New York, New York-Dia Art Foundation announces a three-year collaboration with The Hispanic Society of America. Beginning in the fall of 2007, Dia will commission a series of projects by contemporary artists to be installed in the Hispanic Society’s Beaux-Arts facility on Broadway at 155th Street in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan. The partnership provides a unique venue at which Dia can present special projects and programs as it continues its search for a New York City site. The collaboration will also expand audiences for both institutions.

In organizing projects at the Hispanic Society, Dia will work with artists who will respond to this renowned institution and its venerable holdings of Spanish and Latin American art, artifacts, and books. The resulting presentations will offer singular opportunities for visitors to encounter installations of work by living artists within the unique environment of the Hispanic Society’s collections, enabling a distinctive dialogue between contemporary art and the historical works housed in the Society’s Beaux-Arts complex. In keeping with Dia’s history of offering installations for long-term public viewing, each project will be presented for an extended period. In addition, Dia will develop a series of accompanying public programs, as well as a publication devoted to each project. Admission will be free and open to the public.

The first of Dia’s projects at the Hispanic Society will be conceived by Belgian artist Francis Alÿs, who lives and works in Mexico City. Alÿs is renowned for site-specific projects such as Where faith can move mountains (2002), created for the Third Ibero-American Biennale in Lima, Peru, and Modern Procession (2002), which marked the Museum of Modern Art’s temporary move to Queens, New York.

Public and Educational Programming
Dia and the Hispanic Society will collaboratively develop a series of public programs related to each individual project, including talks and an arts education and outreach program. Dia will work with the three elementary schools in Washington Heights with which the Hispanic Society has existing partnerships, developing programs based on the model used at Dia:Beacon, which links core subjects to artworks in Dia’s program. For its adaptation to the Hispanic Society projects, visiting artists will collaborate with teachers to link core subjects to the specific ideas and themes embodied in each installation. In subsequent years, Dia hopes to expand the program, adding additional schools and activities to the outreach initiatives.

Dia Art Foundation
Dia Art Foundation was founded in 1974. A nonprofit institution, it is internationally renowned for initiating, supporting, presenting, and preserving art projects. Dia presents public programs and its permanent collection of works from the 1960s through the present at Dia:Beacon, Riggio Galleries, in New York’s Hudson Valley. Since opening in spring 2003, Dia:Beacon has received more than 350,000 visitors. Additionally, Dia maintains long-term, site-specific projects in the western United States; in New York City; and in Bridgehampton, Long Island. For additional public information, visit www.diaart.org.

The Hispanic Society of America
Founded in 1904, the Hispanic Society of America is dedicated to the presentation and study of Hispanic culture. The collection is unparalleled outside of the Iberian Peninsula, and provides deep insight into the culture and art of Spain, as well as significant representation from Portugal and Latin America. Since 1908, the Society has been housed on Audubon Terrace between 155 and 156 Streets in Manhattan, in the Beaux-Arts complex that includes buildings by architects Charles Pratt Huntington, Stanford White, and Cass Gilbert. Comprising both library and museum, the Society has a diverse collection of paintings, decorative arts, books, manuscripts, maps, prints, and photographs, dating from the second millennium B.C. through the twentieth century, and is open to the public free of charge. For additional public information, visit www.hispanicsociety.org.