Rocío Aranda-Alvarado

Rocío Aranda-Alvarado is an art historian and curator. She joined Ford Foundation in 2018 after serving as curator at El Museo del Barrio for nearly a decade. At Ford, she is a Senior Program Officer on the Creativity and Free Expression team, focusing on support for arts and culture organizations across the U.S. At El Museo, she presented visual arts and programming that reflected the history and culture of El Barrio as well as the greater US Latinx and Latin American diaspora. She organized exhibitions featuring emerging and established artists, including Presente! The Young Lords in New York, and Museum Starter Kit, for El Museo’s 45th anniversary and several versions of El Museo’s biennial. From 2000 to 2009, she was curator at the Jersey City Museum, where she organized solo exhibitions of Chakaia Booker and Raphael Montañez Ortiz and many group exhibitions. Rocío has lectured as an adjunct professor; consulted and curated independently on Latinx and Latin American art and culture; and published and advised, in both a scholarly and curatorial capacity, at various institutions. She earned her PhD in art history from the Graduate Center, City University of New York.