Join us for this virtual presentation and discussion on the history and art of MacArthur Park in Los Angeles in collaboration with the LA Conservancy!
Cost: Free
Panelists
Sana Ahmed, Student and Family Program Manager at the LA Conservancy
Alison Heney, VP of Learning and Public Programs, MOLAA
Gabriela Urtiaga, Chief Curator, MOLAA
Sana Ahmed, Student & Family Program Manager at Los Angeles Conservancy
Sana Ahmed is an L.A. based educator and curriculum designer whose learning methodologies incorporate social justice, place-based learning, and community partnerships. Collaborating with parents, teachers, and community partners she aims for impactful educational experiences that extend beyond classroom learning. Sana joined the Los Angeles Conservancy team in 2017 where she has created and facilitated lessons and resources that connect students to historic places in Los Angeles and activate their knowledge of heritage conservation in their communities. In addition to her work on student programs, she is an active member and former chair of the Conservancy’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Taskforce. She considers Los Angeles, the city where she was raised and currently resides, her classroom and is continuously inspired by the stories embodied in the built environment and the people of L.A. You'll often find her wandering through different neighborhoods curious about the places, people, and delicious food (of course!) that represent the cultural heritage of L.A.
Alison Heney, Ph.D., Vice President of Learning & Public Programs at MOLAA
Dr. Alison Heney is the Vice President of Learning and Public Programs at MOLAA. She is a museum educator and researcher in literacy and cognitive development with over 15 years of experience designing and executing arts curricula for academic and community enrichment. Her specialization is K-12 education and Latin American/Latinx art. Alison also serves as a program co-chair for MuseWeb, the largest international conference dedicated to technology and innovation in the cultural heritage sector. She has presented at over 25 professional conferences on the topics of arts education, Docent training, and public programming. Dr. Heney holds an MA from Johns Hopkins University and a PhD from Binghamton University.
Gabriela Urtiaga, MOLAA Chief Curator
Gabriela Urtiaga is an Art historian and curator specialized in Modern and Contemporary Latin American and Latinx art with over 15 years of professional experience.
She is currently the Chief Curator of the Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach, California. She was curator of the XIV Biennial of Curitiba, Brazil (2019/2020), and was the Chief Curator of the Kirchner Cultural Center (CCK) in Buenos Aires, Argentina, between 2016 and 2019, which is recognized as one of the most important public cultural centers of South America.
She has carried out numerous curatorships and developed artistic projects in collaboration with international institutions such as Foundation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, La Maison Rouge, Le Bibliothèque nationale (France); the CentroCentro and MACBA (Spain); the MACRO Museum and Museum delle Periferie (Italy); the Centro Cultural Gabriela Mistral (Chile); Museo del Grabado (Perú), Museo del Barro (Paraguay), the Centro Cultural Recoleta, and the Museo Sívori (Argentina), Santa Cruz Museum, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions and ICA San Diego (USA), among others.
Throughout her career she has worked with prominent Latin American artists and international artists beyond such as Marta Minujín, Judy Baca, Julio Le Parc, Rimer Cardillo, Tomás Saraceno, Delia Cancela, Jean Paul Gaultier, Jean Michel Othoniel, Marie Orensanz, Marco Godinho, Guillermo Kuitca, Alexander Arrechea, Gabriella Sanchez, Leandro Erlich, among others. She has also developed platforms for the dissemination of emerging artists in Argentina and in the US, creating the MOLAA Zoom Project series – a contemporary archive of live conversations with the most remarkable Latin American and Latinx artists around the world.
She was a consultant, speaker, and jury member for leading Latin American art fairs such as Art Basel Cities, Arteba in Argentina, and ArtParis in France, advisory committee member and nominator for the Smithsonian Annual Conference and Kyoto Prize for Art and Philosophy and has lectured at numerous museums and universities around the world. She is the recipient of numerous and varied awards, fellowships, and grants.
She has edited, written, and published several books and catalogues including: "Happenings and performances of Marta Minujín”; "Borges and Xul Solar”; "Borges: Fictions of an Infinite Time”; “200 years”; "Les Visitants, an outlook of the collection of the Foundation Cartier pour l’art contemporain by Guillermo Kuitca”; “Democracy Under Construction”; “Strategies to position and disseminate Latin and Latin American Art on the global scene” and "From the Renaissance studiolo to the contemporary museum”. She is currently working on the first book about the highlights of the MOLAA Collection and the catalogue for the Judy Baca: Memorias de Nuestra Tierra, a Retrospective exhibition.
She is a member of the American Alliance of Museums (AAM), the Smithsonian, and the International Committee of Museums and Collections of Modern Art (CIMAM).