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On Saturday May 13, 1993, more than forty Latino artists and Latino arts organizations representatives from all of Ohio gathered in Cleveland to set Ohio's Hispanic/Latino arts agenda. The event was funded by the Ohio Arts Council and organized by the Hispanic/Latino Advisory Committee to the OAC.
An impromptu survey held during the conference revealed that the great majority of the fourteen Latino arts organizations represented at the conference had an average annual budget of $5,000 or less. Only one Hispanic/Latino organization was identified with an annual budget over $50,000 and with a hired staff. Participants also learned that only .16% of the funds dispersed by the OAC for 1993 were granted to Latino community grounded arts organizations.
As the day progressed, participants became more aware of the long path to be traveled before "Access & Equity", the theme of the conference, would become a reality in Ohio and that working together would make the path easier to traverse. In the middle of a blizzard on that Saturday in May, OLAA was born.
OLAA was defined as a service organization dedicated to coordinate the definition of Ohio's Latino arts agenda and future efforts to advance access and equity issues and an interim board was formed.
In the years to come, with help and guidance from the OAC, the interim board was replaced with a standard one, and the mission statement was approved as follows: " The mission of Ohio Latino Arts Association, a network of Latino cultural arts organizations and Latino artists, is to identify, preserve, promote and develop Latino cultural expression in Ohio, while encouraging the development of a "first voice" for Latinos on the Arts." OLAA was incorporated and a constitution was approved.
The members and the Board of Trustees continue working toward fulfilling the mission of OLAA with the knowledge that in unity there is power. |
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