Since its opening on June 18, the new Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art and Culture at the Riverside Art Museum (RAM) has attracted international attention. Housed just steps away from the museum’s historic location in a newly renovated building, formerly the city’s main library, “The Cheech” has already become a destination for art lovers from around the state, the nation, and the world. In addition, the center anticipates bringing new vitality to the city and the Inland Empire region. The new center not only houses Marin’s extensive collection of work by Chicano visual artists working in many media (possibly the largest single collection currently assembled) but will provide a space for research, workshops, artistic production, presentations, and lectures, as well as community celebrations, centering the work of Mexican American artists. As a result, “Riverside has a real chance to emerge as one of the most important art centers in the United States, and maybe even around the world,” Marin said in a recent article.
California Humanities congratulates RAM, a longtime partner, in our efforts to ensure that everyone and every part of our state have access to high-quality, relevant, and meaningful public humanities programs on this historic achievement. We are especially pleased to have supported one of the inaugural exhibits at The Cheech, Collidoscope: de la Torre Brothers Retro-perspective, with a Humanities for All Project Grant. Featuring the multimedia work of the bi-national and bi-cultural (Mexican and American) artists Einar and Jamex de la Torre, these stunning works cross the boundaries of art and craft, employing 21st-century technologies along with traditional artisanal practices. They reference ideas and images from ancient Mexican and contemporary popular culture.
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