Architects Celebrate Groundbreaking for Chicano Art Venue
The Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art & Culture of the Riverside Art Museum will open in Spring 2022. A public-private partnership between the Riverside Art Museum, the City of Riverside, and comedian Cheech Marin—one of the world’s foremost collectors of Chicano art—the center will be, as Cheech says, the “center of Chicano art, not only painting, but sculpture, photography, and video arts.” The Cheech (www.TheCheechCenter.org) will house hundreds of paintings, drawings, photographs, and sculptures by artists including Patssi Valdez, Sandy Rodriguez, Carlos Almaraz, Frank Romero, and Gilbert “Magú” Luján.
Due to Covid-19 restrictions, a small and nontraditional “groundbreaking” was filmed at the 61,420-square-foot facility, which was originally opened to the public as the Riverside Public Library in 1964, to officially commemorate the beginning of construction by Hamel Contracting Inc.