The Arts in Latin America, 1492-1820 is an ambitious, multimedia, pan-national presentation of approximately 250 works of art created in the Spanish viceroyalties of New Spain (which today comprises Mexico and Central America) and Peru (now the countries of Ecuador, Colombia, Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, and Peru) and in the Portuguese colony of Brazil during the three hundred years between the discovery of the "New World" by the "Old" and the creation of new, independent nation-states.

The Arts in Latin America, 1492-1820 was the first exhibition to disregard the national boundaries created in the early nineteenth century, instead exploring both the artistic differences and commonalities throughout colonial Latin America in a new, synthetic context. Spectacular examples of painting, sculpture, feather-work, shell-inlaid furniture, objects in gold and silver, ceramics, and textiles will be borrowed from public and private collections throughout the Americas and in Europe.