Within the culturally rich El Barrio is a museum which strives to teach the community about the Caribbean and Latin American cultures. This museum, El Museo del Barrio, started out small, but as the community grew and diversified, so too did the museum. The founding of the museum has its own rich history filled with hardships and success, just like the people it teaches about.
El Barrio was founded on the struggles for control over educational and cultural resources. The museum was founded as a consequence of the Nuyorican and national civil rights movement (Palacios). By 1967, African Americans and Puerto Ricans had composed most of Central and East Harlem’s public-school population (El Museo: Timeline). Parents, teachers, and community activists demanded that their children receive an education that acknowledged their diverse cultural heritages (El Museo: Timeline). In response, Martin W. Frey, then Superintendent of School District 4, appoints artist and educator Rafael Montanez Ortiz to create educational material for the district in 1969 (El Museo: Timeline). Montanez Ortiz was primarily hired to serve the Puerto Rican population of East Harlem, and he reconceived his project from educational material into a community museum (El Museo: Timeline). That summer, the two men travel to Puerto Rico to conduct research and make contacts with museum directors and anthropologists (El Museo: Timeline). That fall, with funding from the Community Education Center, El Museo del Barrio begins operations in a schoolroom at PS 125 on West 123rd Street, with Montanez Ortiz as the founding director (El Museo: Timeline). When the museum was founded, it defined itself as “an educational institution and a place of cultural pride and self-discovery for the founding Puerto Rican community” (Palacios). This marked the beginning of El Museo del Barrio, but so much more would happen to it before settling in the location it is today.
In the early 70s, El Museo del Barrio took big strides to make a name for itself. In the spring of 1970, Rafael Montane Ortiz appointed Puerto Rican art historian Marimar Benitez as Assistant Director, and the two of them organize two exhibitions presented at PS 206 (El Museo: Timeline). In the first half of that year, more exhibits at PS 206 included knitting, crochet, embroidery, Puerto Rican paintings, and graphics (El Museo: Timeline). It would not be until fall of that year when El Museo del Barrio officially relocates entirely to PS 206 after a citywide reorganization of school districts (El Museo: Timeline). In January of ’71, the museum is filed as a not-for-profit corporation with Ortiz listed as one of the initial directors (El Museo: Timeline). In spring, community activists of the school district and Community Board 11 have hearings for the future of the museum (El Museo: Timeline). After an ad for a new Director was placed in The New York Times, and presentations given by the two candidates, Marta Moreno Vega beats Rafael Montanez Ortiz to become the second Director of El Museo del Barrio (El Museo: Timeline). Many new initiatives would come with the new director, and El Museo would face many new challenges in the years to come.
The museum would continue to grow under the new director, starting with relocating. On July 9, 1971, the museum relocates to a brownstone at 206 East 116th Street, displaying 31 paintings by 19 artists (El Museo: Timeline). In September of that year, the museum is filed as a not-for-profit corporation under a second name, “Amigos del Museo del Barrio,” with Vega listed as one of the initial directors. From the fall of 1971 to mid-1972, the museum would exhibit Taino artifacts with workshops and display its first permanent collection, a graphic arts portfolio donated by the owner of Cisneros Gallery (El Museo: Timeline). In November 1972, El Museo del Barrio leases a series of storefronts on Third Avenue for its fourth location, but the first exhibit there would not be until April 30th the following year (El Museo: Timeline). The exhibit, titled “The Art Heritage of Puerto Rico: Pre-Columbian to the Present,” included over 150 works by over 40 artists, but would be moved to the Metropolitan Museum of Art at the end of July (El Museo: Timeline). For the rest of the year, a new exhibit of Puerto Rican posters would be on display and the museum’s first annual report would be published (El Museo: Timeline). Those on display during 1974 would include a groundbreaking exhibit about the Afro-Puerto Rican culture and slavery (El Museo: Timeline). December 31, 1974 would begin Vega’s one year leave of absence (El Museo: Timeline). Following this act, the museum will begin facing many internal struggles.
With Marta Vega taking a leave of absence, a leadership change soon follows. On January 15, 1975, Hilda Gillis is appointed Acting Director, and Hiram Maristany is appointed Acting Assistant Director (El Museo: Timeline). On the 23rd, Vega sends letters to Gillis and other staff and board members dismissing them, and on February 14th, those dismissed file a lawsuit against Vega (El Museo: Timeline). In March, El Barrio sought to expand by leasing a former firehouse, enough repair work was done to move the school of art there, but the building would no longer be used as of 1985 due to its poor condition (El Museo: Timeline). Back to March 15, 1975, Marta Vega resigns as the Director of Amigos del Museo del Barrio, and on April 9, Gillis and the other dismissed staff official resign (El Museo: Timeline). Hiram Maristany would serve as Acting Director for some time, and because of the pending lawsuit between the previous Board and Director, the interim board cannot select a new Director, but the lawsuit will eventually be dropped (El Museo: Timeline). After Maristany’s appointment as director, many new exhibits and changes would happen for the museum.
During Maristany’s time as director, many new exhibits and changes were introduced. The exhibits included a graphics art exhibit for its 4th anniversary and a photo essay exhibit with pieces from different museums (El Museo: Timeline). At the start of 1976, a new Board of Trustees was formed after the New York Supreme Court ruled that staff cannot act as trustees (El Museo: Timeline). Some of the exhibits that year included one about the history of El Barrio and another was about the children as future artists (El Museo: Timeline). However, in July 1977, Jack Agueros was appointed as the new Director by the Board of Trustees (El Museo: Timeline). Because of him, El Museo del Barrio relocates to its current home on the main floor of the Heckscher Building that fall (El Museo: Timeline). That winter, the museum becomes part of Cultural Institutions Group through a decree from then New York City Mayor Edward J. Kock (El Museo: Timeline). One year later, the museum becomes a founding member of Museum Mile, and with its greater accessibility after moving, the museum becomes more well-known with an increase in non-Latino visitors (Palacios). With time comes many changes to the community, and the museum had to grow with those changes.
As the city’s Hispanic population diversified, so too did the mission of El Museo. The museum began including the art and culture of all Latin Americans in the United States, a change Rafael Montanez Ortiz described as difficult but worthwhile (Palacios). Although the museum started with the intention to teach about Puerto Rican culture, El Museo’s collection now includes over 800 years of Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino art (El Museo del Barrio). However, the transformation of El Museo del Barrio’s mission is a topic of debate among Puerto Rican activists and artists (Davila). Although they were important in founding the earliest cultural initiatives in El Barrio, they are now feeling marginalized by the “Latinification” of what they had come to know as a Puerto Rican institution (Davila). However, this was to face the challenge of retaining relevance with the changing community, such as emphasizing the universal themes within the celebration of a certain culture (Palacios). Growing from a mostly Puerto Rican institution to so much more allowed El Museo del Barrio to remain relevant to the ever-changing community.
Although it started as a result of the civil rights movement, El Museo del Barrio had grown to be its own icon. Although it started out small, it was not long until it gained enough popularity and support to become the important symbol of culture it is now. What was once a home for Puerto Rican culture, the museum grew with the community it resided in and became a beacon for many different Latin cultures.
