Chon A. Noriega is an American
art historian
Art history is the study of aesthetic objects and visual expression in historical and stylistic context. Traditionally, the discipline of art history emphasized painting, drawing, sculpture, architecture, ceramics and decorative arts; yet today ...
,
media scholar
Media studies is a discipline and field of study that deals with the content, history, and effects of various media; in particular, the mass media. Media Studies may draw on traditions from both the social sciences and the humanities, but mostly ...
, and
curator
A curator (from la, cura, meaning "to take care") is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the parti ...
.
Noriega is professor of cinema and media studies at
UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television
The UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television (UCLA TFT), is one of the 12 schools within the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) located in Los Angeles, California. Its creation was groundbreaking in that it was the first time a leadi ...
.
He was also the director of the
UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center The UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center (CSRC) was founded in 1969 to foster multidisciplinary research efforts at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). It is one of four ethnic studies centers established at UCLA that year, all of whic ...
(CSRC) from 2002 to 2021.
Noriega is an adjunct curator at
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is an art museum located on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile, Los Angeles, California, Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles. LACMA is on Museum Row, adjacent to the La Brea Tar Pits (George C. Pa ...
(LACMA), where he has worked as an curator since the 1990s.
He has curated major exhibitions at
Cornell University
Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...
and LACMA.
Early life
Noriega was born in
Miami
Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...
,
Florida
Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...
in 1961. His father was a
beat reporter
Beat reporting, also known as specialized reporting, is a genre of journalism focused on a particular issue, sector, organization, or institution over time.
Description
Beat reporters build up a base of knowledge on and gain familiarity with th ...
for the
Associated Press
The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...
from
La Luz, New Mexico
La Luz is a census-designated place (CDP) in Otero County, New Mexico, United States. The population was 1,615 at the 2000 census. It is located immediately north of Alamogordo and lies in the eastern edge of the Tularosa Basin and on the w ...
.
His mother was from
Kentucky
Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...
.
They moved to
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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, coordinates =
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, subdivision_name ...
in 1973, where his father ran a
PR agency and ran for mayor in the early 1990s.
He graduated with a bachelor's in English from the
University of Illinois at Chicago
The University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) is a Public university, public research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its campus is in the Near West Side, Chicago, Near West Side community area, adjacent to the Chicago Loop. The second campus esta ...
. He received his master's and PhD from
Stanford University
Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...
.
Career
Noriega was an assistant professor of
American studies
American studies or American civilization is an interdisciplinary field of scholarship that examines American literature, history, society, and culture. It traditionally incorporates literary criticism, historiography and critical theory.
Sch ...
at the
University of New Mexico
The University of New Mexico (UNM; es, Universidad de Nuevo México) is a public research university in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Founded in 1889, it is the state's flagship academic institution and the largest by enrollment, with over 25,400 ...
. He moved to Los Angeles in summer 1992 to teach at the
University of California, Los Angeles
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...
(UCLA).
At UCLA, he served as the director of the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center (CSRC) from 2002 to 2021.
He was succeeded as director of CSRC by Veronica Terriquez in June 2021.
Noriega co-founded the National Association of Latino Independent Producers in 1999.
In 2011, Noriega curated ''L.A. Xicano'', an exhibit about the contributions of
Mexican American artists in Los Angeles since 1945, for ''Pacific Standard Time'', an eight-month exhibition that profiled the Los Angeles art scene from 1945 to 1980.
In 2017, Noriega co-curated a
retrospective
A retrospective (from Latin ''retrospectare'', "look back"), generally, is a look back at events that took place, or works that were produced, in the past. As a noun, ''retrospective'' has specific meanings in medicine, software development, popu ...
exhibit of photographer
Laura Aguilar
Laura Aguilar (October 26, 1959 – April 25, 2018) was an American photographer. She was born with auditory dyslexia and attributed her start in photography to her brother, who showed her how to develop in dark rooms. She was mostly self-taugh ...
for the
Getty Foundation
The Getty Foundation, based in Los Angeles, California at the Getty Center, awards grants for "the understanding and preservation of the visual arts".Getty FoundationAbout the Foundation. Retrieved September 18, 2008. In the past, it funded the G ...
with
Vincent Price Art Museum
The Vincent Price Art Museum (VPAM) is an art museum located at East Los Angeles College in Monterey Park, California, US.
The museum is named after American actor Vincent Price who donated portions of his personal art collection to the college in ...
director Karen Rapp and
East Los Angeles College
East Los Angeles College (ELAC) is a public community college in Monterey Park, California, a suburb of Los Angeles. It is part of the California Community Colleges System and the Los Angeles Community College District. With fourteen communiti ...
art professor Sybil Venegas.
Noriega received the 2021
Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...
in the category of Fine Arts Research for two books about
Raphael Montañez Ortiz.
Select bibliography
* ''Shot in America: Television, the State, and the Rise of Chicano Cinema'' (2000)
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Noriega, Chon
UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television faculty
Academics from Chicago
American art curators
Stanford University alumni
University of New Mexico faculty
Writers from Miami
Mexican American
American academics of Mexican descent
American art historians
Mass media scholars
1961 births
Living people
Historians from Illinois
Historians from California
Historians from Florida