Aldana Biography

Biography
Maria Gabriela Aldana is a bilingual community artist, community organizer, folklorist, and teacher. She produces murals, exhibitions, parades, films, installations and multicultural events. Originally from Managua, Nicaragua, Ms. Aldana is a proud immigrant with a lifetime of experiences between cultures as a former refugee arriving in Miami at the age of five with her family. She earned her BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 2003 and was part of the first group to earn a MA in Community Arts in 2006 in the USA. She founded Bmore Cultured in 2004, a volunteer group of Black youth in Baltimore venturing to Nicaragua as African-American ambassadors to live in solidarity with rural communities to build homes, paint murals and build friendships across borders. She co-founded Art of Solidarity with Aleks Martray, where they served as faculty through the Maryland Institute College of Art. Their study abroad program connected its students to Nicaraguan artists, youth and community centers every summer from 2008-2015.

In Maryland, Ms. Aldana served as the first Community Arts Manager for Creative Alliance and promoted as Education Director to double the organization’s youth and education programs. There, she founded and directed|https://creativealliance.org/2015/12/artesanas-mexicanas/|Artesanas Mexicanas| and Neighborhood Voices amongst other social justice and family programs until 2019. Aldana has earned prestigious award for top 30 Baltimore Visionaries named by Baltimore Magazine. Aldana teaches middle and high school visual arts enrichment in Baltimore City Public Schools since 2004. She has been awarded multiple competitive grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, Maryland Humanities, Maryland Traditions, a program of the Maryland State Arts Council, Maryland Humanities, Baltimore Community Foundation and most recently Public Arts Across Maryland Planning Grant in 2024.