This year marks the 16th anniversary of the NALAC Leadership Institute (NLI). The institute marches into this new chapter of leadership development by tipping the scales with an alumni network that is now over 300 strong. Collectively, alumni have come to the NLI from 34 unique U.S. States and Puerto Rico, and many have since moved through and to additional states, amplifying the spheres of influence in pursuit of equity, artistic excellence, evolving aesthetics, advocating, organizing and affecting policy in board rooms and in civic society.
NALAC will welcome Abigail G., Abigail V., Adam, Amada, Baruch, Beatriz, Betty, Bianca, Damian, Emilio, Francis, Gabrielle, Henry, Illya, Jake, Juanita, Lisa, Lizette, Maria Alicia, Mia, Michael, Nicolas, Sergio, Stephen, Yaremis and Yosimar to San Antonio for a six-day endurance exercise in arts management, networking, stewardship, research, policy, artistic practice and leadership through the lenses of Latinx arts and cultural production. The national Core Faculty comprised of Rosalba Rolon (NY), Maribel Alvarez (AZ), and Abel Lopez (DC) will steward the 26 Fellows through the newly revamped curriculum from July 11–16, 2016. The Class of 2016 will debut a modified edition of the NLI curriculum, which was recalibrated this past Spring during a curriculum assessment retreat at the University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona.
“The 2016 edition of the NALAC Leadership Institute responds to growing expectations in our field for high profile leadership and deepened knowledge of management and artistic competencies. The re-designed Institute curriculum will gear participants towards assessing the current state of the Latino arts field in relationship to the arts field in general and their role within it. It will explore individual and collective actions to ensure equitable participation in local and national conversations concerning arts and culture, as well as in the distribution of material resources that enable the viability of diverse careers within our field.” Rosalba Rolon, NLI Core Faculty
In step with their goals and aspirations for the NLI, their Sweet Sixteen will be commemorated with a public keynote address delivered by Judith F. Baca, renown California visual artist, educator, scholar/activist and community arts pioneer founder of the Social and Public Art Resource Center (SPARC).
“Baca has stood for art in the service of equity for all people and the integration of one’s ethics with creative expression. Baca’s work channels the creative process of monument design to develop models for the transformation of both physical and social environments in public spaces. And they are monumental, both in space and time: The Great Wall of Los Angeles is ‘tattooed’ along a flood control channel in the San Fernando Valley and employed over 400 youth and their families from diverse social and economic backgrounds working with artists, oral historians, ethnologists, scholars, and hundreds of community members. The Great Wall depicts a half-mile long multi-cultural history of California from pre-history through the 1950’s. It was begun in 1976 and plans are underway for its next four decades of evolution.”