Arts Administration Program Welcomes First International Student Hailing from Cuba
In the Boston University Metropolitan College Arts Administration program, students learn vital lessons on cultural leadership and the art world that are mainly rooted in global perspectives. Now, the program is marking a new milestone on that front, as it is joined by its first-ever enrollment by an international (F1) student from Cuba, Amor Díaz Campos.
Already an accomplished arts management specialist in her native country, Díaz Campos graduated from Havana University in 2021 with a degree in social communication, which she pursued while working full-time at an art gallery.
Díaz Campos got her start in arts management early, mentored by her aunt, Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons, a Cuban artist based in Nashville, Tennessee. At 15, Amor began assisting and supporting her aunt’s work, setting her on a course for a future dedicated to visual arts management.
In 2019, the pair founded Ríos intermitentes, a biannual event that embraces the intersection of arts, collective memory, and community in their hometown of Matanzas. The exhibition drew over 80 artists from 15 countries in its first year. In working with 25 artists local to Matanzas to demonstrate art’s transforming and healing power, the organizers were able to create a powerful demonstration of the region’s current moment of culture and artistry.
The recurring event has been a smashing success, with online arts magazine The Hyperallergic ranking it among the top-15 art exhibitions worldwide of its year. In 2022, Díaz Campos celebrated the exhibition’s second year before deciding to pursue BU Metropolitan College’s MS in Arts Administration.
Inspired by program founder and Associate Professor Emeritus Daniel Ranalli and attracted by both the program’s extraordinary faculty and its wide range of classes and opportunities, Díaz Campos, whose Cuban roots give her insights into the creative and artistic operational challenges faced by creatives in developing countries, is confident that earning her master’s degree in Arts Administration at BU MET will equip her with the tools, strategies, and skills she needs to have a long, fulfilling career in the arts, anywhere in the world.
“Coming to Boston and becoming a member of the large international community that is BU is turning out to be one of the most beautiful and enriching experiences of my life,” Díaz Campos says. And now that she finds herself in Boston, she has some particular aims in mind for her time here.
“I just hope that during this two-year program, I get to visit all the museums and galleries in the city,” she says.
Visit here to learn more about earning your MS in Arts Administration at BU MET.