The Palacio Podcast
Dr. Lourdes Ramos-Rivas Talks Art, Culture, and Molaa
Dr. Lourdes Ramos-Rivas has been on the job less than a year as the new President and CEO of the Museum of Latin American Art (Molaa) in Long Beach. She is settling into a new city and a challenging job with great ambitions and a vision for the future of the more than 20-year-old institution. However, you might excuse her a little if her heart and soul drifts away to think about her other home, Puerto Rico. Before Molaa, Dr. Lourdes Ramos-Rivas was the Director of the Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico, the Director of the Museo de San Juan, and the Director/curator of the national collection of the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture.
Hurricane Maria ravaged through her homeland impacting millions of people, her family included.
“…I’m so sad about my Island, about my people, and also about Puerto Rico’s patrimony because it’s in danger right now. Many museums don’t have electricity.”
The lack of that electrical power threatens the collections of museums where climate controlled environments are needed to protect the cultural works on display and in storage.
“The country is in pain. A huge catastrophe. I take care of some of my family and friends but it is very painful situation.”
Dr. Lourdes Ramos-Rivas
PalacioMagazine.com interviewed Dr. Lourdes Ramos-Rivas in her offices at the Museum of Latin American Art about her professional journey from Puerto Rico to Long Beach, her vision for Molaa, and the future of museums in the digital age.
Dr. Lourdes Ramos-Rivas describes herself
…as a very spiritual multi-tasking professional human being who tries to do her best.
“I try to make my best with all the resources that I have…in general, I am a free spirit.”
That free spirit must have come from her early years in Puerto Rico. Dr. Ramos-Rivas grew up on the west side of the island of Puerto Rico in San Germán.
“My mother and my father [were] both an example of doing the best for my brother and I.”
Dr. Ramos-Rivas’s father was first a technician and then a producer in the cinema world. Relatives on her father’s side were musicians. On her mother’s side, healthcare was the career.
Dr. Lourdes Ramos-Rivas on her Career Path
She began her art career as a sculptor and went to the Interamerican University of Puerto Rico to become a painter where she received her B.A. in Fine Arts. That was followed by an M.A. in Fine Arts from the Illinois State University and then a Ph. D. in Fine Arts at the University of Barcelona, Spain, with a concentration in Arts Administration. It was only up from there: Director/Curator of the national collection of the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture; Director of the Museo de San Juan; and Director of the Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico. Dr. Lourdes Ramos-Rivas also completed a fellowship at the Museo Nacional Centre de Arte Reina Sofia in Madrid.
I asked Molaa’s new President and CEO why she traveled more than 33-hundred miles from Puerto Rico to Long Beach.
“Why Molaa? Because I really perceive that this is the right time to be in the United States and California is a very particular place…because of the immigration process, because of the diversity, and because of the context of California as an immigrant…where the cultures start to grow in an exponential way.”
The Museum of Latin American Art has opened up its mission to include Latino American Art. She wants to be a part of that continuing transition.
“…to help in the crossover, work with Chicano artists, with Latino artists, and with Latin American Artists with a more open mind…”
Dr. Lourdes Ramos-Rivas is also encouraged by the support for the arts in Long Beach.
“…And then I look at the desire of the community to enjoy culture…you can feel that the city is very vibrant, the city is strong in its personal Long Beach way.”
The Digital Challenge for Museums
The challenge for any museum these days is getting a generation of young people through its doors. I described to Dr. Ramos-Rivas a scene in a museum where visitors are taking selfies with their smartphones in front of the artwork. Museums must adjust to a new kind of visitor that has been raised in a digital world.
“Museums are not [for] storage anymore. The museum is something to live with. The museum is part of the environment of the city. The museum is more than a building.”
For Dr. Ramos-Rivas, museums cannot exist without humans interacting with them. For this current generation, you have to adjust to their digital media world.
“You have to more media oriented. You have to be more selfie oriented. You have to be more digitalized and new media oriented.”
Dr. Lourdes Ramos-Rivas explained how many museums are building up their marketing and the experience of museum-going to attract a whole new generation of museum visitors. This especially true for young people who are, as Dr. Ramon-Rivas describes them, “…born today with a computer in their hands.”
“You have to talk the same language that they talk, communicate in the same way that they communicate.”
Visit the Museum of Latin American Art
The Museum of Latin American Art is currently exhibiting Relational Undercurrents: Contemporary Art of the Caribbean Archipelago, curated by Tatiana Flores, is MOLAA’s Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA exhibition. The exhibition features painting, installation art, sculpture, photography, video, and performance from 80 artists with roots in Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Curaçao, Aruba, St. Maarten, St. Martin, Martinique, Guadeloupe, Trinidad, Jamaica, The Bahamas, Barbados, and St. Vincent. PalacioMagazine.com has interviewed five of the artists and you can listen to their interviews HERE.
You can find more information about the Museum of Latin American Art HERE.
