Nellie is the Editor of our Arte Boricua Columns.

Hola! My name is Nellie Escalante-Dumberger and I was born in Bronx County, New York. I have a Bachelors in Art History and Latin American Studies, and a Masters in Cultural Anthropology.

I come from a museum and library background. I worked at El Museo del Barrio for a total of six years where I researched and curated exhibitions dealing with Puerto Rican and other Latin American art, wrote content for wall signage and catalogs, and gave tours of the museum's collection. I also prepared bibliographies and artist biographies for books, and published several articles dealing with Puerto Rican/Latino art. Recently, I worked at the Visual Arts Library at the School of Visual Arts where I was responsible for the acquisition of the library's book, video and CD-ROM collection. I also assisted faculty and students in their art research, wrote a column reviewing art and culture books and helped develop the library's Latin American art and culture section.

I currently teach a Puerto Rican art course at CUNY on the Concourse (a branch of Lehman college) in the Bronx. As well as preparing for my class and racing to toddler activities with my son, I am busy leading a faith and culture group for young adults called Generation Quest where we discuss issues of art, popular culture, and Christianity.

I welcome any comments or suggestions you might have for the column and am also available for lectures/courses on Puerto Rican/Latino art in the New York area. Please e-mail me at nelarte@aol.com.

Visit Nellie's HomePage at http://www.nelarte.com