Ramon Cardenas, Community Curator

Ramon Cardenas was promoted to the part-time professional position of Community Curator at the Rubin Center in September of 2020. The position of Community Curator was created to strengthen the relationship between the Rubin Center and the El Paso/Juarez arts community, to diversify curatorial voices in the museum and to provide professional development experiences for UTEP students in the area of community arts practice through mentorship, workshops, and public programming led by an accomplished and experienced community artist. The Community Curator will be responsible for curating 1-2 contemporary art exhibitions per academic year, including artistic research, concept development, draft budgets and production timeline and programming and outreach activities for those exhibitions. They will lead professional development for UTEP students in the area of artistic practices including but not limited to communityengaged practices, grant-writing, public art commissions and business practices for working artists.
 
Ramon  is a contemporary visual artist, muralist and printmaker who forms part of the collaborative LxsDos, together with his partner Christian Cardenas. Ramon brings more than a decade of experience in community-based arts to the Rubin Center, including public murals and public art commissions from the City of El Paso and others, collaborations with artists and community organizations throughout El Paso and Ciudad Juarez, workshops and curriculum development for students of all ages, and business experience through the Maintain Studio project.  Ramon is also enrolled as a full-time student in the UTEP Department of Art’s Art History program, and Liberal Arts Museums Studies program. He is uniquely poised to make a strong impact on both UTEP art students and community artists as the Rubin Center’s inaugural Community Curator.