Visual Literacy Interactive at the Museum of Art in Puerto Rico

"The Elements of Art" is an art education digital interactive produced for el Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico (Puerto Rico Museum of Art) in San Juan Puerto Rico. The kiosk is physically located in the ActivArte gallery. A space dedicated for education at the Museum. The content was developed by Doreen Colón Camacho, director of education at MAPR and Mariano Desmarás, Creative Director of Museum Environments.  The project was sponsored by La Fundación Angel Ramos. 

Design Goals: In Puerto Rico, there are a few opportunities for school aged children to receive skill based arts education and to learn about the artistic heritage of the island. Our goal was to respond to both of these educational needs with a self-guided digital experience. The digital interactive provides guidance in essential concepts of the elements of art and design principles, and allow for the visitor to produce visual products in evidence of understanding the new concepts. The experience strengthens interpretative analysis of visual arts.

Client: El Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico

Education Curator: Doreen Colón Camacho
Museum Director: Lourdes Ramos 

 

 

Identify the Elements of Art A series of animation illustrate lessons on the Elements of Art. The slides on the left show the lessons on geometric and organic shapes. 

Sample Art from the Collection All the art shown in the digital interactive are from the museum's collections. The art works are on display adjacent to the physical installation of the touchscreen interactive. 

Bilingual Design
Initial menu page with animated icons. The program is fully bilingual. There is toggle switch that allows the user to chose language of preference. The program also offers bilingual audio. 

Visitor generated content

Scaffolding Visual Literacy Lesson Users are asked to interpret images through the lens of a single element of art, such as line, texture, shape. etc.  Drawing tools allows them to draw over images and discover the underlining structure to image. The slides on the left show the progressive steps in visual interpretation. In the final step, the user may remove the background image and see their work as it stands on its own.  

Group Interaction The open-endedness of the activities also permits several users to work on the same exercise. Here students from local high school work on a color exercise. 

Extending the Parameters of Visual Literacy
Currently Visual Literacy can be defined as “the ability to interpret, negotiate, and make meaning from information presented in the form of an image..” This definition highlights the emphasis on the interpretation or reading of images in today’s practice of Visual Literacy. In the curriculum of our interactive, we wished to expand on this approach and include “visual prodution” as part of visual literacy. Just like we think of writing as essential to literacy, we deem visual production as a necessity of the visually literate. For this reason we emphasizes the interactive part of the program. We believe that when the student understands the making of an image then they are better equipped to deconstruct and re-interpret it. Through this experience it becomes more evident that the image was “produced”- it did not "just come like that." Someone designed it, and therefore it can be critically un-packed. Just like an architect can tell how a building is made, we wanted our user to like-wise understand the structure of an image. 

The approach in this interactive returns to some extent to the origins of Visual Literary as it was developed in “A Primer of Visual Literacy” by Donis A. Dondis (1973). The book elaborates a “problem solving” method that uses visual elements (unity vs fragmentation, stability vs instability, etc). The MAPR interactive picks-up on this approach however we do not intended the user to produce an verbal explanation of the picture. We want the user to learn and develop a visual language. The results are often poetic and works of art in of themselves. 

The Complete List of Latinx Museums

This list of Latinx museums includes museums that identify themselves as Latinx, Latina/o, and hispanic. We also include institutions that have track-record of exhibits and events of Latinx content. 

This list is the product of Museum Environments’s years of experience providing design services to the Latinx museums and other cultural specific institutions. Also members of the Latino Network at the American Alliance of Museums contributed names of institutions from their respective regions. We have not found on the web a more complete list of Latinx institutions.  

Arizona

Arizona Latino Arts aria Cultural Center ALAC
147 E Adam St
Phoenix, AZ 85004
Tel. 602-254-9817
(email contact through website)
https://www.alacaz.org

California

Arte Américas
1630 Van Ness
Fresno,CA 93721
Tel: 559-266-2623
Email: press@arteamericas.org
http://arteamericas.org

Casa Dolores
1023 Bath Street (between Carrillo and Figueroa)
Santa Barbara, California 93101
Tel. (805) 963-1032
Email: info@casadolores.org
http://www.casadolores.org

The Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art & Culture
Riverside Art Museum
3581 Mission Inn Avenue,
Riverside, CA 92501
Tel. 951 684 7111
https://thecheechcenter.org/

Galería de la Raza
2857 24th Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
Tel. 415 826-8009 
Email: info@galeriadelaraza.org
http://www.galeriadelaraza.org

LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes
501 North Main Street
Los Angeles, CA 90012
Tel. 213 542 6200 
Email: info@lapca.org
www.lapca.org

Molaa Museum of Latin American Art
628 Alamitos Avenue, 
Long Beach, CA 90802
Tel. 562.437.1689
(email contact through website)
http://www.molaa.com

Plaza de la Raza
Cultural Center for the Arts & Education
3540 North Mission Road
Los Angeles, CA 90031
Tel.: (323) 223-2475
Email: info@plazadelaraza.org
www.plazadelaraza.org

Self Help Graphics & Art
1300 East First Street
Boyle Heights, CA 90033
Tel. (323) 881-6444
Email: info@selfhelpgraphics.com
www.selfhelpgraphics.com

Colorado

Museo de las Americas
861 Santa Fe Drive
Denver, Colorado 80204
Tel. 303.571.4401
Email: guestservices@museo.org
http://www.museo.org

Connecticut

Yale University La Casa Cultural, Latino Cultural Center
301 Crown Street
New Haven, CT 06511
Tel. 203-432-0856
Email: lacasa@yale.edu
http://lacasa.yalecollege.yale.edu

Florida

Latin American Art Museum / Gary Nader Art  Center
(Future project of the collector Gary Nader, who presently hold his collection in the Gary Nader Art  Center)
2206 SW 8TH St
Miami, FL 33135
Tel. (305) 644-1127
(email contact through website)
http://www.garynader.com

Museo de la Diaspora Cubana /  The American Museum of the Cuban Diaspora
1200 Coral Way
Miami, FL 33145
Tel. 305 529 5400
Email: info@ thecuban.org
www.thecuban.org

Ybor Museum
1818 North AVenue,
Tampa Bay Fl.33605
Tel. 813 247 6323
(email contact through website)
www.ybormuseum.org

Illinois

National Museum of Mexican Art
1852 W. 19th Street
Chicago , IL 60608
Tel. 312.738.1503
info@nationalmuseumofmexicanart.org
http://www.nationalmuseumofmexicanart.org

National Museum of Puerto Rican Arts and Culture
3015 West Division Street
Chicago, Illinois 60622
Tel. 773.486.8345
Email:  info@NMPRAC.org
www.nmprac.org

Massachusetts

Inquilinous Boricuas en Acción, Villa Victoria Center for the Arts
405 Shawmut Ave., Boston, MA 02118
Tel. (617) 927-1707
Email: info@ibaboston.org
http://www.ibaboston.org

Michigan

El Museo del Norte Boulevard House
412 W Grand Blvd, Detroit, MI 48216
elmuseodelnorte@gmail.com
http://www.elmuseodelnorte.org

Nebraska 

El Museo Latino
4701 South 25 Street
Omaha, NE 68107
Tel.  (402) 731-1137
Email: info@elmuseolatino.org
www.elmuseolatino.org

Nevada

Museo Hispano de Nevada, Hispanic Museum of Nevada
3680 S. Maryland Parkway
Las Vegas, Nevada 89169
Tel. 702 773 2203
www.hispanicmuseumnv.com

New Mexico

Coronado Historic Site
485 Kuaua, 
Bernalillo, NM 87004
505-867-5351
matthew.barbour@state.nm.us
http://www.nmhistoricsites.org

El Camino Real Historic Trail Site
According to the website, "El Camino Real Historic Site is temporarily closed. Please check back for reopening information."
PO Box 175
Socorro, NM 87801
Tel. 575 854 3600
Email: leslie.bergloff@state.nm.us
http://www.nmhistoricsites.org/el-camino-real

El Rancho de las Golondrinas
334 Los Pinos Road,
Santa Fe, NM 87507
Tel. (505) 471-2261
Email: mail@golondrinas.org
www.golondrinas.org

Millicent Rogers Museum
1504 Millicent Rogers Road
Taos, New Mexico 87571
Tel. 575 7582462
Email: mrm@millicentrogers.org
http://www.millicentrogers.org

National Hispanic Cultural Center
1701 4th Street SW
Albuquerque, NM 87102
Tel. (505) 246-2261
NHCC.Info@state.nm.us
www.nhccnm.org

South Broadway Cultural Center
1025 Broadway Blvd SE, 
Albuquerque, NM 87102
Tel. (505) 848-1320
Email: sbcc@cabq.gov
http://www.cabq.gov/culturalservices/south-broadway-cultural-center

Spanish Colonial Arts Society
PO Box 5378
Santa Fe, NM 87502-5378
Tel. 505 982 2226
http://www.spanishcolonialblog.org/

New York

Americas Society
680 Park Avenue
New York, NY, 10021
Tel. 212-249-8950
Email: alarotta@as-coa.org
www.as-coa.org/visual-arts

El Museo del Barrio gallery in New York City:  The Museo's exhibit program and gallery are designed to educate its diverse public in the richness of Caribbean and Latin American arts and cultural history.

El Museo del Barrio
1230 Fifth Avenue (At 104th Street)
New York NY, 10029
Tel. 212.831.7272 
Email: info@elmuseo.org
www.elmuseo.org

El Taller Boricua
Julia de Burgos Cultural Center
1680 Lexington Ave.
New York, NY 10029
Tel. 212 831 4333
Email: contact@tallerboricua.org
www.tallerboricua.org

Instituto Cervantes
211 East 49th Street. 
New York, NY 10017
Tel. 212.308.7720
Email: recepcion2ny@cervantes.es
http://nyork.cervantes.es/en/default.shtm

La Casita Cultural Center
109 Otisco St., Syracuse, NY 13204
https://lacasita.syr.edu
Tel. 315.443.2151

Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance (NoMAA)
The Cornerstone Center, 178 Bennett Avenue,
3rd Floor, New York,  NY 10040
Email through the website
Tel: 212 568-4396,

The Hispanic Society
613 West 155th Street
New York, NY 10032-7597
Tel. (212) 926-2234
Email: info@hispanicsociety.org
www.hispanicsociety.org

Pennsylvania

Taller Puertorriqueño
2600 North 5th Street
Philadelphia, PA 19133
Tel. 215 426 3311
http://www.tallerpr.org/

Puerto Rico  

Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña
Apartado 9024184
San Juan, Puerto Rico 00902-4184
mgarcia@icp.gobierno.pr
Tel. 787-724-0700
The Institute manages the following museum and historical buildings: Casa Luis Muñoz Rivera, Mausoleo Luis Muñoz Rivera, Museo y Parque Histórico Ruinas de Caparra, Museo Casa Wiechers Villaronga, Museo de la Música (Casa Serrallés), Museo de la Masacre de Ponce, Museo Armstrong Poventud, Museo de Arte Religioso Porta Coeli, Museo Casa Blanca, San Jerónimo de Boquerón, Museo de la Farmacia y la Familia, Parque Ceremonial Indígena de Caguana, Museo Fuerte Conde de Mirasol, Museo Casa Cautiño, Casa Natal José Celso Barbosa
For more information on individual museum go to http://www.icp.gobierno.pr/programas/
museos-y-parques

A Visual Literacy digital interactive for the ActivArte gallery at the Museum of Art of Puerto Rico

Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico
299 Av. José de Diego,
San Juan, 00909, Puerto Rico
Tel. 787-977 6277
Email contact through the website
www.mapr.org

Museo de las Américas (a.k.a. Ballaja)
Cuartel de Ballajá
Segundo piso
Viejo San Juan, Puerto Rico
Tel. 787-724-5052
http://www.museolasamericas.org

Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Puerto Rico
Edificio Histórico Rafael M. de Labra
Ave. Juan Ponce de León,
esquina Ave. Roberto H. Todd
Parada 18, Santurce, Puerto Rico
Email: administracion@mac-pr.org
http://mac-pr.org

Museo de Arte de Bayamón (inside the Luis A. Ferrer Science Park)
Ave. Comerio, Car. 167 Bayamón , 
Puerto Rico 00961
museodeartedebayamon@gmail.com
www.museodeartedebayamon.com

El Museo de Arte de Ponce
# 2325 Ave. Las Américas,
Ponce, Puerto Rico 00717.
Email: info@museoarteponce.org
http://www.museoarteponce.org/

Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico /The Museum of Art of Puerto Rico
299 Av. José de Diego, 
San Juan, 00909, Puerto Rico
Tel. 787-977-6277
(email contact through website)
www.mapr.org

Museo y Centro de Estudios Humanísticos Dra. Josefina Camacho de la Nuez (Universidad del Turabo)
carretera 189 Km. 3.3 Gurabo.
Puerto Rico 
Tel. 787 743 7979
Email contact through the website
http://museo.ut.pr

Museo Francisco Oller
Cll Degetau, 
Bayamón, 00961, Puerto Rico
Tel. 787 785-6010 
no website and email available

Museo de Historia, Antropología y Arte de Río Piedras (Universidad de Puerto Rico)
Av. Universidad, San Juan, 00931, Puerto Rico
Tel. 787 763-3939
Email: museo.universidad@upr.edu. 
http://www.upr.edu/museos-2/museo-de-historia-antropologia-y-arte-de-rio-piedras/

Museo de la Música Puertorriqueña
20, 42 Cll Isabel, 
Ponce, 00730, Puerto Rico
no website
Tel. 787-290-6617

El Museo del Niño (San Juan) has sadly closed.
El Museo de Nuetras Raices Africanas is also closed. The Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña will reopen it as “Museo de la Mujer y el Hombre Negro de Puerto Rico” at an unknown date. 

El Museo del Niño Carolina
Avenida Campo Rico intersección Ave. Fidalgo Diaz Carolina 00983, Avenida Campo Rico, Carolina, Puerto Rico
Tel. 787-257-0261
(email contact through website)
http://www.museodelninocarolina.com

Para la Naturaleza/Conservation Trust de Puerto Rico 
(The trust protects and manages the following historical sites: Cabezas de San Juan, Casa Ramón Power y Giralt, Hacienda Buena Vista, Hacienda Esperenza and numerous natural reserves.) 
155 Calle Tetuán
Viejo San Juan, Puerto Rico 00901 
Tel. 787.722.5834
Email: info@paralanaturaleza. org
www.fideicomiso.org

Texas

Centro Cultural Aztlan
1800 Fredericksburg Road., Suite 103
San Antonio TX 78201
Tel. (210) 432-1896
Email: centroaztlan@sbcglobal.net
www.centroaztlan.org

Centro de Artes Gallery
City of San Antonio Department of Arts & Culture
101 S. Santa Rosa
San Antonio, TX 78207
Tel. 206-ARTS (2787)
Email: arts@sanantonio.gov
www.GetCreativeSanAntonio.com

Neighborhoods and Shared Memories/Nuestros vecindarios sus memorias is a bilingual oral history exhibit composed of cherished photographs, personal mementos and keepsakes from past and present residents of Chihuahuita and El Segundo Barrio. (See more about Bilingual Exhibits.)

El Paso Museum of History
510 N. Santa Fe St.
El Paso, Texas 79901
Tel. 915 212 0320
Email contact through website
www.history.elpasotexas.gov

Esperanza Center
922 San Pedro Avenue
San Antonio, TX 78212
Tel. 210 228 0201
Email contact is through the website
www.esperanzacenter.org

The Instituto de Cultura Hispánica de Corpus Christi
1617 N. Chaparral
Corpus Christi, Texas 78401
Tel. 361-879-0336
Email: ichcctx@sbcglobal.net
http://www.culturahispanicacorpuschristi.org

Latino Cultural Center
2600 Live Oak St
Dallas TX 75204
Tel. 214.671.0045
Email: ichcctx@sbcglobal.net
http://www.dallasculture.org/latinoCulturalCenter

Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center
1300 Guadalupe Street
San Antonio, TX 78207
Tel. 210.271.3151
Email: info@guadalupeculturalarts.org
http://www.guadalupeculturalarts.org/index.html

Mexic Arte Museum
Mailing Address: P.O. Box 2273, Austin, TX 78768
Physical Address: 419 Congress Ave., Austin, TX 78701
Telephone: (512) 480-9373
E-mail: info@mexic-artemuseum.org
www.mexic-artemuseum.org

Washington DC

Anacostia Community Museum 
(This museum has recently produced exhibits of Latino content) 
1901 Fort Pl SE, Washington, DC 20020
Tel. 202 633 4820
Email: ACMinfo@si.edu
http://anacostia.si.edu/Connect

Art Museum of the Americas
201 18th Street NW
Washington DC 20006
202 370 0147
artmus@oas.org
http://www.museum.oas.org

Smithsonian Latino CenterPanamanian Passages/Pasjes Panameños: A temporary exhibit at Smithsonian Centro Dillon Ripley with new strategies of treating bilingual text.  

Smithsonian Latino Center
Capital Gallery
600 Maryland Ave., SW
Suite 7042 MRC 512
Washington, DC 20024
Tel. 202 633-1240
ww.latino.si.edu

Mexican Cultural Institute
2829 16th Street NW DC
Tel. 202 728-1628
Email: culturemexico@instituteofmexicodc.org
www.instituteofmexicodc.org

Museums with Important Latino Collections 
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
515 Malcolm X Boulevard
New York, NY 10037-1801
Tel. (212) 491-2200
http://www.nypl.org/locations/schomburg

LACMA
905 Wilshire Blvd, 
Los Angeles, CA 90036
Tel. 323 857-6000
Email: publicinfo@lacma.org
Collection: Art of the Ancient Americas
http://www.lacma.org/art/collection/art-ancient-americas

The National Museum of the American Indian George Gustav Heye Center, New York
Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House
One Bowling Green
New York, NY 10004
212-514-3700 
NMAI-ny@si.edu
http://www.nmai.si.edu/

Phoenix Art Museum
McDowell Road & Central Avenue
1625 N. Central Avenue
Phoenix, AZ 85004
Tel. 602 257 1222
E-mail: info@phxart.org

Fine Arts Center Colorado Springs
30 West Dale Street
Colorado Springs,
CO 80903
Tel. 719.634.5583
www.csfineartscenter.org/index.asp

Museum of Fine Arts Houston
Latin American Art and Pre-Columbian Art
1001 Bissonnet Houston, Texas 77005
Tel. 713.639.7300
http://www.mfah.org/

LUAG • Lehigh University Art Gallery 
Latin American Art
420 E. Packer Avenue
Bethlehem, PA 18015
Tel. 610-758-3615
http://www.luag.org/pages/home.cfm

Smithsonian Museum of American History
Teodoro Vidal Collection
www.americanhistory.si.edu/vidal/

Arthur Roy Mitchell Memorial Museum of Western Art
Collection of Spanish colonial art
150 East Main St.
Trinidad, Colorado 81082
Tel. 719-846-4224
Email form through website
http://www.armitchellmuseum.com

UTSA Institute of Texan Cultures 
801 E. Cesar E. Chavez Blvd.
San Antonio, TX 78205-3296
Tel. 210-458-2300
Email is through the website
www.texancultures.com

 

 

If your institution is not mentioned here and you think that it should be, please contact us at mariano@museumenvironments.com.

 

El Museo del Barrio

El Museo del Barrio reopened after renovations with a fresh new look, two new exhibits and celebrating a 40th anniversary. The extensive $35 million, six-years-in-the-making rehab work has added a welcoming new  courtyard and refurbished galleries. Julián Zugazagoitía, the museum’s director, said the renovation “represents an achievement that celebrates the importance of the Latino community and the possibility of offering the best in the creative aspect.” The exhibits were curated by Elvis Fuentes and Deborah Cullen. 

 

Exhibit design el Museo del Barrio
Art exhibition design El Museo del Barrio

The exhibit design engages the audience through a variety of interpretive elements that allows for multiple ways of entering the content.  

Art exhibition design El Museo del Barrio

The goal of our exhibit design was to produced the proper balance between interpretive content and the art objects. The design strategically placed interpretive panels on a horizontal plan as not to compete with the visual integrity of the curation.  

The exhibit contains a substancial historical dimension that was important to understand in order to grasp the relationship between the art works. 

 

 

This is a show that makes you want to know more. Seeing it is like exploring a rich archive, still in the process of being sorted out.-- Christopher Knight, Los Angeles Times
Bilingual exhibition design El Museo del Barrio

The design sought elegant solutions to the bilingual presentation of text. 

Design of permanent galley with video projection showing a time-line on the growth of the museum's collection. 

Press reviews of the exhibit:

New York Times: Art Currents Flow Two Ways in Pan-American City, U.S.A. By Holland Cotter 

Los Angeles Times: Critic's Notebook: El Museo del Barrio reopens with 'Nexus New York' by Christopher Knight

Huffington Post: El Museo del Barrio: Fifth Avenue on Fire by Jim Luce

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