ALIANZA DE MUSEOS DE PUERTO RICO

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________The Tiznando el Pais: Visualidades y Representaciones program is a project about historical reparation through the visibility and representation of Black and Afro-descendant people in the arts and cultural work in Puerto Rico and its diaspora.The project seeks to highlight Afro-Puerto Rican artists in the country's art history. Through research, exhibitions, educational resources, and institutional collaborations, Tiznando el Pais works to decolonize the artistic ecosystem, promoting an inclusive narrative that acknowledges the Afro-descendant heritage of Puerto Rico and its diaspora. The Program's goal is to encourage an anti-racist and liberating approach to education through art and culture, engaging artists, curators, educators, students, and communities. Tiznando el Pais has reached over 150 organizations, artists, and collectives in Puerto Rico and in several U.S. cities with strong Puerto Rican communities. This includes museums, community organizations, and artist-run spaces that responded to open calls launched by the University of Puerto Rico and the AMPR. The initiatives explore Blackness and Afro-descendance from the perspective of Puerto Rico's colonial reality, aligning with the Decade's core values: Recognition, Justice, and Development. Funded by the Mellon Foundation and the Flamboyan Arts Fund, the Program offers a critical and comprehensive perspective on racism in the arts and on the visual production of Black and Afro-descendant artists in Puerto Rico. It aims to restore their rightful place in the artistic landscape of Puerto Rico and the Americas, celebrating their contributions to the island's visual culture and reaffirming their significance through a transformative and educational approach. The Program's accomplishments during 2024 include: (1) Press conference held to present the achievements accomplished during the first two years of the project implementation, as well as details of the second development phase within the framework of the Second International Decade for People of African Descent. The event also introduced the Program's transmedia agenda, which includes the launch of the project website (tiznandoelpais.org), the premiere on Telemundo of the seven-episode television series GRIOT 2124, the exhibition and educational programming, and the publication of books, catalogs, and pedagogical resources for students, the general public, and people with functional diversity; (2) initiate the planning of the Virtual Seminar on Critical Writing, a collaboration between the AMPR and Contemporary&, designed for emerging curators. Fifteen young participants from various regions of Puerto Rico will take part in this initiative, centered in an antiracist and decolonial perspective; (3) development of a media plan and establishment of agreements with specialized media outlets in Puerto Rico, the United States, Europe, and Latin America for the publication of advertising features about the project and its outputs. Notable outlets include Artishock, Hyperallergic, The Art Newspaper, and El Nuevo Día (ENDI); (4) dissemination of project content on social media, significantly strengthening its visibility and reach at both local and international levels; (5) promotion and financial support for approximately 30 exhibitions, along with their artists, cultural managers, and educational projects, in museums and community spaces across different regions of the Puerto Rican archipelago and several cities in the United States; (6) positioning Puerto Rico within the global antiracist and anticolonial dialogue in the arts, both nationally and internationally. This achievement is reflected in the participation of individuals from various countries in the press conference, increased website and social media engagement, invitations to present the project in Colombia, Spain, Panama, and the United States, and in the collaboration proposal received from the Association of African American Museums to jointly host their annual convention in Puerto Rico in 2029; (7) commenced the production of a television program, which serves as both a documentary record of the exhibition program and a standalone audiovisual artwork that highlights the creativity of its director and the artistic team involved; (8) achieved a greater level of integration with Puerto Rican diaspora collectives and institutions in the United States, as well as between museums and community organizations, fostering the development of collaborative projects. Several initiatives have conducted intra-archipelagic exchanges, allowing the generated content to reach broader audiences; (9) Community organizations, such as the Ismael Rivera Foundation, have been able to keep their facilities open and continue offering educational services to the public, thanks to established collaborations and the financial support received; (10) the LGBTQ+ community has achieved a significant presence within the project, contributing through several exhibition, performance, and editorial initiatives.