Head of Latin art museum
Lourdes Ramos will be the first Latina to helm the Long Beach institution.
Lourdes Ramos, who for the past dozen years has led the Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico in San Juan as executive director and chief curator, has been named the new president and chief executive of the Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach. She will be the first Latina to hold the post.
“We were looking for someone with the academic qualifications that Lourdes has, that could give us curatorial direction,” says Robert Braun, co-chair of the museum’s board of directors. “We’d like to see the museum become a thought leader in ... Latin American, Latino and Chicano art.”
Prior to her Museo de Arte tenure, Ramos, who assumes her new role May 1, was director of the San Juan City Museum and the National Collection of Puerto Rico at the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture. She received a master’s degree in fine arts from Illinois State University and her doctorate, in the same subject, from the University of Barcelona in Spain. She is also an accreditation commissioner for the American Alliance of Museums, which is how she came to the attention of the board at the Museum of Latin American Art.
“She was the head of the accreditation team,” says Braun, who is also on the the Long Beach Opera board. “I could tell the type of woman she was, her leadership skills, and, really, how much she cares for the whole Latin American art perspective.”
Ramos, a native of Puerto Rico, arrives at a crucial period. The Museum of Latin American Art, which marked its 20th anniversary last year, has been without a director since previous president Stuart Ashman left last summer to join the Center for Contemporary Arts Santa Fe in New Mexico.
The museum is also bouncing back from a financially turbulent era that began in 2009, after the death of founder Robert Gumbiner left the institution facing annual deficits. In 2012, Ashman slashed budgets and laid off staff, stabilizing the finances — and within a year, the museum was back in the black. Last year the institution received accreditation from the AAM (making it easier to secure key loans) and has undertaken new partnerships.
This summer, the museum is teaming with Long Beach Opera to debut “Frida,” a new opera by Robert Xavier Rodriguez about the life of Mexican painter Frida Kahlo. Currently, the museum is displaying a career retrospective of the work of groundbreaking Los Angeles painter Frank Romero.
But the exhibition program has remained uneven. This, says Braun, is where Ramos’ curatorial experience comes in.
“It’s really about shaking up the program,” he says, “and the vision.”