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Members of LUNA, which includes artists practicing a variety of artistic mediums, after a meeting in Spring 2019 (Photo courtesy of LUNA)
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Katie Avila Loughmiller, an interdisciplinary social practice artist and co-founder of LUNA (Latinas Unidas en las Artes), writes that white Milwaukee gallery owners need to learn to be more inclusive and less racist.
We’re used to being left out. The lack of Latinx representation is evident from the entertainment industry, to roles in leadership, and even here in Milwaukee where you will be hard pressed to find us being represented in the arts community.
Through hard work, however, we are seeing the tide change in all these areas. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez not only worked and fought her way into a Congress seat but also rightly earned a spot on the cover of Time magazine. Yalitza Aparicio was nominated for best actress at the Oscars for her stunning performance in “Roma.” And in Milwaukee, Latina artists have come together to create LUNA, or Latinas Unidas en las Artes. After an amazing first year, we are making sure that we are being heard and seen even more in year two.
That being said, we still roll our eyes when large group shows announced as “inclusive” and “diverse” somehow have zero Latina artist representation. LUNA comprises 30 women, and this doesn’t come close to making up all the Latina artists in this city. Yet we don’t expect that a show of 38 “Milwaukee Influencers” would have the room for Latinas when they need to make sure that over a third of their show is filled with white male artists.
As artists who are constantly creating and engaging in the community, while simultaneously juggling side-hustles to pay rent, we don’t have the time or luxury to call out every single gallery owner or curator for continuing to ignore our existence. On the other hand, if and when you blatantly exclude us and misappropriate our culture – we will call you out.
Recently, we came across a show called “Arte de Mujeres” at a local gallery in a neighborhood that rhymes with way-blue. This show, which seemed to be in honor of Cinco de Mayo, had no Latinx artists and clearly had no Latinx people involved in the planning as evidenced by the event description.
We called the gallery owner, a self-described liberal, and educated her on why misappropriating our culture will not be tolerated. After putting in the work to educate this gallery owner, we decided to create a list for those who have “great intentions” but continue to erase the narratives of black and brown folks. This gallery isn’t the only gallery to have created a show that is completely problematic, and it likely won’t be the last.
Here are five guidelines to move the conversation forward in hopes to create a more inclusive and less racist Milwaukee (or insert the city you live in).
1. Stop appropriating whole cultures.
If you are going to call a show, say “Arte de Mujeres,” you are going to want to have women artists in that show who know what that means without using Google translate.
2. Don’t use cultural holidays as themes.
While many Americans use Cinco de Mayo as an excuse to drink an abundance of tequila and sport a sombrero, this doesn’t mean we should celebrate this fact. And let’s definitely not excuse binge drinking on Cinco de Mayo by saying we do it on St. Patrick’s Day. Both, if we all really think about it, are entirely questionable.
While somebody made a killing in the T-shirt business, we actually aren’t all Irish on St. Patrick’s Day and we’re definitely not all Mexican on the Fifth of May. Furthermore, maybe don’t celebrate a holiday you know nothing about. Remember that tweet President Donald Trump made before he was elected? Maybe we can learn a lot from him. If he celebrates Cinco de Mayo by eating “taco bowls,” it’s definitely inappropriate to follow suit. Actually, on second thought, do eat taco bowls on Cinco de Mayo but don’t tweet about it. Because guess what? Cinco de Mayo “snacks” are just Mexican food. You can literally go out and support a local Mexican restaurant 365 days of the year and drink and eat all the margaritas, tacos and tortilla chips you want. In fact, we dare you all not to wait until Cinco de Mayo.
3. Apologize publicly and make amends.
If you happen to upset the exact people whose culture you’re stealing from, don’t delete our complaints off your Facebook event. Anybody can apologize behind closed doors, but if you really want to prove you’re open to education on these things, apologize openly. And don’t make excuses for your ignorance. You messed up. You missed the mark. You didn’t know better and you should have. Don’t humblebrag that many people know you’re a great person. You had a bad moment. It’s embarrassing, maybe even painful, but you have to face the fact that your actions caused pain too – and not a new pain. Pain we’ve been dealing with our entire lives. So your temporary pain over being called out for your racism, however inadvertent that racism was, is nothing. Live in it and experience only a minuscule of what your black and brown friends have had to experience on a damn near daily basis.
4. Collaborate with people of color.
This all could have been avoided had there been Latinx people involved. Twelve artists and performers and somewhere between two to three people from the gallery and nobody said, “Huh, that’s kinda weird?” After one of the LUNA members posted in the group, it took all of four seconds for an 87-comment chain to emerge. We didn’t scratch our heads and send shrug emojis – very much the opposite. Of course, this doesn’t just mean find yourself “A” Latinx, or any other person of color, friend/collaborator. You don’t want to become that person that says, “but I have a friend who is Latina…” And even if you check in with the one collaborator who has more melanin than you, that doesn’t mean this person is woke either.
Unfortunately, ignorance isn’t racist. We all have our biases and we here in Milwaukee, whose claim to fame is beer, cheese and the most segregated city in America, should know that better than anyone. You’re going to have to do some work to diversify your circle, and it’s not going to happen overnight. We understand that. What we don’t understand is why you’re still scared to come to the North and South sides of Milwaukee.
5. Hire, represent and show up for diverse talent.
Finally, start genuinely supporting all artists of color. We make art and we find ways to show it despite it being twice as hard as it is for white artists. If you’re a curator or a gallery owner, stop this nonsense of having a majority of white artists in your shows. If you’re just a person who likes art, find our shows and show up!
We hope these guidelines inspire you – whether it’s shaking your head in acknowledgment or realizing you’ve got a lot of work to do. Either way, keep your chin up, look out and make room for us – because we aren’t going anywhere.
You can support LUNA as early as this Sunday, May 5th 1pm-3pm for the opening reception for our first exhibition of 2019 at Leenhouts Gallery located inside the First Unitarian Society of Milwaukee located at 1342 N Astor Street. This show will run through June 28. We will also be featured artists at Milwaukee Art Museum for Kohl’s Art Generation Family Sundays: Wisconsin Artists program: Sunday, May 5th, 11am-3pm. For more upcoming events follow us on Facebook and Instagram @lunamkeofficial.
Wonderful comments. I agree and hope to be part of the solution.
Thanks!
Yes!
Dear Ms. Loughmiller,
I have been a reader of this pulication for quite some time, yet I am unfamiliar with the terms “Arte de Mujeres” and “Latinx”.
Taking the time to use your “Opinion” column to be more of a teacher than a preacher will, in my opinion, gain you more advocates and supporters.
Best regards.
Here, Let me google it for you:
Translation of “arte de mujeres”
https://translate.google.com/?client=firefox-b-1-d&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hl=en&client=tw-ob#es/en/arte%20de%20las%20mujeres
Definition of Latinx:
https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/word-history-latinx
I just read that Latinex was an attempt to have a more gender neutral term instead of Latino/a. I was curious and found the definition so please pass it along to others that were curious like me.
Sorry about about misspelling Lantinx. Having to explain is probably a problem especially if you think you have to but putting the culture (in this case the word latinx, which I just ran into this week for the first time,) does help clear the air a little for those us us unfamiliar with such things It could be a struggle within your community between latino/a and latinx. There are gender struggles in the English language community too.
Google is your best friend.
Taking the time to search for yourself what things mean, saves us all time in the long run.
People of color having to explain their culture to you is part of the problem. Your response to her truth and her story is part of the problem. The fact that she took the time to write this article and your response to her saying “do the work to be inclusive” is quite literally “no” is the problem. People of color don’t owe you an explanation for who they are. We certainly don’t go around questioning white people’s terms or language in an opinion article or any other context. Do you maybe see why and how your response is exactly what this writer is talking about? Doing the work starts with you educating yourself instead of demanding a person of color make it easier on you to understand them.
Thanks for the article. This same hiring policy and advocating is needed in other local art forms too. For example: Getting a black blues band a slot at a bluesfest. A minority arts collaborative coalition team would be a wonderful future organization.
Art is art. It’s not about the artist. One piece can mean a hundred different things to a hundred different people. Perhaps your work is not up to par. Get it there. Make it interesting. Make it thought provoking. The audience decides…not you and not the gallery owners. STOP shifting the blame and up your game!
Oh, Michael. This is like an abundance of wrong. Leave some for the rest of us.
No honey
I know that I probably shouldn’t go see the exhibit; however, there’s a part of me that’s curious to see how far they’re willing take it. Like are they going to have art dedicated to Zapata shilling out tacos or something? Maybe, what if Frida Khalo was a white girl? Or just how much we love, love, love, TACOS!!!
Yes, I agree that there should be more diverse voices in Milwauker’s art community and beyond but I am wary of those who only simply want to show the work or asking an artists of color to join or participate in an arts group or an exhibition simply because of their race or gender with out knowing about their artistic vision and/or exhibition history. In other works, don’t simply seek out artists of color and women artists simply because of their race or gender simply because they are the only artists that you know about. Many of us artists of color experience people approaching us about projects or exhibitions without really knowing what we do, our career history. Or they know or care about if we fill some sort of quota or because there is the assumption that the artists of color careers are not successful because of the color or their skin or ethnicity. Like white artists there are artists of color in Milwaukee who make a living as a visual artists. Just because one does not know who they are does not mean artists of color don’t exist or not successful or want or need to do your project or do your exhibition. For example, a few years ago, one person who happen to be white asked me why more of the established and/ well known Milwaukee African American artists did not join his artists group. I responded that maybe they did not want to, did not have to or that his group did not fit their needs. He never considered those could be the reason. In other words, don’t assume that artists of color are not getting opportunities. Another person who wanted to bring African Americans into their group simply because they wanted the group to be more diverse. This particular group has a lot of older members and to me what they needed to focus on was getting more younger members and then maybe they would get more artists of color. I could on about this subject but I won’t, but want to make this point diversity means nothing,if you don’t take the time to learn about the artists in a community and understand what they do. Diversity is more than filling in a check in box and filling them with bodies of color.
I’m in a hundred percent agreement with Della Wells. My first instinct is to start one’s own space. As an Argentine artist I get lumped in with white male artists all the time, and that’s what it is, but to be clear a point in regards to making art with a strategy based on an identity feels very limited in scope given that we are made up of a myriad of selves. On the other hand there is indeed an underlying pre ponderous of the white faces at openings and events I go to. Maybe I’m just running in tired circles. I applaud the sentiment put forward in your article. Keep in mind that many galleries are indeed showing more diverse artists, Alice Wilds showing Tyanna Buie, and Green Gallery has recently showed Sky Hopinka, Dominique Knowles and Sheila Held. Granted non of these artist are hispanic or latina, but I think most spaces around town won’t necessarily disregard work from a Hispanic perspective.