The exhibit, Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art, opens Feb. 6, 2015 at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts (UMFA) in Salt Lake City. This is a traveling exhibit from the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C. It will be at the UMFA through May 17, 2015.

This extensive collection contains 92 works created by 72 artists since the 1950s. Some works are experimental within a selected medium; others are images of history and culture from the perspective of Latin Americans in the United States. Frequent themes pertain to civil rights, identity, family and cultural traditions, acceptance, related tensions and opportunities.

The artists featured in the Our America exhibit are of different generations and represent different Latin American countries and cultures. In addition to various subject matters, the works show how the artists influenced art movements and changed the perception of traditional American culture.

Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art debuted in October 2013 at the Smithsonian American Art Museum before launching a national tour in 2014. It has already been to museums in Florida and California. After the Utah Museum of Fine Arts showing, it will continue on to Arkansas, Delaware, Tennessee and Iowa through 2017.

As a companion piece to this exhibit, the Smithsonian has a bilingual website describing the work in context with various issues that inspired them. The collection starts with past events such as the Mexican-American War. Migration and immigration follow, then the use of graphic arts while striving for civil rights, on through breaking and depicting Latino stereotypes.

In addition to paintings, the collection also contains sculpture, photography and installation art. A complete list of the artists is available on the American Art Museum website page about the exhibit.

The UMFA is the state flagship art museum. It began in the early 1900s as an art gallery on one floor. In its current location on the University of Utah campus, the collection has grown to more than 20,000 works of art covering a time period of 5,000 years.

When the exhibit about Latino art in America opens at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts, it will be another opportunity to show the diversity of the artists and their heritage. It will also continue the global art theme of the diversity of museum exhibitions.