ABOUT

The Essex Collection of Art from Latin America is a public, accredited museum at the University of Essex that stimulates research, awareness and appreciation of art from Latin America.

The Collection has more than 750 artworks in a broad range of media dating from 1900 to the present. Our main activities are teaching, research, exhibitions and loans. Through these activities we engage a range of audiences from primary school children to adult learners. We often work directly with artists and other institutions in order to foster greater understanding of Latin America as a culturally rich and increasingly influential part of the world.

With an associated archive and library of approximately 4,500 items, ESCALA is the most complete public resource in the UK for art from Latin America.

The Essex Collection of Art from Latin America is based at the University's Colchester Campus, in the East of England. The Campus is a striking 1960s modernist urban design within Wivenhoe Park, the eighteenth-century landscaped grounds of Wivenhoe House, located between the towns of Wivenhoe and Colchester, Britain’s oldest recorded town.

The ‘University Space’ at firstsite is currently ESCALA’s main display space, while building works are taking place at the Albert Sloman Library. To see artworks that are not on display or to consult items from ESCALA’s unique archive please contact the Collection through our contact page. Our website also has a full online catalogue of our artworks, news and details of other ESCALA public events, and details of how to keep up to date through our e-newsletter, Twitter and Facebook.

Learn more about how ESCALA has developed and why it is at the University of Essex here.