Wheaton presents Latin American art

Note: To read a Boston Globe feature on this exhibition, click here (link opens new window).

An exhibition of some of the most important Latin American artists of the last half-century opens at Wheaton College's Beard and Weil Galleries on February 4 and continues through April 10.

In addition to showcasing the internationally celebrated collection of alumna Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, the exhibition highlights a multi-level collaboration among Wheaton students, faculty and staff and the Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, which is the primary visual arts program of the Caracas-based Fundación Cisneros. The exhibition is open to the public and will be a resource for a specially developed arts-education program to be implemented at some of the public schools in the Norton, Mass., area.

Entitled Correspondences: Contemporary Art from the Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, the exhibition features 34 works that illuminate the range and sophistication of modern and contemporary Latin American art. It demonstrates various ways in which many artists, working in diverse mediums, have reinterpreted the act of drawing: as an emotional experience, a graphic representation of reality, a work in progress, or a conceptual strategy.

The title refers to the links, or correspondences, among the contemporary works in the exhibition and between the works of certain modern and contemporary artists. The artists featured include Alejandro Otero, Hélio Oiticica, Ana Mendieta, Sigfredo Chacón and Ernesto Neto, to name a few.

Over the past few months, students have worked with Wheaton faculty members and Cisneros curators and educators to produce a catalog that accompanies the exhibition. Thirteen students conducted research and wrote interpretive commentaries on individual artworks featured in the catalog.

"The collaboration has meant a tremendous amount to me," said Wheaton junior Jennifer Valentino, who wrote a catalog entry and prepared the initial research on all of the artists that students wrote about. "As a college student, it is wonderful to have the chance to research, interview, visit and write about such prominent contemporary Latin American artists." Valentino also was a summer intern for the Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros.

In addition to writing for the catalog, Wheaton students have worked under the direction of María del Carmen González, the CPPC's curator of international education programs, to create a special teachers' guide to accompany the collection's education program Piensa en Arte, which will be implemented in area schools in conjunction with the exhibition.

For Piensa en Arte, teachers are trained to conduct carefully guided conversations about art that help to improve children's observational, expressive-language and critical-thinking skills. Wheaton education students have undergone intensive training in preparation for introducing the program to K-3 school children in local schools.

Claire Mallette, a second-grade teacher at a public school in Attleboro, Mass., said she hopes to use the teaching guide in the spring. She believes the visual arts program will help children with vocabulary development, the application of geometric principles, and cultural appreciation.

"For both the student and the teacher, this project helps improve awareness and understanding of contemporary Latin American modern artists and their work," said Mallette, a visiting instructor of education at Wheaton who works with student teachers.

The Beard and Weil Galleries offer a varied program of exhibitions and lectures for the college community and general public. In addition to featuring contemporary art in all mediums, the galleries present thematic exhibitions based on works from the permanent collection of Wheaton College or borrowed from other institutions and private collections. The galleries are open Monday through Saturday from 12:30 to 4:30 p.m.; closed during spring break, March 7 through 16.