This Exclusive “El Met” Cap Is Part Of An Artist Project By Miguel Luciano, Civic Practice Partnership Artist In Residence At The Met, Designed To Expand The Visibility Of Latinx Art At The Institution. All Proceeds From The Sale Of “El Met” Merchandise Will Support The Acquisition Of Latinx Art At The Museum.
The Exclusive Collection “The Met” is an artistic project by Miguel Luciano, conceived within his artistic residency in our Civic Practice Partnership Program with the aim of increasing the visibility of the Latinx Art in the Institution. The Museum Will Allocate All Profits From The Sale Of “El Met” Products To The Acquisition Of Latinx Art.
Artist Statement“El Met” Is How We Say “The Met” In Spanglish. It’S How Latinx Audiences Throughout New York City And Beyond Colloquially Describes The Museum As A Destination.
As A Civic Practice Partnership Artist In Residence, One Of The First Things I Explored Was The History Of Representation Among Puerto Rican And Latinx Artists At The Museum, Asking The Fundamental Question: Where Do We See Ourselves At The Met? The Groundbreaking Exhibition The Art Heritage Of Puerto Rico: Pre-Columbian To Present (1973), A Collaboration With El Museo Del Barrio, Became A Focal Point In My Research, As It Remains The Largest Survey Of Puerto Rican Art In Any US Museum To Date. Unfortunately, It Didn’t Lead To Major Acquisitions, Future Exhibition Opportunities, Or Sustainable Relationships With Latinx Communities In The Generations That Followed.
In Response To The Underrepresentation Of Puerto Rican And Latinx Artists In The Collection, I Remixed The Met’S Logo Into “El Met” As A Way Of Reimagining The Museum Through The Lens Of Spanish-Speaking Audiences. I Then Created A Limited Edition Of “El Met” T-Shirts As A Provocation To Increase The Visibility Of Latinx Art At The Museum. This Collection Is Now Exclusively Available At The Met, And All Proceeds From The Sale Of “El Met” Merchandise Will Directly Support The Acquisition Of Latinx Art At The Museum.
The “El Met” T-Shirt Is An Artist Project That I Hope Can Serve As A Prompt For The Institution And Its Benefactors To Invest More Substantially In The Art And Culture Of Latinx Communities, And Also A Way For Latinx Audiences To Celebrate Our Own Connections To The Museum.
-Miguel Luciano
Artist StatementWhen We Speak Spanglish We Say ‘El Met’ Instead of ‘The Met’. This Is How Latinx Audiences, Both From New York City And Other Places, Refer To The Museum When We Colloquially Say We Want To Visit It.
One of the first lines of exploration that I undertook when I began my artistic residency in the Civic Practice Partnership Program consisted of studying the representation of Puerto Rican and Latinx artists in the museum throughout its history, and to do so I Asked Myself a Fundamental Question: Where Do We See Ourselves Reflected Within the Museum? My research focused on the pioneering 1973 exhibition, The Art Heritage Of Puerto Rico: Pre-Columbian To Present, organized in collaboration with the Museo Del Barrio, which to this day remains the largest exhibition of Puerto Rican art organized in a American Museum. Unfortunately, this exhibition failed to promote significant acquisitions or new exhibitions, nor to establish lasting relationships with subsequent generations of Latinx communities.
In Response to the underrepresentation of Puerto Rican and Latinx artists in the collection, I transformed the museum’s logo to read “The Met,” thus offering an opportunity to reimagine the museum through the eye. From the Spanish-Speaking Public. The next step was to create a limited edition of “El Met” T-Shirts as a provocative act that aims to increase the visibility of Latinx art at the museum. This is a collection available now exclusively in The Met stores. All profits obtained from the sale of “El Met” products will go towards the Museum’s acquisition of Latinx art.
My goal is for the “El Met” T-Shirt, as a project Artistic, Ensure that the Institution and its Patrons Commit to Investing in the Art and Culture of Latinx Communities, AND At the same Time Serves to Celebrate the Personal Connections of Latinx Audiences with the Museum.
– Miguel Luciano
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