Orlando Museum of Art wants to showcase more Latin American and Hispanic artists. Do you fit the bill?

The Orlando Museum of Art is inviting Hispanic and Latin American artists to submit their work for a dynamic, year-long exhibition series. One artwork from each selected artist will be showcased in conversation with the museum’s Art of the Ancient Americas Collection – a celebrated permanent exhibition featuring objects created by Indigenous cultures across North, Central, and South America, some dating back to 300 AD.

Submissions are open from August 1 to August 31. Twelve artists will be selected, with each featured for one month throughout the upcoming year, offering a unique opportunity to engage with history and contemporary expression side by side.

The museum is looking for 'engaging art which explores the culture and history through a lens of personal heritage'. The selected artists will have the opportunity to exhibit one contemporary artwork in tandem with the permanent collection, creating an intriguing dialogue between the past, and new perspectives on the present.

Artists are encouraged to reflect on how traditional forms or motifs are represented in their work, inherited practices or stories which helped to shape the process, and how their art might reignite the cultural presence of ancient objects.

‘This initiative is an invitation to Hispanic and Latino artists to bring their contemporary point of view and personal ancestral history into conversation with ancient narratives,’ said Coralie Claeysen-Gleyzon, the Cottrell-Lovett chief curator of the Orlando Museum of Art.

‘By placing contemporary works alongside our Art of the Ancient Americas Collection, we aim to explore how contemporary practices can reclaim or reframe the meaning, and the sacred or symbolic power that the belongings in this collection once held for today’s world, acting as a bridge between time periods and cultures.’

Florida’s connection to the Hispanic world dates back centuries. Today the Sunshine State is home to over five million Latinos, making it the third largest Latino population in the country. With the museum's core mission being to 'stimulate creativity and intellectual curiosity by connecting people from all backgrounds and experiences with compelling art and new ideas,' this initiative will help to further diversity and representation within Florida's art community.

For more information on OMA, please visit omart.org