The Latin American Census of Contemporary Art is a collaborative initiative programmed for April of 2015, intended to determine how many artists and contemporary art workers are there in Latin America, where they reside and work (and in what conditions), how they organize themselves, and their relationships with art institutions and policies. Artists, curators, researchers, managers, gallery owners, functionaries, high school teachers and college professors, journalists and other who were born, live, or work in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Uruguay, and Venezuela participate in the Census. The census initiative began with the work of Curatoría Forense - Latinoamérica (
www.curatoriaforense.net), on the basis of ideas debated at Trabajadores de Arte Contemporáneo (
www.trabajadoresdearte.org) and the Gestiones Autónomas network (
www.gestionautonomadearte.net). It has the support of several media partners in the countries in which it will take place. The census data will reveal how many artists and art workers make their living from the sale of artworks or from teaching, whether they need to work in other occupations, whether they complete their projects thanks to public funding, etc. We will be able to estimate as well the size of the regional and provincial art scenes, which are key for the newest community-based art. Compiling this information is extremely important for an understanding of the number of contemporary art workers, and of their working conditions. This will allow the general public, artists and workers, organizations and institutions (public and private) measure the effective influence of their production and their modes of organization. The data gathered will be subjected to statistical analyses and used in reports both regional and by country. These will be available through a website (
www.censodearte.org) in late June, 2015, and will be provided to the participating institutions and media. To participate and for more information:
http://www.censodearte.org/