard House is to create a placed-based residential space for campus-community collaborative work in southwest Detroit. The Boulevard House will be the temporary home for El Museo del Norte, providing the project with office and meeting space. We will also establish a small gallery to display the results of community history projects in min-exhibits, and a community garden. The Boulevard will host both University of Michigan community-based learning classes, and workshops for local youth.
Pop-up exhibits
In May of 2012, we developed our first storefront “pop-up” museum to celebrate Cinco de Mayo. The exhibit, entitled “We are not Undocumented,” was curated through the collective efforts of core committee members (Elena Herrada, Lisa and Mary Luevanos) who provided family archives, UM graduate students in History Nicole Greer and Antonio Ramirez (who completed research in local libraries, helped to curate the display, and wrote text to accompany the images), and Mick Kennedy, who, along with project director Maria Cotera, helped design and hang the show. “We are Not Undocumented” was developed in coordination with a retrospective exhibit curated by Jennifer Garcia Peacock and featuring the photographs of Museo del Norte task force member Lisa Luevanos, which opened on the same night (May 4) next door at Cafe con Leche. The two shows brought together arts and history in an effort to embody the objectives of the El Museo del Norte project — to educate and to inspire — and to get community members to think about the importance of history and the arts to the sustenance and survival of Latina/o communities. Bringing the two together was an inspired decision, as it generated much excitement for the museum project; so much so that core committee members requested that we leave our “pop-up” exhibit in place (it is currently in the front of Lisa Luevanos’s studio, adjacent to Cafe con Leche) for the community to enjoy. We feel that the success of our 2012 Cinco de Mayo exhibit bodes well for our future exhibits, and suggests that there is a pent-up desire for—as we put it in the exhibit—a place for our stories.
Scanning Days at the Boulevard House
El Museo del Norte, in partnership with key University of Michigan and Michigan State stakeholders (Latino Studies Program, School of Information, MSU and UM Libraries) will sponsor a series of workshops and seminars to collect community archives and develop knowledge about community history and historical preservation. We envision these workshops as a university and community “exchange” focused on collecting and preserving local history. We invite community members to bring their photos, letters, documents, clippings, and manuscripts to the Boulevard House so that students can scan them and add them into our searchable database (to be linked to our web page: http://www.elmuseodelnorte.org/). Participants will receive basic training in document preservation, as well as any needed supplies to preserve their archives. At some point in the future, we hope to take these “scanning days” on the road, with our project: “La Carpa del Museo del Norte”
Oral History Projects and Community-Based Learning
El Museo del Norte will also be an important avenue for community-based learning. Professor Cotera is currently partnering with professor Hannah Smotrich of the Penny Stamps School of Art and Design to design a series of undergraduate courses that introduce University of Michigan students to the scholarly and creative side of community history. An oral history course, taught in the fall term (2012) by Cotera, will involve students in the collection of oral histories and archives from Latinos in Michigan. An exhibit design course, taught in the winter term by noted exhibit designer, Hannah Smotrich, will introduce Art and Design students to the process of exhibit curation, using the materials collected by Cotera’s students to create an exhibit for El Museo del Norte in May of 2014.
Why a Latina/o Museum in Detroit?
We do not see “museum without walls” is a substitute for a more traditional museum, rather, we envision it as an important first step in a process that will eventually lead to the construction of a museum in Southwest Detroit. We remain committed to the idea of a “brick and mortar” museum, because we believe that once it is up and running, El Museo del Norte will offer residents of the state and the region an important and quite unusual museum-going experience. While there are several institutions, particularly in the Southwestern United States, which document Latino culture and history, El Museo del Norte is unique in that its mission is to highlight the histories, communities and cultures of Latina/os in the Midwest. We imagine it as an important “site of conscience” that will not only highlight the stories of Latina/o immigrants who established thriving communities in northern cities like Detroit and Chicago in the early 20th century, but also offer a space to remember the hardship these early immigrants endured, particularly those experienced by the tens of thousands of Mexicans who were unjustly deported in the 1930s. El Museo del Norte will bring to light the complexity and heterogeneity of the Latina/o experience by documenting the hidden histories of multiple Latina/o communities including Puerto Ricans, Cubans, Central and South Americans.
A Grassroots Vision
El Museo del Norte is committed to remaining a grass-roots museum, a place where Latina/os from Detroit and surrounding areas have a voice and feel at home. We hope that the museum can be a site for the production of culture and the sustaining of community, as well as a training site for future generations of Latina/o curators, archivists, artists, performers, and museum professionals. The El Museo del Norte task force benefits from the insights of various Latina/o organizations including Fronteras Nortenas, a Detroit-based public history organization, CLAVE (Community of Latino Artists Visionaries and Educators), Peoples Community Services, and the Mexican Patriotic Committee. The University of Michigan Latina/o Studies Program administers the project, under the direction of Maria Cotera (Associate Professor of American Culture, Latina/o Studies and Women’s Studies), who manages the day-to-day operations of the project. Elena Herrada, Director of Fronteras Norteñas, manages community relations and is the primary community consultant for the curatorial elements of the project. Mick Kennedy is our liaison with the Taubman School of Architecture and Urban Planning, and Larry Gant, professor of Social Work, is our liaison with the Boulevard House and the UM School of Social Work.
Mission Statement
We want to document a history of Latina/os by Latina/os for Latina/os in a space where the stories of our grandparents are honored and new stories are generated from the old. We want a site for the production of art, music, literature, and performance that gives voice to our experience and leads to new ways of imagining our world. We want, most of all, a place of community, where the various paths of our lives can come together in mutual support and respect.
Queremos documentar nuestra larga historia en esta región. Deseamos un espacio en dónde podamos reconocer y celebrar las historias de nuestros abuelos y crear nuevas historias. Queremos crear un sitio en dónde nuestras artes plásticas, música, teatro, y poesia, el "flor y canto" de nuestra comunidad, puedan dar voz a nuestros antecedentes y realidad para generar nuevas formas de imaginar nuestro mundo. Sobre todo, queremos una comunidad, en dónde los diversos caminos de nuestras historias intercalan en un ambiente de respeto y honor.
We proposed a vision for El Museo del Norte as a “museum without walls” that performs the essential functions of a traditional museum without the benefits (and liabilities) of owning a building. In a “museum without walls” the community develops and curates exhibits, and teaches and shares with its members their history, art and culture. As a “museum without walls,” El Museo del Norte can sponsor oral history projects, speaker series, art walks, movie nights, musical performances, and “pop-up museums” throughout the city (and even the State). We can also co-curate exhibits with established institutions that are eager to diversify their content and audiences. The most important capacity-building aspect of our “museum without walls” approach is that it catalyzes partnerships between El Museo del Norte and already-existing arts, culture, and social service organizations in Detroit (CLAVE, Comite Patriotico Mexicano, Peoples Community Services, La Sed), as well as potential partnerships with K-12 schools and institutions of higher education. The greatest benefit of the “museum without walls” strategy for El Museo del Norte, is that it enables us to establish an identity for the project, even as we raise awareness about the need for a permanent museum documenting the lives and legacies of Latina/os in Michigan and the Midwest. We believe a successful “museum without walls” program stands at the center of any future capital campaign for a “brick and mortar” museum.
Extending Our University Community Collaboration
Our first major University of Michigan partnership involved the A. Alfred Taubman School of Architecture and Urban Planning. Professor Mick Kennedy, who teaches graduate and undergraduate design and construction classes, decided to tailor his Fall 2011 Graduate studio to the design needs of the El Museo del Norte project. Students in his studio were first asked to come with design ideas for mobile or “pop-up” exhibits/displays. On October 23rd, University of Michigan graduate design studio students presented 11 proposals for traveling displays at an El Museo del Norte “design showcase” held at the Mexicantown Mercado and International Welcome Center in Detroit. Kennedy’s design studio also created proposals for museum designs on sites throughout Southwest Detroit that were suggested by our community task force. Some of the very best designs will be on permanent display at El Museo del Norte’s new home: the Boulevard House.
The Boulevard House is a partnership between the University of Michigan School of Social Work, Peoples Community Services, and El Museo del Norte. The house was launched in the summer of 2012 in a vacant building owned by People’s Community Services. The purpose of Boulevard House is to create a placed-based residential space for campus-community collaborative work in southwest Detroit. The Boulevard House will be the temporary home for El Museo del Norte, providing the project with office and meeting space. We will also establish a small gallery to display the results of community history projects in min-exhibits, and a community garden. The Boulevard will host both University of Michigan community-based learning classes, and workshops for local youth.
Pop-up exhibits
In May of 2012, we developed our first storefront “pop-up” museum to celebrate Cinco de Mayo. The exhibit, entitled “We are not Undocumented,” was curated through the collective efforts of core committee members (Elena Herrada, Lisa and Mary Luevanos) who provided family archives, UM graduate students in History Nicole Greer and Antonio Ramirez (who completed research in local libraries, helped to curate the display, and wrote text to accompany the images), and Mick Kennedy, who, along with project director Maria Cotera, helped design and hang the show. “We are Not Undocumented” was developed in coordination with a retrospective exhibit curated by Jennifer Garcia Peacock and featuring the photographs of Museo del Norte task force member Lisa Luevanos, which opened on the same night (May 4) next door at Cafe con Leche. The two shows brought together arts and history in an effort to embody the objectives of the El Museo del Norte project — to educate and to inspire — and to get community members to think about the importance of history and the arts to the sustenance and survival of Latina/o communities. Bringing the two together was an inspired decision, as it generated much excitement for the museum project; so much so that core committee members requested that we leave our “pop-up” exhibit in place (it is currently in the front of Lisa Luevanos’s studio, adjacent to Cafe con Leche) for the community to enjoy. We feel that the success of our 2012 Cinco de Mayo exhibit bodes well for our future exhibits, and suggests that there is a pent-up desire for—as we put it in the exhibit—a place for our stories.
Scanning Days at the Boulevard House
El Museo del Norte, in partnership with key University of Michigan and Michigan State stakeholders (Latino Studies Program, School of Information, MSU and UM Libraries) will sponsor a series of workshops and seminars to collect community archives and develop knowledge about community history and historical preservation. We envision these workshops as a university and community “exchange” focused on collecting and preserving local history. We invite community members to bring their photos, letters, documents, clippings, and manuscripts to the Boulevard House so that students can scan them and add them into our searchable database (to be linked to our web page: http://www.elmuseodelnorte.org/). Participants will receive basic training in document preservation, as well as any needed supplies to preserve their archives. At some point in the future, we hope to take these “scanning days” on the road, with our project: “La Carpa del Museo del Norte”
Oral History Projects and Community-Based Learning
El Museo del Norte will also be an important avenue for community-based learning. Professor Cotera is currently partnering with professor Hannah Smotrich of the Penny Stamps School of Art and Design to design a series of undergraduate courses that introduce University of Michigan students to the scholarly and creative side of community history. An oral history course, taught in the fall term (2012) by Cotera, will involve students in the collection of oral histories and archives from Latinos in Michigan. An exhibit design course, taught in the winter term by noted exhibit designer, Hannah Smotrich, will introduce Art and Design students to the process of exhibit curation, using the materials collected by Cotera’s students to create an exhibit for El Museo del Norte in May of 2014.
Why a Latina/o Museum in Detroit?
We do not see “museum without walls” is a substitute for a more traditional museum, rather, we envision it as an important first step in a process that will eventually lead to the construction of a museum in Southwest Detroit. We remain committed to the idea of a “brick and mortar” museum, because we believe that once it is up and running, El Museo del Norte will offer residents of the state and the region an important and quite unusual museum-going experience. While there are several institutions, particularly in the Southwestern United States, which document Latino culture and history, El Museo del Norte is unique in that its mission is to highlight the histories, communities and cultures of Latina/os in the Midwest. We imagine it as an important “site of conscience” that will not only highlight the stories of Latina/o immigrants who established thriving communities in northern cities like Detroit and Chicago in the early 20th century, but also offer a space to remember the hardship these early immigrants endured, particularly those experienced by the tens of thousands of Mexicans who were unjustly deported in the 1930s. El Museo del Norte will bring to light the complexity and heterogeneity of the Latina/o experience by documenting the hidden histories of multiple Latina/o communities including Puerto Ricans, Cubans, Central and South Americans.
A Grassroots Vision
El Museo del Norte is committed to remaining a grass-roots museum, a place where Latina/os from Detroit and surrounding areas have a voice and feel at home. We hope that the museum can be a site for the production of culture and the sustaining of community, as well as a training site for future generations of Latina/o curators, archivists, artists, performers, and museum professionals. The El Museo del Norte task force benefits from the insights of various Latina/o organizations including Fronteras Nortenas, a Detroit-based public history organization, CLAVE (Community of Latino Artists Visionaries and Educators), Peoples Community Services, and the Mexican Patriotic Committee. The University of Michigan Latina/o Studies Program administers the project, under the direction of Maria Cotera (Associate Professor of American Culture, Latina/o Studies and Women’s Studies), who manages the day-to-day operations of the project. Elena Herrada, Director of Fronteras Norteñas, manages community relations and is the primary community consultant for the curatorial elements of the project. Mick Kennedy is our liaison with the Taubman School of Architecture and Urban Planning, and Larry Gant, professor of Social Work, is our liaison with the Boulevard House and the UM School of Social Work.
Mission Statement
We want to document a history of Latina/os by Latina/os for Latina/os in a space where the stories of our grandparents are honored and new stories are generated from the old. We want a site for the production of art, music, literature, and performance that gives voice to our experience and leads to new ways of imagining our world. We want, most of all, a place of community, where the various paths of our lives can come together in mutual support and respect.
Queremos documentar nuestra larga historia en esta región. Deseamos un espacio en dónde podamos reconocer y celebrar las historias de nuestros abuelos y crear nuevas historias. Queremos crear un sitio en dónde nuestras artes plásticas, música, teatro, y poesia, el "flor y canto" de nuestra comunidad, puedan dar voz a nuestros antecedentes y realidad para generar nuevas formas de imaginar nuestro mundo. Sobre todo, queremos una comunidad, en dónde los diversos caminos de nuestras historias intercalan en un ambiente de respeto y honor.
