Published: November 2008
On October 1, Silvia Karman Cubiñá ’87 was appointed director and chief curator of the 45-year-old Bass Museum of Art in Miami Beach. The museum, which has a permanent collection of some 3,000 works, was recently enlarged by renowned Japanese architect Arata Isozake to encompass 33,000 square feet of exhibit space, giving it “a dramatically new look, rendering it Miami’s most progressive art museum,” according to Frommer’s.
For more than 20 years, the Miami-born Cubiñá has worked in art museums and galleries including the Cuban Museum of Art in Miami, San Francisco’s Mexican Museum, and the Institute of Visual Arts at the Milwaukee campus of the University of Wisconsin. She directed 31 independent exhibitions at the Moore Space in Miami, where she became the founding director and curator in 2001. She has served on numerous grant and award selection committees, and was recently named one of 10 fellows at New York’s Center for Curatorial Leadership.
Cubiñá says she will strengthen programming at the Bass to make it the Miami art community’s home. “I think it’s the responsibility of all museums to offer very strong alternatives to going to the beach or going to the mall,” she told the Sun Post. “Miami is now a major cultural destination, and I am excited about furthering the Bass Museum’s role in this context, as a place that promotes art, ideas, and dialogue.”
- Article about Cubiñá’s appointment in the Miami Sun Post
- The Center for Curatorial Leadership’s profile of Cubiñá in its list of 2008 fellows
- Transcript of Cubiñá’s interview of artist Jose Alverez, presented by the Moore Space [PDF]
- Video tour of an exhibition at the Moore Space entitled “French Kissing in the USA,” curated by Cubiñá
- Bass Museum Website
