Latino Museum Opens, for Now

Leaders of the Latino Museum of History, Art and Culture say they’re in search of a new home. But in the meantime, the downtown museum on Friday is opening its first public show in more than a year.

“Tengo Casi 500 Anos: Africa’s Legacy in Mexico” is the work of Los Angeles-based photographer Tony Gleaton. Gleaton has spent more than 15 years on a project documenting African influences in the Americas, and the Latino Museum exhibition is to include 45 black-and-white photographs of Latin Americans with African heritage.

Beginning this week, the museum, 112 S. Main St., downtown L.A., will open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Fridays and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays through March 17. The exhibition is free.

The Latino Museum opened downtown in 1998, but has struggled with debts and has no paid staff. Though the facility has been the site of occasional special events, its last public exhibition closed in September 2000. Museum officials said they’ve hired temporary consultants to staff the upcoming exhibition. A spokesman for the museum said the images have been shown previously as part of a Smithsonian Institution exhibition that traveled to several U.S. museums from 1993 to 1995.

The museum’s future location remains a question. City officials have announced plans to buy seven properties on the museum’s block, then trade them to the state so that Caltrans can build an office there. Construction of the Caltrans office is scheduled to begin in 2003.

Late last year, the museum’s board president, Juan Gomez-Quinones, suggested that the museum might try to resist the city and keep its downtown location. But talks between city and museum officials have advanced since then, and museum board member Carlos Haro said a move now appears inevitable. The question, he said, is where.

“There’s probably not going to be a permanent site right away, so we’re looking for temporary facilities,” said Haro, assistant dean for international studies at UCLA. In the search for a new site, Haro said, a downtown location is “a definite must.” He said he expects the museum to move this year, perhaps so soon that a planned photo exhibition on day laborers, scheduled to open March 28, may take place at a new location. (For more information on the museum: www.thelati nomuseum.org.)

“The issue right now is trying to identify alternative locations. We’re working very well together,” said Gerry Miller, the city’s assistant chief legislative analyst. The last city-museum meeting was Jan. 31, Miller said, adding that of seven properties sought by the city on the museum’s block, three have closed escrow, two were in escrow as of Monday, and two, including the museum, remained in negotiation.