BALTIMORE--Amalia Mesa-Bains is an educator, artist and cultural critic. Her art works, primarily interpretations of traditional Chicano altars, resonate both in contemporary formal terms and in their ties to her Chicano community and history. As an author of scholarly articles and a nationally known lecturer on Chicano art, she has enhanced understanding of multi-culturalism and reflected major cultural and demographic shifts in the United States. She is a recipient of a distinguished MacArthur Fellowship. Mesa-Bains is currently developing the New World Wunderkammer for the 50th anniversary of the UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History in which she has created a new set of Cabinets of Curiosities integrating objects from the Fowler collections.

Mesa-Bains will be lecturing on the connection between the artist, the museum and the community in a changing demographic diversity. Using examples from her own work and the work of peers, she will explore the concept of engagement for the artist.  The Lecture will be held in the Graduate Studio Center Auditorium on Tuesday, Nov. 12 from 7–9 p.m.

This lecture is sponsored by MICA's MFA in Community Arts (MFACA), MFA in Curatorial Practice and Mixed Media Speaker Series.