California Awards $9.7 Million to Actor Cheech Marin's Chicano Art Museum

Actor comedian Cheech Marin's Chicano art museum is one step closer to reality after Jerry Brown, California’s governor, signed a bill that makes it closer to its fundraising goal thanks to a $9.7 million grant.

As Hyperallergic reported, the funding will repurpose a 60,000 square-foot building in Riverside, east of Los Angeles, soon to be a former library, into a museum nicknamed "The Cheech" by Marin himself. The space will house Marin’s collection of Chicano Art and will also provide exhibition space and serve as a research and educational facility for the field.

Before the $9.7 million was earmarked for the museum as part of the state’s $139 billion general fund budget, Marin and the Riverside Art Museum had already raised approximately $3 million since plans for the museum were unveiled last year, Hyperallergic and AP wrote.

The Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art, Culture, and Industry is scheduled to open in 2020.

According to artnet news, Riverside Assembly member Jose Medina, who proposed and pushed for the funding from the state legislature, said that "for too long, the story of Latinos and their contributions to the arts have been overlooked." The Cheech, Medina added, "will help bring the real stories and rich history of the Latino community to all Californians."

Read the artnet news article here.

Read a GIA post on arts education and the California state budget.

Image: Facebook / Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art, Culture, and Industry