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| Hemispheric Institute | |
|---|---|
| Name | Hemispheric Institute |
| Formation | 2000 |
| Type | Research and cultural organization |
| Location | New York City, United States |
| Leader title | Director |
Hemispheric Institute is a transnational research and performance network focused on cultural and political practices across the Americas, linking scholars, artists, institutions, and communities. It engages with performance studies, visual arts, activism, and archival work through conferences, laboratories, publications, and digital platforms. The Institute organizes events and collaborates with universities, museums, festivals, and community groups throughout the Western Hemisphere.
Founded in 2000, the organization emerged amid debates involving New York University, Columbia University, Harvard University, University of California, Berkeley, and University of Chicago scholars interested in transnational inquiry. Early convenings brought together figures associated with José Esteban Muñoz, Donna Haraway, Paul Gilroy, Stuart Hall, and Walter Benjamin scholarship, alongside artists linked to Efrain Mendez, Cecilia Vicuña, and Tania Bruguera circuits. Institutional affiliations and partnerships rapidly expanded to include cultural organizations such as the Museum of Modern Art, Walker Art Center, Whitney Museum of American Art, and festivals like Bienal de São Paulo, Documenta, and Venice Biennale. The Institute’s archives and events intersected with projects involving Archivo General de la Nación (Mexico), Biblioteca Nacional de Chile, Archivo General de la Nación (Peru), and regional networks like CLACSO and Red de Teatros. Over time, programming reflected dialogues with movements and moments including Zapatista Army of National Liberation, Movimiento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra, Argentine Dirty War, and Brazilian military dictatorship memory work.
The mission emphasizes interdisciplinary exchange among practitioners from contexts such as Mexico City, São Paulo, Buenos Aires, Havana, and Toronto. Core programs have included biennial forums, peer-led laboratories, and traveling symposia that involve partners like Teatro Oficina, Centro Cultural Kirchner, Casa de las Américas, and Instituto Cervantes. Educational initiatives have tied into curricula at University of California, Los Angeles, University of Texas at Austin, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, and Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. Programmatic strands respond to urgencies named in dialogues with activists from Mujeres indígenas, Comités de Defensa, and Movimiento Estudiantil formations, as well as artists represented by Galería Travesía, Galería Nara Roesler, and Galería Cecilia Brunson Projects.
Scholarly output includes edited volumes, journals, and digital scholarship engaging names such as Judith Butler, Homi K. Bhabha, Bruno Latour, Aníbal Quijano, and Gloria Anzaldúa in conversations about performance, decoloniality, and feminist practice. Publications have appeared through university presses including Duke University Press, University of Minnesota Press, Routledge, and Palgrave Macmillan, and have been cited alongside work from Latin American Research Review, TDR (The Drama Review), and L'Année Sociologique. Digital archives and resources connect to repositories like JSTOR, Project MUSE, HathiTrust, and regional platforms such as Redalyc and SciELO. Editorial collaborations have involved editors and contributors affiliated with NYU Press, Columbia University Press, Fordham University Press, and University of Texas Press.
Major initiatives have included traveling laboratories, digital performance archives, and collaborative commissions that intersect with festivals and institutions like Festival de Buenos Aires, Mercosul Biennial, Festival Internacional Cervantino, and São Paulo International Film Festival. Conservation and archival projects have connected with Archivo de Indias, National Archives and Records Administration, Archivo General de la Nación (Colombia), and museum conservation programs at the Smithsonian Institution. Community-based initiatives have partnered with organizations such as Black Lives Matter, Movimiento por Justicia del Barrio, Red de Migrantes, and labor and indigenous groups tied to CONAIE and CNI (National Indigenous Congress).
The network maintains collaborative ties with academic departments at New York University Gallatin School, Columbia School of the Arts, Yale School of Drama, Princeton University, and Brown University. Cultural partners include Theater for the New City, La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club, National Endowment for the Arts, Ford Foundation, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Guggenheim Foundation, and municipal cultural agencies in Buenos Aires, Mexico City, and Lima. Transnational research alliances have involved Carnegie Corporation, Open Society Foundations, UNESCO, Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, and inter-university consortia such as Association of American Universities.
Governance structures have featured advisory councils, steering committees, and boards composed of academics, artists, and cultural managers drawn from institutions like NYU Tisch School of the Arts, UCLA Department of World Arts and Cultures, Universidad de los Andes (Colombia), and Universidad de Puerto Rico. Funding sources have included grants from philanthropic entities—Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Ford Foundation, MacArthur Foundation—as well as project support from government agencies like National Endowment for the Humanities and private benefactors associated with foundations such as Carnegie Corporation and Rockefeller Foundation.
Reception in scholarly and artistic communities links the Institute to debates on decolonial theory, performance ethnography, and cultural policy, engaging critics and practitioners connected to Aníbal Quijano, Walter Mignolo, María Lugones, Enrique Dussel, and Svetlana Alexievich. Reviews and citations appear in journals and media outlets including The New York Times, The Guardian, La Jornada, El País, and academic journals like Public Culture and Latin American Perspectives. The Institute’s programs have influenced university curricula, museum exhibitions, and activist-cultural collaborations across cities such as Mexico City, São Paulo, Buenos Aires, Havana, and San Juan.
Category:Cultural organizations