Constance Cortez

"Generative Rhizomes: Extending Digital Discovery of Mexican American Art" builds a new gateway, Rhizomes of Mexican American Art since 1848. Informed by the software that comprises Umbra Search: African American History, a digital aggregating portal created at University of Minnesota, Rhizomes is a post-custodial tool that harvests over 7,500 assets from the Digital Public Library of America, Calisphere, the Portal of Texas History, and the Smithsonian Institution. It becomes the first national-level digital portal focusing on Mexican American Art. The project integrates diverse and interdisciplinary communities through workshops training new users on both portals. Communities vary: from the Smithsonian Latino Center to Hispanic-serving institutions, such as the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley; the Universities of Houston and New Mexico; K-12 educators and teacher trainers; and graduate and early career scholars interested in Latinx Digital Humanities careers. Generative Rhizomes also creates a toolkit to support cost-effective methods for future post-custodial gateways.

The University of Minnesota, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, National Museum of Mexican Art (Chicago), and Mexic-Arte Museum (Austin) propose an 18-month collaboration to ready publication of 8,100+ items on the museums’ websites and open-source tool, Mexican American Art Since 1848, that progressively links US libraries, archives, and museums. We propose to 1) enhance and implement the Protocol for Partnering with Small-Budget Cultural Institutions; 2) test digitization workflows for various media; 3) develop cataloging practices to support dissemination of these museums’ knowledge; 4) with students, increase community engagement with the portal and scale-up overtime; and 5) enrich sustainability plans. Our work empowers Mexican American cultural institutions and artistic heritage.