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 $1,000,000 in college scholarships, monetary prizes, college credit courses and Spanish language courses.

Some of the award winning artwork is featured on the official City of Chicago poster for Hispanic Heritage Month unveiled by Mayor Richard M. Daley and Don Rossi Nuccio, President of Latino Art Beat at the Mayor’s kick-off event for Hispanic Heritage Month, hosted by 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 2006 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 2006 national winner, Kandy Lopez from New World School of the Arts in Miami, FL, who was selected from the 1st. Place winners of all the regional competitions, received an additional $53,000 cash scholarship, $13,000 from General Motors and $40,000 from Latino Art Beat / Maryland Institute College of Art. Awards presentations 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") has proudly sponsored Latino Art Beat's national Hispanic Heritage art competition. Academic partners include Loyola University Chicago, Columbia College Chicago, Robert Morris College, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champagne - School of Art & Design, 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.