Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Latina appointed to National Council on the Arts

Maria Lopez de Leon
President Obama Appoints María López De León as Member of the National Council on the Arts

SAN ANTONIO, TX -- The National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures (NALAC), is proud to announce the Presidential appointment of NALAC Executive Director and Board member, María López De León as a Member of National Council on the Arts.

María López De León will join the 18-member National Council that advises the Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts on agency policy and programs.

Ms. De León was nominated by President Obama in May 2012 and was confirmed by the Senate on January 1, 2013. She will be taking the oath of office on February 6, 2013.

“This appointment marks María López De León’s next phase in a brilliant career serving Latino arts and artists throughout the country," said NALAC Board Member Rosalba Rolon, who also serves as Artistic Director for Teatro Pregones.  "Her organizing experience and her passion for serving others have contributed to her path as an extraordinary leader. The arts field in general, and our Latino arts field in particular, just took another step forward with this appointment. I am proud to call her a friend, a colleague and an inspiration.”

"This is a proud and powerful moment for the Latino arts field and for arts in America," says Charles Rice-Gonzalez, NALAC Board Chair and Artistic Director of Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance. "María López De León has been a leader and change agent in her community. She has taken those skills to lead NALAC for the last 10 years and has transformed our organization’s grass roots beginning to make it a sound national voice for artists and arts organizations. She has had her ear and heart to the ground and she brings her wealth of talent and experience to serve on the National Council on the Arts.”

Ms. De León is the longtime national Executive Director of NALAC, headquartered in the West Side of San Antonio. With over twenty years of multifaceted experience in grass roots community efforts, Ms. De León continues to work with community based organizations, while serving on multiple arts and culture policy panels across the country.

Ms. De León is a fellow of the Rockwood Leadership Institute and the Wallace Foundation Leadership in Excellence and Arts Participation (LEAP) program. She is a board member of the First People's Fund, an advisory council member of San Anto Cultural Arts, and an advisory council member of the Women of Color in the Arts. She studied Journalism at the University of Texas at El Paso. María López De León was born and raised in Hondo, Texas, and has been a resident of San Antonio, Texas, for almost twenty years.

Most recently, Ms. De León was named among the nation's 2012 Fifty Most Powerful and Influential People in the Nonprofit Arts by the Fifth annual Barry’s Blog listing of the Western States Arts Federation and was selected to serve in an 11-member national artist advisory panel to help review the Kennedy Center Honors selection process.

“Maria has been instrumental in highlighting the rich history of art in San Antonio for over a decade," says Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Tx.  "I am proud to know that she will take her experience and insight to the national stage and continue to promote the great contributions of Latino artists to the United States.”


The National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures (NALAC) is a legacy organization investing in the Latino heritage of this nation.  For over 23 years, NALAC has built a strong foundation for the promotion of Latino arts and culture and its advocacy efforts have advanced issues of cultural equity and raised the visibility and understanding of Latino artistic and cultural expression.  NALAC serves the Latino arts field with programs that provide leadership training, foster innovation and creativity and sustainability. 

Since October 2012, NALAC has been engaged in dialogue with the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts to pursue positive changes in the Kennedy Center Honors program and discuss expansion of its other programs to be more inclusive of our nation’s diverse heritage. We realize that in the case of the Kennedy Center Honors program, such inclusivity is not reflected and NALAC shares in the collective concern for change in this program.  


Tuesday, January 29, 2013

VARIETY: Latina to launch talent agency in L.A.

Mexican talent agency CEO Fabiola Pena to lead World Talent House
By Anna Marie De La Fuente, Variety

Good news for Latino talent in the U.S.: A Latino talent agency dubbed World Talent House (WTH) is setting up shop in Los Angeles, California.

Fabiola Pena, founder and CEO of the first talent agency in Mexico, Talent on the Road, will be at the helm. Pena plans to continue shuttling between Mexico City and LA and is grooming two staffers for the Santa Monica-based office.

Pena founded Talent on the Road in 1998 in a bid to professionalize the casting process in Mexico. Up to 10 talent agencies of varying sizes followed suit.

"It's important to establish a niche in this big business," Pena said."We expect to be packaging TV series for the likes of Univision, Telemundo, MundoFox, Televisa, etc."

WTH's content division, run by Mexico City-based Samara Ibrahim, offers a team of inhouse scribes to develop and provide analysis of new content for television, film and the theatre.

WTH launch comes at a time when demand for Latino talent is on the rise in the U.S. as studios and television networks respond to the growing clout of the U.S. Hispanic market. WTH will rep thesps, scribes and helmers from Mexico, Spain, Colombia and Argentina in its initial growth phase. Current client roster includes Vanessa Bauche ("Amores Perros"), Jan Cornet ("The Skin I Live In"), Damian Alcazar ("La Ley de Herodes"), Manolo Cardona ("The Snitch Cartel") and Paulina Gaitan (ABC's "The River," "Sin Nombre").

For some Latino talent already inked with U.S.-based tenpercenteries, WTH will rep them solely for Latin American productions. This client roster includes Edgar Ramirez ("Zero Dark Thirty"), Leonor Varela ("Dallas") and Elena Anaya ("The Skin I Live In").

Official launch presentation of WTH is slated for Tuesday at the Soho House in West Hollywood.

SOURCE: Variety

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Kennedy Center Honors establishes Latino Advisory Committee

The Kennedy Center Announces Review of Kennedy Center Honors Selection Process

WASHINGTON, D.C -- Michael M. Kaiser, President of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, today announced a review of the Kennedy Center Honors selection process. This review is part of a thorough and extensive process to improve the process so the Honors program continues to reflect the full range of artistic excellence in the years ahead. In addition, the Kennedy Center will also form a Latino Advisory Committee to establish a more open and collaborative engagement with the Hispanic community.

In September of last year, the Kennedy Center board of trustees formed a committee co-chaired by Kennedy Center Chairman David M. Rubenstein and Elaine Wynn to identify improvements to the Honoree selection process. Additionally, an 11-member artist advisory panel has been created and has begun work. This panel includes Gabriel Abaroa, President and CEO of the Latin Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences; actress Debbie Allen, Roberto Bedoya, Executive Director of Tucson Prima Arts Council; Maria de Leon, Executive Director of the National Association of Latino Arts and Culture; Broadway actor Rául Esparza; cellist Yo-Yo Ma; former congressman and Cabinet secretary Norman Mineta; Joseph Polisi, President of The Juilliard School; Thomas A. Saenz, President and General Counsel of MALDEF; Carlton Turner of Alternate ROOTS; and Damian Woetzel, dancer and member of the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities.

The Kennedy Center expects these committees to complete their work and make recommendations to the Center's full board of trustees in advance of the 2013 Kennedy Center Honors selection process. "Over the course of 35 years, the Kennedy Center Honors has grown in stature and importance to become the preeminent award for cultural achievement in the United States," stated Kennedy Center President Michael M. Kaiser. "While the Center has a strong track record of diversity throughout its other performance, education and arts education programs, it is important to undertake this review process to ensure the Honors reflect the diversity of those who have contributed to American culture."

In addition to the Honors process, the Kennedy Center is committed to bolstering both its track record on diversity and its relationship with the Hispanic community. To this end, the Center will form a Latino Advisory Committee which will meet quarterly to focus on these key goals.

As the national center for the performing arts, the Kennedy Center embraces its mandate to present the very finest in the performing arts, locally, nationally, and internationally. Since its earliest days, the Center has featured preeminent artists and a full range of programming from around the world. Like so many other cultural heritages and traditions represented on Kennedy Center stages, Latino arts and programs have enjoyed a consistent and dynamic presence. Beyond its own stages, the Kennedy Center has included Hispanic artistic cultural organizations in outreach and educational programming, which reaches millions of people of all ages in every U.S. state each year.

Since 2001, the Kennedy Center Arts Management Institute, now named the DeVos Institute of Arts Management at the Kennedy Center, has mentored and trained thousands of arts managers at all levels of professional development. To date, the Institute has worked with more than 50 Latino arts organizations in order to strengthen and build these groups which are so important to the cultural tapestry in the United States and abroad.

For more information about the Kennedy Center, visit www.kennedy-center.org.

Please visit facebook.com/kennedycenter for behind-the-scenes news, special offers, advance notice of events and other related Kennedy Center Facebook pages.

Patrons 30 and under and active-duty members of the military are invited to join the Kennedy Center's MyTix program for special discount offers and chances to win free tickets. For more information, visit www.kennedy-center.org/mytix. MyTix is part of the Rubenstein Arts Access Program.