Call for Nominations for the 2026 ALAA-Thoma Foundation Exhibition Catalogue Award
Deadline: August 1, 2025
The Association for Latin American Art (ALAA), an affiliate of the College Art Association (CAA), is pleased to sponsor the Thoma Foundation Exhibition Catalogue Award. The award will be presented to the editor, lead author, or authors of an especially distinguished exhibition catalogue of Latin American or Latinx art, from the Pre-Columbian era to the present, published under the auspices of a museum, library, or private collection. The award is generously funded by the Carl & Marilynn Thoma Art Foundation and consists of a $1,000 honorarium. We will present the award at the CAA annual meeting in February 2026. The name of the recipient(s) will also appear in both ALAA and CAA newsletters.
A three-person committee of art historians and curators, each with expertise in a wide geographical and temporal range, will evaluate the entries.
For the 2024 Award, we will evaluate exhibition catalogues on Latin American or Latinx art from the Pre-Columbian era to the present that meets the following criteria:
- Single or multi-authored exhibition catalogues with a substantive text that advances art historical knowledge.
- Catalogues written in English, Spanish, or Portuguese.
- Publication date between September 1, 2024 through July 31, 2025.
Publishers, authors, and others should email the selection committee before the August 1 deadline to verify whether a prospective entry is eligible for the competition according to the above criteria. In your email, please include the Title, author(s), publication’s date, and a general description of the exhibition catalog. If the catalog appears eligible, the committee chair will then provide mailing addresses for all three committee members so the publications can be sent directly to each one of them, although starting this year, e-publications will also be considered. All physical catalogues should be postmarked by August 1.
Please note that exhibition catalogues that have received any financial support for their publication by the Thoma Foundation are not eligible. Also, authors may not submit the same material for two award categories. If, for example, a major essay from an exhibition catalogue is submitted for the Article Award, the catalogue itself may not be submitted for the Exhibition Catalogue Award or vice versa. It is the responsibility of the author to determine which category best fits the submission.
Exhibition Catalogue Award Committee
Rosario I. Granados (Blanton Museum of Art), chair rosario.granados@blantonmuseum.org
Gabriela Germana (Independent Scholar) ggermanar@gmail.com
Aubrey Hobart (Savannah College of Art and Design) aubrey.hobart@gmail.com
ALAA-Thoma Foundation Exhibition Catalogue Award Winner 2025
James Oles (ed), Mexichrome: Fotografía y color en México (Mexico City: Museo del Palacio de Bellas Artes/Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes y Literatura, 2023)
Honorable Mention
Rigoberto Luna (ed), Soy de Tejas: A Statewide Survey of Latinx Art (San Antonio: City of San Antonio Department of Arts and Culture, Centro de Artes Gallery, 2024)
2024 ALAA-Thoma Foundation Exhibition Catalogue Awards
Christina Fernandez: Multiple Exposures (Los Angeles: UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center Press / Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2022)
Curated by Joanna Szupinska
Edited by Rebecca Epstein
With contributions from Rebecca Epstein, Cecilia Fajardo-Hill, Julian Myers, Chon A. Noriega, Sally Stein, Joanna Szupinska, Roberto Tejada, and Susanna V. Temkin
2024 Exhibition Catalogue Award Honorable Mention
Amalia Mesa-Bains: Archaeology of Memory (Oakland: University of California Press, 2023)
Curated by María Esther Fernández and Laura E. Pérez
Edited by Laura E. Pérez and María Esther Fernández