Today we’d like to introduce you to Milagros Maldonado.
Hi Milagros, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I’ve always been interested in culture and the arts in general.
In 2005, I arrived in Miami from New York. I had started an art gallery in Chelsea in the mid-90s and was well aware of industrial areas turning into art districts, which made me turn my eyes to Wynwood. Even though the scale differed from New York’s Soho or Chelsea, there was an extraordinary piece of real estate between Downtown and Miami Beach that was industrial and was transforming itself. So, from my previous experience, I was very conscious, and I thought that all those empty lots with warehouses that were factories would transform themselves into what they are now. I decided to open up Miami Biennale, considering that the new Miami would need a cultural transformation.
I was very enthusiastic about Art Basel because somehow it changed Miami’s direction, from “drugs, sex and rock ‘n roll” into an art-addressed city.
Excited about this transformation, I decided to open a non-profit to organize a Biennale for the city. Having in mind the success of Art Basel Miami, there could be interest in creating a Biennial to reinforce the art-related city that Miami was becoming.
I had already been working in the space of the Dorissa building, a former girl’s dress factory that produced and sold for department stores like Macy’s, Bloomingdale’s, and all over the Caribbean. The warehouse was also where Emilio Stefan’s mother worked as a seamstress.
I had been looking for warehouses for sale in Wynwood with a broker friend, and we ended up with seven of them; the most beautiful one was the Dorissa Building at 2751 North Miami Ave. We weren’t aware that Midtown would happen two blocks north of where we chose to invest, but at that time. It was very fortunate that we did, and we have been benefiting amazingly from the development of Midtown.
We worked with Miami Biennale for eight years when we started having our shows programmed by Henrique Faria, former director of my gallery in Chelsea, Generous Miracle Gallery, with Mexican partner Generoso Villarreal. Born from a proposal from Henrique, and since we hadn’t been able to make the Biennale a reality, we changed our name to META Miami (Maldonado Education Through Art), a name suggested by our current Director Isabel Pérez.
Having a cultural destiny in my life, I have been involved in the art world since my father, as governor of my state in Venezuela, enrolled me in a public Fine Arts School; I moved to the United States to study high school in South Bend, Indiana, I was the best art pupil. My strongest passion has always been the art world, especially painting, but I am sensitive to all the disciplines, including music, architecture, poetry, and fine arts.
I have been working in Miami since 2005 but more formally since 2010 when the non-profit status was granted. We don’t only have an exhibition program; we do book presentations, discussion panels, art empowerment workshops, musical events, etc.
We have alliances with various organizations and other non-for-profit. We co-organize fundraising art events to help Venezuelan causes, such as Foro Penal Venezolano (political prisoners), Action for Solidarity (medication and treatment for HIV patients), and Alimenta la Solidaridad (food for Venezuelan children), etc.
Having a vocation to serve in the highest way possible, I’m fortunate to be able to do it. It fills my life since I sincerely believe it’s my destiny to offer something of common interest that is culturally nurturing.
Miami proposes a new interrelation dynamic with its multicultural and rich melting pot. It is bringing together people from all over the world in an unedited way, mixing communities where the segregation issue is not such an issue anymore.
In my view, Miami’s way is more flexible, fortunate, and inclusive.
Having to leave Venezuela for political reasons, I thought I could bring my passion and interest in culture and the arts to the city of Miami. Previously I presided over the Art Foundation for my family’s iconic insurance company. I did not change my intentions; I changed countries, but my purpose was intact.
It was very auspicious for us to start this venture in Wynwood; we couldn’t have chosen a better place to develop.
I am very grateful to Miami because we were defeated when my family came from Venezuela. Miami allowed us to start over and has given us the opportunity to succeed again. I have a lot of gratitude toward my family because instead of being passive and just licking our wounds, we had the drive and stamina to start again, and it has proven very beneficial for all of us.
We are very inclined to work as a family; we have studied family governance, so perhaps that is another one of our strengths. It’s the family that provides the space where META Miami operates. I’m very grateful to them. I’m also very thankful to the people I work with.
Our current director, Isabel, she is the first officer working in our organization with the knowledge and thrive on leading this new phase.
I feel that we are expanding, that we have grown, and my desire is to keep operating to give people the chance to interact with us and develop through the artistic, cultural world.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
The many challenges on making the Biennale a reality.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Venezuelan born Milagros Maldonado has fervently supported education and art since the 1970s. She has worked in various capacities in the visual arts world as a cultural producer, collector, art gallerist, and art advisor. Her prestigious career and longtime dedication to humanitarian causes –especially using the arts as a tool to promote social change- affords her with a unique opportunity today to contribute to Miami’s vibrant cultural community and has earned her the title of “Grand Dame des Arts” in Paris.
Educated in Valencia, Venezuela, and Saint Mary’s of Notre Dame, South Bend Indiana, USA, she discovered early in life her deep love for art as her social calling. Milagros has credited her grandfather’s dedication to education as her inspiration and her visits to his library as the source of first encounters with the world of books and visual arts.
In 1969 she traveled to Italy, where she studied at L’Accademia di Belle Arti di Roma and received a Summa Cum Laude degree in Art History.
Between 1972 and 1974, she worked as an exhibition organizer and coordinator for the iconic Galleria L’Attico di Roma, where she met and related with the most avant-garde artists of the 60s and 70s.
In 1975 she returned to Caracas, where she worked as Assistant to the Secretary of Arts & Culture of Venezuela, and in 1979 she was hired as Assistant to the Museum Director at Museo de Bellas Artes de Caracas.
From 1980 to 1985, she lived between Paris and Miami and began acquiring the first artworks of her collection. In Paris, she organized evening gatherings for Latin American artists and other noteworthy in the world of contemporary arts and letters.
She returned to Caracas in 1986, where she founded and presided the social responsibility program dedicated to the promotion of the visual and cinematic arts for the family-owned insurance company Seguros La Previsora.
The Foundation created the following programs:
• Galería de Arte La Previsora
An exhibition space dedicated to showcasing works by national and international artists.
• Sala de Cine La Previsora
In partnership with the National Film Archive (Cinemateca Nacional), the Foundation created an art film house dedicated to the promotion of national and international independent and classical cinema. The Sala de Cine La Previsora presented the first Ecological Film Festival in Caracas.
• Moviola
An art magazine dedicated to the promotion of all Previsora Foundation activities
In 1997 Milagros opened an art gallery in the Chelsea Art District of New York, The Generous Miracles Gallery. Sharing ownership and direction with Generoso Villareal. The gallery closed in 2004
In 2005 alongside family partners (OMM Project), she purchased the Dorissa Building in the heart of Miami’s Art District. In 2010 Milagros founded Miami Biennale, a non-profit organization that works to establish initiatives in the arts for both educational and cultural development and has its principal office and gallery space in Dorissa Building.
Her work as a producer, art advisor, and cultural promoter in Miami has led her to conceive and coordinate the annual calendar of Miami Biennale and recently, META Miami.
Through the organization of multicultural projects with year-round activities such as national and international art exhibitions, musical presentations, art talks, film screenings, architecture and landscape workshops; plus related fairs and festivals with which the non-profit, and Milagros as its founder and president, commit to the main objective of promoting a creative dialogue between Miami, its multilayered cultural communities and the world.
Exhibition and events, from 2010 to present. Among others:
The Collection of Milagros Maldonado, Group show
Leo Matiz, The Expanded Eye. Solo Show
Exhaling Gnosis, Michel Oka Doner. Solo Show
Convergence Paris, Group Show
Music Meets Painting, Piano Fest
Wynwood Ways, Cruz Diez Street Intersections Project, Public Art Project for Wynwood Art District
Illuminations I, II, III, IV. Annual Group Shows
Gallery Art Talks
James Turrell’s Coconino, New Acquisition Exhibition
Auctions and Fundraising Events: Action for Solidarity (HIV), Invedin(Special needs children), Venezuelan Journalists,…
Primal Ensamble, Musical Performance
Waldo Balart, Proposition on Color, Rhythm and Light, Solo Show
Beware of Red, Mauricio Ianês, Solo Show
Roberto Gomez, Uncanned, Solo Show Miami Dade College
Emilia Azcárate, Full Emptiness, Solo Show
Mariana Bunimov/Gatherings y Luis Roldan/Umbra
Exhibition and Film Screening A Tribute To Diego Risquez
Horacio Zabala, Isolations, Solo Show
Workshops: Empowerment Trough Art, Patricia Van Dalen and the Northspace Shelter (children and women victims of abuse).
Woland Foundation and FIU Landscape Architecture Workshops.
Sigfredo Chacón Situationsearlyworks1972, Historic Solo Show
Inmobilia, Luis Molina-Pantin, Solo Show
Book launch and panel discussion País En Vilo De Roldán Esteva-Grillet.
Solid Abstraction. Disobedience Strategies In Contemporary Cuban Art. Group Show
Emilia Azcárate, The Genealogy Of Color, Solo Show
Book launch and panel discussion Hija De Revolucionarios, by Laurance Debray
Book launch and conversation, Dos Espías en Caracas, de Moisés Naím, Laureano Marquez and Edo
Mercedes Elena Gonzalez, Dilatantes, Solo Show
Pinta Miami Art Fair, Miami Art Basel week.
Inverted Histories, Esvin Alarcón Lam, Solo Show
Illuminations 5, Group Show
Book Launch and conversation:
Recetas Infalibles para sufrir con propiedad, Gisela Cappellin Ediciones
Selected Works (2003-2020) by Jose Gabriel Fernández and Angst by Emilio Chapela
and others
Contact Info:
- Website: www.metamiami.org
- Instagram: @metamiami
- Facebook: META Miami. Miami Biennale. Education through Art
