Arkansas, home to thousands of Latin American immigrants in the United States, will also be home to a special IDB Art Collection at the Arkansas Arts Center in the state capital, Little Rock, from July 6 to August 19, 2007.
This exhibition showcases work from the 26 Latin American IDB member countries, with 62 artists represented, ranging from Cuban Wilfredo Lam to Chilean Roberto Sebastian Matta.
A selection of 65 artworks from the Bank’s 1,700-piece collection features Diego Rivera’s Self-Portrait, Carlos Merida’s Figure, and Rufino Tamayo’s Composition from “Women” Suite, among other masterpieces from the most renowned Latin American artists.
According to Joseph W. Lampo, Deputy Director of Programming and Curator for the Arkansas Arts Center, the exhibition contains works as rich and diverse in media and content as are the cultures of the countries, from Mexico to Chile and Argentina, of the artists who made them.
Lampo selected for this exhibition a wide range of work, from pieces made by luminaries of Latin American and international modernism to provocative works created by today’s social and politically minded artists.
The exhibition, aimed at sharing Latin American culture, reaffirms the Bank’s commitment to bring to everybody the inspirational achievements of so many distinguished artists whose personal talent and determination illustrate better than anything, perhaps, the dream of achieving our development goals, said IDB President Luis Alberto Moreno.
This opportunity to share part of the IDB Art collection with Arkansans and Latin American immigrants in this state goes in hand with the Bank’s Opportunities for the Majority initiative to empower workers, proprietors, consumers, and businesspeople and help them transform their energy and creativity into engines of development and progress.
Latin Americans in Arkansas
The state of Arkansas, located in the southern region of the United States, is among the top five states registering the highest growth rates on Latin American immigration, according to statistics of 1990 and 2000 from the Center for Immigration Studies. The state’s Latino population has more than doubled in the past decade.
A great number of migrants come from Latin American countries to work in the poultry processing industry in northwest Arkansas, looking for opportunities to help themselves and their families back home through remittances.
At least 42,330 Latin Americans lived in northwest Arkansas neighborhoods—Rogers, Springdale, Fayetteville and Bentonville—in 2006. For instance, 20,468 Latin Americans represented 32.8 percent of Springdale's overall population. According to the statistics, Mexicans made up the biggest segment of the area’s Latino population. Immigrants from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras have also moved to the area in hopes of finding jobs.