In 2016, with funding from the Cisneros Phelps family, the Museum established the Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Research Institute for the Study of Art from Latin America. The Cisneros Institute aspires to become a vital platform for the arts of Latin America by fostering critical thinking across borders. Through its programs and publications, it aims to stimulate, support, and disseminate new research on modern and contemporary art of Latin America and its role as an integral part of global culture. It also seeks to promote the multiple perspectives of artists and scholars from Latin America by engaging in an international dialogue.
As part of The Museum of Modern Art, the Institute is committed to strengthening the Museum’s longstanding commitment with Latin America through rigorous and experimental research into MoMA’s Latin American holdings and meaningful collaborations with artists, art historians, critics, curators, and other cultural institutions.
The Cisneros Institute’s first research topic addresses how artists, theoreticians, feminist thinkers, ecologists, and climate change activists, among many others, have been rethinking our relationship to territory, resources, and cultural traditions and proposing what seems to be a major cultural shift for the region in terms of its development.
The Cisneros Institute’s second research topic focuses on the relationship between modern art and spiritual beliefs in Latin America and the Caribbean. An in-depth study of various spiritual traditions and their influence on the arts of the region between 1920 and 1970, the project questions dominant narratives around modernism that herald secularism as a central tenet.
In an effort to engage in an in-depth study of MoMA’s Latin American holdings, the Cisneros Institute holds an annual seminar series, each iteration of which approaches the collection from a distinct and focused critical position.
