CONEXIONES

OVERVIEW & MISSION

Conexiones: Latino Arts @ WAA is WAA’s special interest group for artists, agents, presenters, and anyone interested in building authentic, sustainable, and equitable relationships and conexiones (connections) with Latinx artists or audiences.  

Conexiones is dedicated to advancing Latinx engagement, participation, and programming at Western Arts Alliance and communities across the West, and to integrating the presenting industry and Latinx artists and communities.  

PROGRAM HISTORY

WAA formed Conexiones as a result of the 2014 WAA Institute, which focused specifically on the changing demographics of the West. The four-day program — titled The Emerging Latino Majority — was held in San Antonio, Texas, during the city’s annual Luminaria Contemporary Arts Festival.  

The program opened with a Tamalada — a traditional community gathering that honors the Mexican/Mexican-American tradition of making tamales — and included activities such as guided tours of San Antonio’s institutions, venues, and Latinx communities. Panel topics included Riding the Waves of a Sea-Change: Demographic Transformation as seen from Within, exploring the opportunities, challenges, and rewards of social, political, cultural, and educational demographic transformation; Hispanics & Philanthropy, examining the issues, challenges, and rewards of engaging Hispanic volunteers, board members, and donors; and Meet the Emerging Majority: Understanding Cultural Participation of Young Hispanics, a facilitated focus group of young Palo Alto College students exploring cultural appreciation, participation and preference among the millennial Latinx community. You can see the 2014 at-a-glance schedule here. 

In 2016, Conexiones held a pre-conference seminar in Los Angeles entitled Engaging Latino Artists & Audiences. In 2018, the initiative conducted a survey designed to establish a baseline measure of Latinx programming and engagement to identify presenter needs, interests, and challenges for Latinx arts and communities.  

The COVID-19 pandemic unfortunately thwarted plans for a 2020 Conexiones program in Tijuana, Mexico. Still, the Conexiones affinity group gathered virtually at the 2020 joint conference and held roundtable and affinity sessions at the 2021 conference in Portland, Oregon.