Founded in 1936, the Academia Nacional de Bellas Artes in Argentina includes some of the most prominent figures in the art world. On September 23, 2010, the Academy organized a public event at the Museo Nacional de Arte Decorativo in the City of Buenos Aires, to announce the incorporation of new scholars. Ivonne Pini (Uruguay-Colombia) and Elena Oliveras (Argentina) are among the new scholars who are now members of this institution. Their incorporations represent the recognition of their prolific trajectories in the fields of historical research and art theory and are supported by a long list of authored publications. Ivonne Pini is the current Executive Editor at ArtNexus, a Full Professor Emeritus in the Doctoral Program in Art and Architecture at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, and Professor in the Art Department at the Universidad de Los Andes.
From left to right: Ricardo Blanco, Guillermo Scarabino, Ramón Gutiérrez, Julio Martín-Viera, Jorge Taverna-Irigoyen, Jorge Tapia, Mariana Liliana Giordano, Carlos Sánchez-Vacca, Alberto Bastón-Díaz, and Matilde Marín.
For her part, Elena Oliveras Editorial Advisor and permanent collaborator at ArtNexus is a Full Professor of Art Criticism at the Universidad del Salvador and Associate Professor of Aesthetics at the Universidad de Buenos Aires. Another two collaborators of ArtNexus are among the members also incorporated into the Academia Nacional de Bellas Artes in Argentina: Nelly Perazzo, and Jorge López-Anaya (recently deceased). Composer Julio Martín-Viera, architect Justo Solsona, and painter Eduardo Stupía were other full professors who were also admitted in 2010. Additionally announced were the admissions of other scholars who reside outside of Argentina: Isabel Cruz de Amenábar (Chile); Jaime Cuadriello-Aguilar (Mexico); Teresa Gisbert-Carbonell (Bolivia); anthropologist Ramón Mujica-Pinilla (Peru); visual artists Olga de Amaral (Colombia), Panisello (Spain), and Nicola Carrino (Italy), musician José Antonio Abreu (Venezuela), and architect Rafael Viñoly (U.S.).
Currently headed by architect and designer Ricardo Blanco, the Academy aims, among other things, to contribute to the development of various artistic manifestations-visual arts, music, architecture, urban planning, art history, and art criticism, and cultural action-conducting studies and research on the private or state-owned cultural heritage that represents the artistic patrimony of the community, formulating cultural action plans and advising the national, state, and municipal governments, as well as other private or public cultural institutions. The organization periodically organizes calls, exhibitions, and concerts and in addition grants scholarships. Its publications include Anuarios, Historial General del Arte en Argentina, Patrimonio Artístico Nacional, Documentos de Arte Argentino, Documentos de Arte Colonial Sudamericano, Temas de la Academia, and Seminarios de Cultura Contemporánea.