Arts Partners

La Familia Ayara

The artistic and social foundation La Familia Ayara is an organisation of Afro-Colombian and mixed-race young people conducting social, artistic, educational and productive activities based on the culture of Hip Hop. Its main goal is to improve the life opportunities of children and young people, and to empower them through strengthening their social citizenship so they can claim their rights.

Since its beginning in 1996, La Familia Ayara uses elements of Hip Hop and urban art to develop society, such as break dance, graffiti, rap, DJ, theater, capoeira, fashion making and communication media.

To achieve this, four training methodologies have been developed:

High Impact Methodology Ayara (La MAIA)
Rap Debate Methodology: Methodology for the peaceful resolution of conflicts through dialogue.
Cartonera Methodology: Literacy and Democracy Methodology literature.
Methodology for strengthening the human resources of organizations.

Also, Ayara has a Cultural Center with rooms for workshops, seminars and movie forums, an urban art gallery and music recording studios. The Center houses a marketing and digital advertising agency, an artist agency and a production company. There is also a Youth Observatory of Good Practices, dedicated to the documentation, diffusion and strengthening of youth initiatives that use art and culture to build peace and participatory democracy.

Lauren Yanina Barbosa Tovar

laurenhbato@ayara.com.co

Position: Director of communications and project coordinator at La Familia Ayara
Education: Social communication and journalism; Specialist in marketing and digital advertising

Lauren is a social communicator with a specialisation in marketing and digital advertising from the Central University of Bogotá, Colombia.
She has 4 years of experience as a workshop facilitator in photography and audiovisual media, working with children and young people at risk and vulnerability.
She is also a leader and defender of Afro human rights and women’s empowerment groups in Colombia. For the last two years, Lauren has been the Communications Director for La Familia Ayara, while also coordinating social projects aimed at protecting and guaranteeing rights of children and young people.

Fundación Nacional Batuta

The National Foundation Batuta is a non-profit entity, created in 1991 on the initiative of the National Government in association with private companies. Its mission is to contribute to the improvement of the quality of life of the children, adolescents and youth of Colombia, through a musical training of excellence that incorporates a perspective of social inclusion, rights and cultural diversity.

Batuta’s work is based on the methodology Orchestra-School, a pedagogical approach focused on collective musical making supported by grounded processes promoting values such as respect, honesty, equity, harmony, teamwork and solidarity, among others. The entity has programs for boys and girls from two years of age to 18-year-olds; these are: the First Childhood Program, the Musical Initiation Program and the Symphonic Training Program.

Currently, there are more than 40 thousand boys and girls participating in Batuta’s projects, taking part in 371 choirs, 669 musical initiation ensembles and 63 symphony orchestras, receiving their weekly classes in 220 musical centers located in 111 municipalities throughout the 32 Departments of the country.

After temporarily closing its 220 music centers due to COVID-19, the organization developed a virtual and remote training model, using digital synchronous and asynchronous training tools, radio music training programs and correspondence training (handbooks and USB). Batuta believes in the transforming power of music and for this reason, it is working intensively in the midst of the health emergency to keep alive and activate its network of affections and knowledge at the service of the most vulnerable children and youth in the country.

María Claudia Parias Durán

mariaclaudiaparias@fundacionbatuta.org

Executive President
Fundación Nacional Batuta

Social Communicator and Journalist (Universidad de la Sabana), specialist in Cultural Management and Management (Universidad del Rosario), Master in Cultural Administration (University of Barcelona) and fellow of National Arts Strategies (USA). She has worked as Regional Development Director of the Ministry of Culture, General Director of the Bogota Philharmonic Orchestra, Director of Cultural Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Technical Assistant of the Culture Area of the Andrés Bello Convention, Director of the Magazine International Art from the Museum of Modern Arts in Bogotá and advisor to various cultural projects. In her more than 25 years dedicated to cultural management, Parias has focused on the strategic direction of cultural organizations, on the development of innovative projects in the cultural sector and on the internationalization of local initiatives thanks to his work in global networks, including the International Society for the Performing Arts, ISPA, where she was Vice President of the Board of Directors. She is professor of postgraduate courses in cultural management (Universidad del Rosario and Universidad Jorge Tadeo Lozano in Bogotá). She has been a member of boards of directors of entities such as the National Symphony Orchestra of Colombia, the Caro y Cuervo Institute, the District Institute of the Arts (IDARTES) and the Fulbright Commission. Currently, she is a core member of the Executive Council of the International Music Council (IMC) and is part of the Mission of Educators and Citizen Wisdom of Bogotá.

Catherine Surace Arenas

catherinesurace@fundacionbatuta.org

Academic Director
Fundación Nacional Batuta

Musician (Javeriana University) with a master’s degree in Oboé performance from the University of Michigan, United States. Surace is currently completing the Master of Musicology studies at the National University of Colombia. She has worked with the Bogota Philharmonic Orchestra as an orchestra musician and as Director of the Musical Studies Career, Coordinator of the Chamber Music and Interpretation Area and as a teacher at the Faculty of Arts of the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana.

Fundación Crear Vale la Pena

Organisation focused on Art and Social Transformation, founded more than 20 years ago with the aim of transforming life projects through Creativity.

It specializes in the development of creative tools that facilitate learning, improve coexistence and generate greater well-being.

Since its origin, it has maintained a Cultural Center through which it develops a territorial work in the neighbourhoods most affected by poverty and lack of opportunities in San Isidro, province of Buenos Aires.

Crear runs an art program applied to formal education, comprehensive health and community integration called Entornos Creativos (Creative Environments) across different Argentinian provinces. This project has been recognized as one of the 13 Latin American experiences with the greatest pedagogical innovation by the World Bank, the OEI and the OAS.

It also works in alliance with different referents and international organizations, taking its methodology to other countries in the world.

Crear’s actions have reached more than 65,000 people in schools and communities, awakening creative gifts to transform personal and social realities.

Inés Sanguinetti

inesanguinetti@gmail.com

Co-founder and president of Fundación Crear Vale la Pena

Dancer, choreographer and sociologist.

Besides being president of Crear Vale la Pena, Sanguinetti directs its Creative Environments Program, focused on the use of Arts and Creativity to transform life projects in schools and communities in vulnerable contexts. The program has already reached more than 56,000 people in 8 cities in Argentina and has been recognised as one of the 13 experiences of greater pedagogical innovation in Latin America by the IDB, OAS, and OEI.

She is a member of the Latin American network Cultura Viva Comunitária and of the International Teaching Arts Collaborative (ITAC).

For Sanguinetti, her mission currently is to transfer creative, playful and well-being-driven methodologies in various cities in Argentina and Latin America. These techniques can lead to the improvement of teaching and learning processes in schools, social organisations and companies.

Carmen Olaechea

carmenolaechea@gmail.com

Member of the Advisory Council of Fundación Crear Vale la Pena

Carmen Olaechea has Argentinian and Swiss nationalities. She has been working with Latin American civil society for more than 30 years, in NGOs, networks and in the AVINA International Donor Foundation. Currently, Olaechea is chair of Fundación Cambio Democrático, an NGO specialized in dialogue and conflict transformation, as well as a member of the Advisory Council for international initiatives of Crear Vale La Pena Foundation, a leading Latin American NGO in the field of arts for social transformation. Olaechea is also part of IMPACT, an international platform covering 18 countries, where she is responsible for designing and coordinating virtual knowledge exchange processes.

In addition, she works as an independent advisor on issues related to sustainability and cultural transformation processes, helping people and institutions to integrate new perspectives.

Macarena Pérez Supervielle

Executive Director of Fundación Crear Vale la Pena

Born and raised in Tucumán, Macarena Supervielle lives in Buenos Aires since she was 23 years old, where she studied Communications at the University of Buenos Aires. Throughout her life, she has been trained in different artistic disciplines.

Supervielle has been in charge of communication and marketing matters at many organisations, such as the National Center for Community Organisations (CENOC), the Social Capital Fund (Foncap SA.), Deremate.com, SUNGREEN Renewable Energies, Connecting Dots (Digital Marketing Platforms) and Fundación Crear Vale la Pena.

Since 2017, she is the Executive Director of Fundación Crear Vale la Pena, an organization focused on Art and Social Transformation, which runs a Community Cultural Center in Beccar, Buenos Aires, and develops programs in Argentina and in other countries in Latin America and Europe

Teatro La Plaza

It is a non-profit association born in 2003 with the mission of taking creative risks to generate meeting points that stir senses and consciences.

Since then, Teatro La Plaza has established itself as a space for theatre creation that investigates and interprets reality in order to build a critical point of view that dialogues with its community. Likewise, hand in hand with adult programming, and aware that each boy and girl is uniquely capable, independent, curious and full of potential, La Plaza Niños programming was born.

La Plaza workshops provide pedagogical experiences for children, adolescents, youth and adults to strengthen their expressive capacities.

In 2013, the program Sala de Parto (Delivery Room) was created, aiming to stimulate the birth of new Peruvian works and authors; generate training spaces around stage creation; connect the public and local artists with international proposals; and stimulate the creation of networks between artists and cultural managers at the national level.

In 2020, La Plaza Media was born seeking to produce transmedia content and exploring hybrid languages between theatre and other disciplines

Chela de Ferrari

cheladeferrari@gmail.com

Artistic Director
Teatro La Plaza

Born in Lima, Peru. De Ferrari studied painting at the University of Rio Piedras, in Puerto Rico and theater at the Lima Theater Club. She founded the Drama Cultural Association and is Artistic Director of the La Plaza Theatre since 2003. In 2013 she created Sala de Parto, a program to promote Peruvian drama, and in 2019, she created La Plaza Media to develop transmedia content. As a theatre director, she has created contemporary versions of classics like Shakespeare’s “Hamlet”; and directed Peruvian texts like “La cautiva” by Luis Alberto León. During 2017, she was commissioned by the Minister of Culture, Salvador Del Solar, and in the same year she received the distinction of P.M.C (Meritorious Personality of Culture), in recognition of her contribution to the development of culture in Peru.

Alexandra Araujo Alvarez

ale.araujoalvarez@teatrolaplaza.com

General Manager / CEO
Teatro La Plaza

Economist with a Master’s degree in Marketing, Araujo has worked in important companies in the fields of technology and advertising. Through her experience and contributions from the business sector, she manages to improve performance and increase the public and profitability of the rooms she manages. Today she is the General Manager of the Drama Cultural Association (Teatro La Plaza, Los Productores and Delivery Room), a non-profit organization that brings the theatre closer to more than 350,000 people a year. For her, theatre is a vehicle to generate small (or large) transformations in society, contributing to the development of more critical, fair and happy people.

Alejandro Clavier

aclavier@teatrolaplaza.com

Artistic Director from Sala de Parto
Teatro La Plaza

Theater director trained between Caracas and Lima. Graduated from the Performing Arts specialty of the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú. He is the director of the Sala de Parto program, Co-coordinator of the La Plaza Theater Emerging Artists Creation Program and the Sala de Parto Theater Festival.

Clavier has produced several outstanding plays, such as “All in Willakuykuna” (2019), a theater dance work with relatives of the disappeared in the 1980-2000 internal armed conflict in Peru; “San Bartolo” (2018), written and directed with Claudia Tangoa, based on testimonies of victims of physical, psychological and sexual abuse by the Sodalicio de Vida Cristiana; and “Simón, el topo” (2016), montage for the whole family on sexual diversity. The latter has represented Peru in festivals in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Panama and Northern Ireland.

Claudia Tangoa

claudiatangoa@gmail.com

Dramaturgista
Teatro La Plaza

Teacher, director, playwright and manager with experience in performing arts projects based on collective and interdisciplinary practices with a social and political focus. Graduated from the Performing Arts specialty of the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (PUCP). Among the works she has written and directed are: “Proyecto 1980/2000, el tiempo que heredé”, “Ñaña”, and “San Bartolo”.

She has been part of the teaching team of the Performing Arts faculties of the Scientific University of the South and of the PUCP. Currently, she is a playwright at the Teatro La Plaza; Co-coordinator, together with Alejandro Clavier, of the La Plaza Theater Emerging Artists Creation Program, aimed at female creators; and Coordinator of the Meeting Point Program for managers and creators from all over Peru.