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Title: Research to Inform the American Latino History and Culture Program
Citation Type: Miscellaneous
Publication Year: 2023
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Abstract: Supporting American Latino institutions across the United States is vital to preserving and promoting American Latino life, art, history, and culture.1 As the largest and second-fastest-growing ethnic minority in the United States, American Latinos influence music, literature, art, and traditions for generations of families and communities. American Latino museums play an integral role in preserving this diverse culture by providing opportunities for people to work, enjoy, create, share, and learn about American Latino experiences. Recognizing this important role, in 2020 Congress enacted legislation to establish a new American Latino History and Culture (ALHC) program at the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). The ALHC program was authorized as part of the National Museum of the American Latino Act ( Public Law 116-260), after 15 years of bipartisan efforts by American Latino leaders. The ALHC program will use grantmaking to build the capacity of American Latino museums and educational organizations to promote the study and appreciation of American Latino life, art, history, culture, and their impact on US society. Accordingly, it aims to strengthen, sustain, and grow the field by nurturing museum professionals, expanding institutional capacity, and increasing access to American Latino museums and archival collections at Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) nationwide. From September 2022 to December 2023 IMLS contracted with the nonprofit Urban Institute to conduct field research and planning activities to inform development of the ALHC program. For this work, Urban engaged a large, multidisciplinary team of predominantly American Latino researchers, consulted with two museum professionals who were former chairs of the Latino Network of the American Alliance of Museums, and integrated broad input from American Latino museum collaborators, potential applicants, and funders. Urban’s team focused on five objectives: inform the design of the ALHC program to reflect cultural literacy about American Latino institutions and the communities they serve; identify the potential universe of relevant cultural institutions and organizations; develop recommended priorities for IMLS in implementing the ALHC program to build applicant capacity and assets and address needs; clarify how IMLS can work with similar federal programs to support, expand, and sustain the ALHC program’s growth; and support program performance measurement and evaluation. These objectives evolved into research questions that frame the content of this report ( see technical appendix B for objectives, questions, and data sources). Our work included secondary and primary mixed-methods research. Secondary research activities included an extensive review of English, Spanish, and Portuguese literature and an environmental scan to map the American Latino museum field. Primary research included two national, community listening sessions, an online survey fielded in English and Spanish, and multiple interviews in English and Spanish. Research participants included potential applicants to the ALHC program (also referred to as “stakeholders”), collaborators in the American Latino museum field ( such as associations and organizations that might partner with future applicants), and governmental and private funders in the American Latino museum space. Collectively, Urban’s field research involved the following: a review of more than 250 pieces of literature in English, Spanish, and Portuguese an environmental scan of 30 directories and databases to map the American Latino museum field two community listening sessions, one in English and one in Spanish, with 49 total attendees an online survey in English and Spanish that received 74 responses from potential ALHC program applicants interviews in English and Spanish with 40 stakeholders, collaborators, and funders See technical appendix C for more details about Urban’s research methodology. In this report, we summarize findings from these activities (additional details are available in technical appendix D). Findings are organized into four sections: understanding the American Latino museum field, assessing funding experiences of American Latino museums, growing the capacity of American Latino museums, and implementing the American Latino History and Culture program. In these sections, we present field research results in response to guiding research questions, shown as headers. Throughout, we provide relevant citations to the literature, quotations from participants, and descriptive statistics from the survey, and we note whether findings reflect perspectives of ALHC program stakeholders (potential applicants), collaborators, and/or funders. We also integrate recommendations to IMLS throughout the report to inform the design of the ALHC program based on the findings. Several themes repeatedly emerge, elevating the need for the ALHC program to support diversity, inclusion, community, equity, collaboration, authenticity, transparency, accessibility, sustainability, and impact for American Latino museums across the United States.
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Authors: Treskon, Mark; Yahner Née Castro, Jennifer; Echave, Paola; Fording, Josh; Hinojosa, Sofia; Ramos, Karolina; Terrones, Fanny
Publisher: Urban Insititute
Data Collections: IPUMS USA, IPUMS NHGIS
Topics: Education, Methodology and Data Collection, Race and Ethnicity
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