Welcome to Salsa at the Met
Welcome to Salsa at the MetWelcome to Salsa at the MetWelcome to Salsa at the MetAbout Us
Museum Programs
Since 2001, Jose Obando has served as the Salsa Consultant to the Musical Instruments Department of The Metropolitan Museum of Art . The Museum has been collecting musical instruments since 1880.
The acquisitions of Afro-Native-Antillean instruments that pertain to salsa include a documentary that outlines the origins of the artifact, utilizing the Social Sciences and the Humanities and an autobiography of the artisan. The raw materials, tools and manufacture of these artifacts, due to the recording, maintain the artisan's expertise and vibrancy of the ethnographic record.
Education
Interdisciplinary museum programs illustrating the approximately
340/ 350 year evolution of the American musical genre: salsa.
Based upon Urban Ethnomusicology, the lecture/demonstrations, which are augmented by an ensemble, contain the following subjects;
Geography
History
Theology
Political Science
Linguistics
Archeology
Anthropology
Sociology
Art History
Music History
Dance History
As per the State Department of Education, museum programs must presented in all educational levels from lower school to post-graduate (faculty development).
The lectures are augmented by musicians that are conservatory/folkloric/ street trained; many are Grammy-award winners and nominees. Some percussionists and/or dancers are high-ranking clerics or are trained within the Afro-Caribbean syncretisms; Santeria/Lucumi, Palo Monte, Abakua, etc.
Programs
Since 1998, these lessons have been presented in various institutions;
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
El Museo del Barrio
Queens Museum of Art
Studio Museum in Harlem
The Cathedral of Saint Patrick
The Juilliard School
New York Public Library
The Apollo Theater
The U.S. Naval Academy
Harvard University
Horace Mann School
Grace Church School
Riverdale School
The Cambridge School of Weston
among others.