Evelyn Serrano is an LA-based, Cuban experimental multimedia and performance artist, educator, and independent curator working at the intersection of creative placemaking, memory, community engagement, activism, and land stewardship.
Serrano received her MFA in Studio Art and Integrated Media from the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts), and her BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA). She has also received a Masters in Education with Alliant International University and a teaching credential from UCSD. Her work has been exhibited and performed nationally and internationally at the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, Riverside Museum of Art, the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, Centro Cultural Español Miami, the Ludwig Foundation in La Habana, CUNY Center Arts Gallery, San Jose Biennial, Fábrica de Arte Cubano, and Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE) in addition to non-conventional art spaces.
She also serves as Co-ArEsEc Director of Nuestro Lugar: North Shore, the first large-scale resident-designed, culture-driven, community development project in a rural community on the Salton Sea, in partnership with Kounkuey Design Initiative and Mutuo Architecture. She founded Nomad Lab, an award-winning non-profit arts organization that worked with Newhall and Canyon Country residents and city policy-makers to develop art-centered initiatives and inclusive spaces for community organizing, capacity building, learning, asset mapping, and grassroots change through the arts.
She has had the privilege of collaborating with visual and performing artists, writers, policy makers, educators, community organizers, students, non profits, and diverse communities both nationally and internationally. Her curatorial projects have been featured in Miami, Los Angeles, BalEmore, Montevideo, Tel Aviv, Tijuana, and La Habana.
She has taught at the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) since 2007, and has lectured and led workshops at the New World School of the Arts in Miami, the CEART in Mexicali, the Center for the Arts in Eagle Rock, and the University of Texas in Dallas. She is the Director of Arts Integration and Visual Arts Specialist at CalCreative, an arts integrated school in Glassell Park, and is an Arts for LA Advocacy Fellow. She is the lead artist of CalArts Center for New Performance’s El Acercamiento/The Approach, a transnational art project with Cuban and U.S. artists that investigates the past, present and possible futures of Cuba-U.S. relations.
She is completing training to become a seed keeper with Mohawk leader Rowen White. She works with school principals, educators, youth, community residents, and Indigenous culture bearers to develop nature spaces and curriculum for growing and rehydrating our relationship to the Earth, seeds, and all creation. Her work has been recognized and supported by Art Place America, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Surdna Foundation, and the Los Angeles County Commission on Human Relations, among others.