A&L Berg Foundation Launches New Program to Support Early-Career Latinx Art World Professionals

For seasoned art world professionals, attending the invite-only opening week of the Venice Biennale is par for the course. But for those who are just starting out, being part of the opening week can be unattainable—never mind contributing to the Biennale itself. This past April, however, a group of young Latinx curators not only attended the opening week, but also wrote entries for the Biennale catalog—all as part of a research and networking trip for the first cohort of the Early Stage Arts Professionals (ESAP) program, launched by the A&L Berg Foundation.

The inaugural run of the annual program focused on Latinx curators from across the United States: Tracy Fenix (Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs), Elena Ketelsen González (MoMA PS1), William Hernández Luege (SFMOMA), Sofía Reeser del Rio (the Clemente Center), Xavier Robles Armas (the Latinx Project at NYU), and Juan Manuel Silverio (Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions). The next-generation cohort was chosen by curators who have already made major contributions to the study of Latinx art, including César García-Alvarez, Carla Acevedo-Yates, Carmen Hermo, and María Elena Ortiz.

The program encompasses mentorship, workshops, receive financial grants and professional development guidance. Ketelsen González, an assistant curator at PS1, told ARTnews that the opportunity came along “at a critical moment in my growth.”

“I’m on a curator track, and I more or less understand the steps ahead of me needed to develop, but there isn’t really support in place to do that,” said Ketelsen González. “I’m at a point where I’m deepening my understanding of not only making exhibitions and thinking about contemporary art, but also navigating this greater ecosystem of galleries, donors, collectors, and all of their related—and to me, seemingly unspoken—codes. I was craving an understanding of this greater ecosystem and how to gain these networks and navigate it.”

Los Angeles–based collectors and patrons Allison and Larry Berg launched the A&L Berg Foundation last year, with former Artadia director Carolyn Ramo at the helm.

“He’s a data and numbers guy,” Allison Berg told ARTnews of her husband, Larry, “and I consider myself the expert on people.” Before launching the Foundation and the ESAP program, Allison had extensive conversations with top museum directors—including Thelma Golden (Studio Museum in Harlem), Sandra Jackson-Dumont (Lucas Museum of Narrative Art), and Michael Govan (Los Angeles County Museum of Art)—about how to address diversity issues in museums. Allison, who sits on LACMA’s board, took a deep dive into how certain museums were addressing diversity among their ranks.

But it was data that really persuaded the Bergs to act: last fall, Museums Moving Forward, an organization started by independent curator Mia Locks, released the results of a study of US museums that found that 76 percent of museum professionals between the ages of 30 and 45 are considering leaving the field. The Bergs decided to focus on early-career art world professionals, with a program that encompasses workshops, mentorship, and an international research trip. (The Foundation is collaborating with recruiting and human resources firm VERGE to provide ongoing support for professional growth.)

“Our investment is in professionals who have shown a commitment [to the field] and want to figure out, how do I thrive here,” Allison told ARTnews. “This is about professional growth and making the connections and opening the doors that you need opened to be successful in the art world.”

In the end, of course, people are as important as data: some of those whose knowledge and experience Allison drew on became members of the Foundation’s advisory committee, which includes Jackson-Dumont, artist and activist Andrea Bowers, Mellon Foundation program officer Deana Haggag, Tate Modern curator-at-large Christine Y. Kim, Rauschenberg Foundation director Courtney J. Martin, and Pérez Art Museum Miami director Franklin Sirmans.

A major part of the ESAP program is mentorship. Ketelsen González said the conversations with her mentor, Rita Gonzalez, who is the head of the contemporary art department at LACMA, “made me feel less alone. In this field, we’re always going and going and so there isn’t a lot of time to just have these interpersonal relationships where you’re not just talking about things like the wall label. I would ask things about her work as a curator, but also just really straightforward questions like, ‘I’m navigating this tricky situation at work, do you have experience with this?’”

The foundation worked with Biennale artistic director Adriano Pedrosa, who enlisted the first cohort to write entries for the exhibition’s catalog, a concrete step that, Ketelsen González said, has already led to new possibilities. “Many people wrote to me, and said ‘Hey, I saw your writing.’ And some of those people ended up inviting me to contribute to publications as well.”

Allison tells ARTnews the next cohort, launching in October, will also focus on Latinx art world professionals, but not curators. “It’s going to be a different piece of the institutional ecosystem,” Allison said. She wasn’t ready to reveal the destination for the 2025 research trip, but the Venice Biennale sets the bar pretty high. And a new prong has been added to the ESAP program: keeping up with alumni.

A version of this article appears in the 2024 ARTnews Top 200 Collectors issue.