MACLA/Movimiento de Arte y Cultura LatinoAmericana

Founded in 1989 as the result of a broad community mobilization in the City of San José and nationwide on behalf of multicultural arts, MACLA has promoted since its inception a vision of arts programming as a vehicle for civic dialogue and social equity.

A hybrid urban arts space located in downtown San José and rooted in the Chicano/Latino experience, MACLA intersects many communities, cultures, and aesthetic approaches. The participation of Latino and non-Latino audiences has been a distinctive feature of MACLA since its inception. Our patrons, audiences, and participants are 70% Latino and 30% non-Latino.

From this genesis in advocacy and activism, MACLA has evolved into a community-based arts organization identified in 2003 by Cultural Initiatives Silicon Valley as Santa Clara County’s “most practiced and mature site of cultural-citizenship-building through participatory arts.” More than 30,000 children, youth, young adults, families and community residents participate in the 50 programs MACLA produces each year in four core program tracts: visual arts; performance and literary arts; youth arts education; and community development through the arts.

MACLA is committed to emerging Latino artists and audiences. Further, MACLA has an exemplary record of collaboration with other nonprofit organizations and community partners. Many of these collaborations go beyond arts programming to promote the well-being of the Latino community as a vital force in society. The most significant example was MACLA’s participation in incubating and organizing the first charter school in San José, Downtown College Prep, which serves primarily Latino youth without a family history of college attendance. In 2010, MACLA was honored to be the only San José organization to be named by Philanthropedia as one of the 21 most effective arts and culture organizations in the greater San Francisco Bay Area.