Cáder Institute for Central American Art
Edgar Calel, B'ATZ: Weaving a Constellation of Knowledge, 2015
Museo Reina Sofía. Indefinite loan of the Museo Reina Sofía Foundation, 2020 (Gift of Mario Cáder-Frech)
The Cáder Institute for Central American Art (ICAC) at the Museo Reina Sofía is an initiative devoted to the study, research, and dissemination of the practices, scenes, and histories of Central American art and its diasporas. Founded by Salvadoran collector and cultural advocate Mario Cáder-Frech, the project forms part of the Museum’s Study Department and has been developed in collaboration with the Fundación Museo Reina Sofía and its U.S. counterpart, the Museo Reina Sofía Foundation.
ICAC operates through multiple programs and at different paces. On the one hand, it seeks to expand knowledge of the art of this region through the Museum’s tools—such as the Collections, the Library and Documentation Center, exhibitions, and public programs. On the other hand, it aims to cultivate a strong culture of study around the region’s artistic practices through fellowships, editorial projects, and dialogues grounded in reciprocity with the cultural scene in Central America. This is an initiative that positions research as a way of fostering forms of practice and structural imagination, as well as long-term networks and projects.
Ultimately, ICAC aspires to consolidate an infrastructural dimension for sustained research in and on the region.
Research Lines
ICAC’s driving force is to promote long-term research into artistic practices and the history of art in Central America.
2025–2028. What Art Histories Does Central America Produce?
This research project aims to trace a tentative genealogy of the histories, forms, and scenes of art in Central America. It emerges from the urgency of thinking about the region’s artistic languages from within their own realities, resisting disciplinary frameworks, external categorizations, and homogenizing readings. In partnership with study programs and public seminars, the project proposes a critical and situated perspective on local artistic logics, practices, and structures, while also recognizing their specific codes, materialities, styles, and sensibilities.
Grants and Fellowships
ICAC’s fellowship programs, awarded by the Fundación Museo Reina Sofía, seek to support researchers, art professionals, and students in their contributions to the expansion and development of the Central American art ecosystem.
- Research Fellowship: intended for researchers developing an original research project on Central American art.
- Sscholarship: intended for students admitted to the Master’s Degree in Contemporary Art History and Visual Culture (organized by the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid and the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, in collaboration with the Museo Reina Sofía).
- CIMAM Grant: intended for Central American contemporary art professionals to attend the annual conference and become part of the CIMAM network (International Committee for Museums and Collections of Modern Art).
Walterio Iraheta, House in Ilobasco, El Salvador (Casa en Ilobasco, El Salvador), 2009-2011
Museo Reina Sofía. Depósito de Museo Reina Sofía Foundation (USA), 2021 (Donación de Mario Cáder-Frech)
Collections
A selection of Central American works in the Museo Reina Sofía’s Collections.
16964 artworks in the Collections
Ecosystem
A non-exhaustive selection of sources and resources of interest related to the Central American art ecosystem.
Bienal de Arte Paiz - Fundación Paiz
Contemporary art event in Guatemala organized by Fundación Paiz.
An art event conceived as a social happening.
A space dedicated to the memory of Central American diasporas in Mexico.
A non-profit foundation in Panama City that connects people through contemporary art.
A regional literary festival promoting Ibero-American literature.
An art center in Panama City.
Spanish Cultural Centers in the region
Center for Regional Research of Mesoamerica.
A non-profit contemporary art space in Guatemala working to empower diverse communities through art.
A feminist collective based in Guatemala working to reduce gender gaps in Latin American art.
A platform for contemporary art in Tegucigalpa (Honduras).
Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Panamá.
Museo de Arte y Diseño de Costa Rica.
Museo de Arte de El Salvador.
Central American Cultural Heritage Repository
A platform for disseminating specialized collections related to Central American cultural heritage.
A domestic space dedicated to art, artistic production, mobility, and critical thinking in Central America.
A directory of people working in the research of modern Central American art.
A borderless institute-collective that uses art as a social laboratory.
A non-profit project promoting the arts and critical thinking.
A platform for contemporary art from and about El Salvador.
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