In 2003, an ad-hoc group of artists joined together to organize the first Salvador Allende Arts Festival for Peace in order to highlight the important role that the arts can play in healing a community that has suffered through a past of violence and uprooting. From the initial objective to commemorate Chile’s 1973 military coup the Allende Arts Festival evolved over the next several years into a multi-faceted event featuring concerts, workshops, and exhibitions that celebrated the work of Latin American and visible minority artists, and led to the founding of LACAP as a formal organization in 2005.
Since 2005, LACAP has expanded the work of engaging with and promoting Latin American artistic and cultural practices through a range of initiatives and activities, including the professional development workshops of Aconsejate; civic engagement projects such as the naming of the Victor Jara Lane; the educational programs of Art of the Americas; the community-based Solidaridad Museum Project; fundraising initiatives such as the Calendar of Latin American Canadian Art; the socio-economic development project undertaken by the Latin American Art Centre Collective; the IMAGINE: Latin American Art Centre Pilot Project; and the Latin American Speakers Series.
