“The celebrity of the museum is spreading far and large, and persons are coming from everywhere in the United States,” says the award-winning comic and museum founder
In 2022, the enduring L.A. comic Cheech Marin opened an artwork museum with the hope of inspiring a Chicano artwork renaissance.
“I appeared round and stated, ‘This may very well be the following large artwork city’ — as a result of the foundations had been already there,” Marin informed De Los. “There was this sort of nebulous underground right here, however [they’ll] attain officialdom after they have their museum.”
Now, because the Cheech Marin Heart for Chicano Artwork and Tradition enters its fourth yr, Marin stated he believes his purpose is slowly coming true.
Recognized colloquially because the Cheech, the museum is broadly thought of the one area within the nation that completely showcases Chicano artwork. It’s positioned in Riverside, a majority-Latino metropolis which can be inside one of many largest Latino-populated counties within the nation.
Since its grand opening on June 17, 2022, the middle has housed tons of of artworks from Marin’s huge personal assortment, together with from outstanding artists corresponding to Wayne Alaniz Healy, Judithe Hernández and Frank Romero.
In its first two years, the area attracted over 200,000 guests, based on an impartial research commissioned by the town, with round 90% of attendees coming from outdoors the Inland Empire. The research additionally discovered that the Cheech introduced round $29 million into the town’s native economic system in that timeframe.
“We had been acknowledged as one of many prime 50 reveals on this planet,” Marin stated. “The celebrity of the museum is spreading far and large, and persons are coming from everywhere in the United States.”
Whereas the Cheech grew in nationwide prominence, its inventive director, María Esther Fernández, defined that the museum’s group additionally labored to meet Marin’s purpose by making the most of its fast success.
Within the final three years, the middle has turn into a hub and important useful resource for most of the area’s Chicano artists. It has achieved this by creating alternatives to community with high-profile people, internet hosting recurring skilled growth workshops and repeatedly contracting rising creatives for various design initiatives.
Drew Oberjuerge, the middle’s former government director, added that the museum has invested within the area’s economic system by hiring locals to assist put together paintings for set up whereas additionally paying musicians and different contractors to work all through their occasions.
Cheech Marin photographed within the Riverside Artwork Museum for the disclosing of the Cheech Marin Heart for Chicano Artwork & Tradition (a.ok.a. “The Cheech”) in 2022.
(Gustavo Soriano / For The Instances)
Most essential for these artists, nonetheless, is the area that the Cheech has designated to place their artwork entrance and heart.
“What we’ve been actually fortunate to leverage is the visibility of the Cheech,” Fernández stated. “We’ve been actually devoted, since we opened, to that includes artists which might be rising or some which might be even mid-career locally gallery.”
A few of the creatives, who’ve collaborated with the Cheech inside the neighborhood gallery because it first opened, say the middle’s efforts have legitimized their profession paths and created new alternatives to assist pursue their desires.
The gallery is positioned subsequent to the museum’s entrance and is barely a fraction of the area given to the opposite displays inside the 61,420-square-foot museum — and it looks like being in a ready room compared to the remainder of the middle too. But, on solely 4 small partitions, the artists featured within the space have placed on highly effective exhibitions that inform the area’s story whereas additionally making artwork on par with Marin’s assortment.
This consists of reveals like “Desde los Cielos,” which was co-curated by Perry Picasshoe and Emmanuel Camacho Larios, and appeared into the idea of alienness — in addition to Cosme Córdova’s “Reflections of Our Tales,” which emphasised a cultural connection between Inland Empire artists, regardless of the usage of vastly completely different mediums.
Perry Picasshoe stands outdoors the Cheech Marin Heart for Chicano Artwork & Tradition as a part of a efficiency piece in Riverside on July 3, 2025.
(Daniel Hernandez)
In complete, the Cheech has held not less than seven completely different exhibitions that showcased artists from throughout the Inland Empire — at occasions, catching Marin’s connoisseur eyes.
“I purchased a few items from completely different artists as a result of they’re of that high quality,” Marin stated. “It’s nice to be encouraging native expertise in addition to recognizing a bigger image that they’re part of, or going to turn into part of [the Cheech].”
In response to the Cheech’s spokesperson, Marin has bought three works from Inland Empire-based artist Denise Silva after they curated an exhibition named “Indigenous Futurism” inside the gallery. One other piece, created by artist Rosy Cortez, who has been featured in a number of exhibitions, was bought by an nameless donor and added to the middle’s everlasting assortment.
“We’ve additionally begun to implement an artist charge for artists who’re collaborating within the exhibitions,” Fernández stated, including that her group has assisted within the transportation of bigger artistic endeavors as effectively. “Taking part in exhibitions will be cost-prohibitive for artists, and so it’s one thing we’re making an attempt to mitigate in our practices.”
Their most up-to-date exhibition inside the neighborhood gallery, referred to as “Hecho en Park Avenue,” has been considered one of their most profitable showings, with over 1,300 neighborhood members attending its opening earlier this yr.
The exhibition’s co-curator, Juan Navarro, defined that the present culminated years of labor inside Riverside’s Eastside neighborhood. He, together with different Chicano artists, has been creating artwork inside the Latino-dominant neighborhood since 2021.
Then, when the Cheech requested them to curate a present, Navarro felt it was the right probability to inform the tales of the Eastside’s locals. The response to the ultimate product was greater than Navarro may have ever imagined.
“The neighborhood confirmed out: from intellectuals from UC Riverside, from native authorities, to state authorities confirmed up, to the gang members,” Navarro stated. He additionally famous the emotional weight of being acknowledged for his artwork, whereas surrounded by the work of Chicano artists who waited a long time for their very own to be acknowledged.
“Seeing this large, broad neighborhood and seeing that our present met the necessity for a various viewers… It was significant to lots of people, that’s what I cared about.”
The present’s different co-curator, Michelle Espino, additionally expressed gratitude for the possibility to inform the Eastside’s story on the Cheech. In addition to being considered one of its featured artists, Espino labored on most of the behind-the-scenes features of the “Hecho en Park Avenue” exhibition.
It was additionally a full-circle second for her; years prior, Espino had written about Fernández’s work for a Chicano artwork historical past class. This yr, she met with Fernández to ask for recommendation and to finalize plans for the exhibit.
“It [validated] that I do need to proceed with this,” Espino stated. “She is actually the individual I look as much as.”
On prime of Espino’s one-on-one conferences with the inventive director, she has additionally enrolled in just a few skilled growth workshops hosted by the middle, most just lately taking a category that taught each the artwork of portraiture and poetry. The Cheech repeatedly companions with a nonprofit group named the Riverside Arts Council to host skilled growth courses.
“If we had these sources after I was youthful, my trajectory may have most likely been somewhat bit completely different,” Espino stated.
Marin, in his lifelong quest to gather works for his personal assortment, has seen how Chicano artists have grown their communities of their respective cities. It begins with painters sharing their works with one another by way of smaller reveals, he stated, which builds pleasure and will increase participation. He likened it to a organic course of, the place every era builds upon the expansion of the earlier iteration.
That course of is beginning within the Inland Empire now, he added.
“We’re part of this large American image,” Marin stated. “And there’s nothing extra official that you are able to do moreover having your individual museum.”
Hernandez is a contract author based mostly in Riverside. This text is a part of a De Los initiative to develop protection of the Inland Empire with funding from the Cultivating Inland Empire Latino Alternative (CIELO) Fund on the Inland Empire Neighborhood Basis.
