Money Changes Everything

They were tired of being shut out, it was born out of frustration. You have a situation here in this city, right now, where upwards of 60% -almost 70%- of the population is Latino, overwhelmingly Mexican. [The Los Angeles County Museum of Art] derives 35% of its funds from coffers of a city which is 70% Latino and [Latinos] were being shut out of the Museum, they weren't being talked to, they were being stone-walled. "You don't exist, you're not artists, we're not talking to you, we're not hanging pictures of your culture on the wall, we're not doing shows by you."

--Cheech Marin

Los Angeles' art scene has come a long way from when 70s art collective ASCO had to spray paint the front wall of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in order to "show" there. Today that same museum is home to two well-regarded Chicano-themed exhibits, Phantom Sightings: Art After the Chicano Movement, and Los Angelenos/Chicano Painters of L.A.: Selections from the Cheech Marin Collection.

See art from Los Angelenos/Chicano Painters of L.A.: Selections from the Cheech Marin Collection

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1:51 PM ET | 06-30-2008 | permalink

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