Public Art & Placemaking
Coneflower Canopy by Phaan Howng
A climate intervention and sculpture installation by artist Phaan Howng, curated by Latela Curatorial for CityCenterDC. A fantastical canopy of 230 neon coneflowers, Coneflower Canopy invokes a future world in which coneflowers have climbed to the canopy layer of their biome and assumed neon colors to warn other species about increased development and plastic use.
Art Gallery Direction, Launch & Management
o In 2021, Latela Curatorial opened The Silva Gallery in collaboration with The Silva, a luxury apartment building in Adams Morgan, which provides additional exhibition opportunities and curated promotion to artists in the Greater Washington, DC area. This partnership benefits local artists due to the artist exhibition stipend and the central location of the gallery space.
o Why center on Washington, DC region artists? DC, Maryland, and Virginia artists are working in a deeply engaged local art world that is at the red-hot center of the United States’ political landscape, and yet their voices are largely ignored by the international art world and media. In particular, Washington DC artists work within a creative economy structure that requires more business registration and licensing fees and processes than any other state, yet struggle to find arts-forward and affordable infrastructures. Washington DC’s cultural plan prioritizes museums and restaurants over art galleries and artist studio space. Additionally, local press platforms reserve critical writing for museum exhibitions, and provide few resources to amplify the local art scene.
See Support Collect
o A vibrant nexus for contemporary art, See Support Collect is an intersectional placemaking and gap-filling initiative that focuses on collectorship of art by women and non-binary artists.
o Today, women artists’ sales still make up only 2% of the global market. Despite highly visible efforts to counter the absence of women artists in international museum collections, very little action has been directed toward this jarring discrepancy in emerging to established women artists’ primary survival mechanism: the creative economy.
o Latela Curatorial staunchly supports trans women and affirms that ALL women and non-binary artists are welcome and safe as participants and collaborators in the See Support Collect container.
Art Community Advisory & Involvement
Latela Curatorial has been a participating community member and tenant on the Brookland Arts Walk since 2015. Serving on various community committees, we have played a vital role in advocating for the 27 artist studios, event planning, placemaking, and marketing strategies. Advocacy has included City Council, PUD and ANC relations.
Public Art, RFP Drafting, Direction & Liaison
Latela Curatorial currently serves as project advisor for multiple public art projects in Washington DC and beyond. Services include drafting project needs clearly for RFPs and PUD submission, and serving as a liaison among project stakeholders (ex: WMATA, DCAH, zoning commissions, local universities, BIDs and other neighborhood organizations).
Placemaking at the Conrad Washington DC
Latela Curatorial curated artwork by local artists for display in the lobby of the Conrad Washington DC hotel. This partnership demonstrated an elevated example of placemaking: Tourists visiting our city quite possibly may spend a great deal of time downtown and in the museums—areas where our local arts are not visible—but they could also dive intimately into the local art scene via this satellite gallery. Exhibiting artists also received a stipend through this program, as we believe placemaking is about economic impact first, visibility second.
Grant/Fund Inception & Management
o The GLB Memorial Fund for the Arts provides financial support to woman-identifying artists and curators who reside in Washington DC, Maryland or Virginia by collecting art and seeding project grants to further advance women-led contemporary art initiatives.
o The GLB Art Collection is available for exhibition loan to curators and institutions.
Art Installation & Artist Podcast Launch
o Latela Curatorial partnered with Eaton Hotel to launch and mount an installation celebrating La Valentina Podcast’s next series of interviews: Latin-(X)-Equis Series, which celebrates Latinx Artists and Art Organizers in the USA, with a focus in the DMV area. Listen online.
o A video installation at Eaton Hotel highlighted artists in La Valentina’s “Latin-(X)-Equis” series: Imogen Blue Hinojosa, Armando Lopez-Bircann, and Maria del Carmen Montoya.
Art Gallery Inception & Strategy
An emerging art curator was presented with the opportunity to lease commercial property to start an art gallery. Latela Curatorial assisted the curator in identifying a target audience and their curatorial voice, and provided business strategy and operational management templates for organizing and executing art sales, rotating exhibitions and programming.