About Us
Latino Art Beat's annual art competition for high school students in participating cities is held in May of each year. The theme is "What Hispanic Heritage & Culture Means to Me!" The national competition categories are: Drawing & Painting and Film & Animation (i.e. video or DVD shorts or flip-books). Students participating in the local Chicago area competition may also submit entries in 3-D Artwork, 3-D Sculpture, Photography and Computer Generated Art. Since its inception in 1998, Latino Art Beat has awarded its competition winners over $3,000,000 in college scholarships, monetary prizes, college credit courses and Spanish language courses.
Some of the award winning artwork is featured on the official State of Illinois poster for Hispanic Heritage Month unveiled by Governor Pat Quinn and Don Rossi Nuccio, President of Latino Art Beat at the Governor’s kick-off event for Hispanic Heritage Month, in colaboration with the Chicago Commission on Human Relations / Advisory Council on Latino Affairs. The 1st Place winning artwork from each participating city is featured on the National Commemorative Art Poster Calendar which is unveiled annually at the United States Conference of Mayors in Washington D.C. during their winter meeting.
In 2010 students attending public high schools in Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami and Washington, D.C. participated in Latino Art Beat's national Hispanic Heritage art competition ("Drawing & Painting" competition category for high school juniors and seniors). The 2010 national winner Jesus Hernandez from Carl Schurz High School Chicago IL, attends Robert Morris University (RMU) on a $22,000 Latino Art Beat / RMU scholarship award. Award Ceremonies took place during Hispanic Heritage Month in all participating cities. The national Hispanic Heritage art competition was run in collaboration with the Mayor’s Office and respective Departments of Education in each of the participating cities.
In 2005 Latino Art Beat in partnership with The Latin Recording Academy® introduced a competition category calling for the design of the official 6th Annual Latin GRAMMY® Awards poster, representing the first time that visual arts students were able to receive such a high level of mainstream international recognition.
Latino Art Beat is a partner organization to The White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans.
General Motors ("GM"), Showtime Networks and Nordstrom have all proudly sponsored Latino Art Beat's national Hispanic Heritage art competition. Academic partners include Loyola University Chicago, Columbia College Chicago, Robert Morris University, The Illinois Institute of Art, the Maryland Institute College of Art (“MICA”), Baltimore, MD, Otis School of Art and Design, Los Angeles, CA, and Instituto Cervantes. Southwest Airlines is the Official Airline of Latino Art Beat.