With support from the California Arts Council, Riverside Art Museum will expand youth access and exposure to the work of local artists – keepers of our cultural heritage – who tell the stories, traditions and histories of the people and places of our region. In collaboration with local artists, RAM staff will develop hands-on art making lessons that will be piloted with high school students as part of their visit / tour of the museum.
RAM’s two sites complement one another, often hosting exhibitions or events that create synergy between the spaces. Since opening The Cheech, RAM has welcomed over 250,000 guests to our dual sites, received well over 500 media mentions, mounted diverse and significant exhibitions, introduced over 50,000 students to Chicano art and artists via RAM’s school-based Art-to-Go programming, and engaged 15,000 K-12 and college students via Walk & Wonder museum tours.
*In 2024, between both sites, twenty-one exhibitions have featured 871 objects by 232 artists. With these exhibitions our goal is to amplify local, Chicana/o/x, and marginalized voices and uphold artistic expression that increases empathy and understanding.
*Exhibitions originating at The Cheech continue to tour nation-wide. For example, Collidoscope in partnership with the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Latino has been on tour since 2023 and is booked into 2026.
*Accessibility to our sites is critically important to us, and we are grateful to the Art Bridges Foundation for being a part of their Access for All initiatives. This allowed us to provide free access to visitors on Sundays from June 2, 2024 to September 1, 2024 (this program will continue through summer 2025 and 2026).
*We steward over 1600 pieces (primarily works on paper) in a survey collection, plus approximately 500 Chicano art works
* Art education provides youth art in the schools, programs for at-promise teens in detention facilities, museum-based classes from drawing to pro-create to film making, and adult art workshops and programs.
*Creative placemaking projects such as community informed and co-create murals beautify neighborhoos and build social cohesion.
*Interpretation programming includes docent lead tours for school children, college students and adults; Bloomberg connects digital programming, and other exhibition-related programming.

