Quispejo: 10/01/2006

jueves, octubre 12, 2006

Latin Art Strikes Salsa Beat With Hispanics

The buzz in marketing circles is the growing Hispanic population. But how does this community respond to art?
By Debbie Hagan ABN Contributing Editor

The spinning of thread to be used for weaving is depicted in “Highland Spinners” by Julio Quispe Virhuez (Quispejo), who is represented by the Boston-based Equator Gallery.

Hispanics are now the largest minority in the United States. One in eight Americans—almost 39 million—are Hispanic, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. More than two million more Hispanics live in the United States than African Americans. It’s a fast-growing population, too. Between 2000 and 2002, the Hispanic population grew 9.8 percent while the rest of the country’s population grew only 2.5 percent.
Demographic Details
Of the major minority groups in the United States, Hispanics have the smallest percentage of art buyers. According to the 2002 Survey of Public Participation in the Arts, conducted by the National Endowment for the Arts, approximately 7 percent of Hispanics own original art, such as paintings, drawings, sculpture and prints. In contrast, 20 percent of the overall American population owns art.
However, art and money go hand-in-hand, and many Hispanics are new Americans struggling to establish themselves. The Census Bureau reported in 2001 that 26 percent of Latinos made $35,000 or more a year, and about 12 percent made $50,000 or more. But one-fifth of all Hispanics live in poverty. Economists note that, as Hispanics become more educated and better employed, their income and earning power will rise.
Ed Bolin, owner of Kaleidoscope Gallery, located in Mission Viejo and Laguna Beach, Calif., said that even though 32 percent of all Californians are Hispanic, he sees very few in his galleries. Rather, Hispanics* tend to cluster in homogeneous communities. Instead of living in Laguna Beach (where most residents are wealthy and white non-Hispanics) many Hispanics prefer to live in Santa Ana. There, 76 percent of the population is Hispanic, and the median income is $42,162.
The 2002 Survey of Public Participation in the Arts shows that more than one-third of the Hispanics who buy art have a bachelor’s degree or higher. Half of art buyers earned $50,000 or more a year. Twenty percent earned $75,000 or more a year.
Using the same survey, 72 percent of Hispanic art buyers said that they owned their own homes. In contrast, only 47 percent of all Hispanics were homeowners, whereas 68 percent of all non-Hispanics owned their homes.
Also, the Hispanic population is quite young. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the median age for all Hispanics in this country is 26. Thus, marketers look at this as an up-and-coming consumer market. Expectations are high that the Hispanic market will surge in buying power by the end of the decade. By 2008, Hispanic buying power is expected be $1,014 billion—exceeding that of African Americans by almost $100 billion, according to the Selig Center for Economic Growth, a demographic research organization in Athens, Ga.