Welcome to the SPAHA Salsa Museum

To provide the history of Latin music known as “salsa” that rose from the streets of New York to global acceptance and popularity. To provide workshops, guided tours, musical events, literary, art and musical presentations on the history, creation, artists and community that together created a New York music genre known as “salsa.”

The Spanish Harlem Salsa Gallery a non-profit 501(c)3 cultural institution committed to providing residents of East Harlem and surrounding communities with structured, scholarly, cultural programming, information, resources, and learning initiatives. 

As inclusive and diverse as the salsa music represented within these walls, the Gallery provides a community-friendly, accessible, and arts education-centered space. As a strategic community partner, we provide a cultural resource for the surrounding museums and institutions on Museum Mile as well as the many community based organizations serving East Harlem, the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens as well as other regions, as well as tourists visiting New York, that have expressed interest in knowing the roots of salsa. 

Underserved communities such as seniors, teens, homeless, mentally challenged, LGBT, and others will find the Gallery a sanctuary of cultural history and a repository for information on salsa music and its artists.

The Gallery is an educational and community/cultural partner in the propagation of Latin music and culture through the New York phenomenon known as salsa. Through our affiliations with Public Access, major mainstream New York media as well as international outlets such as Univision and Telemundo, we intend to create a multi-media space representing the more than 100 years of Latin music in New York. Our vision is to create partnerships that extend across the globe where scholars, musicians, educators, presenters and business associates can unite and create a world class space providing cogent and valuable information to all who pass its doors.