ART-jacent Conversations – Local Networks
Laura Novoa, Leyden Rodriguez-Casanova, and Ronald Sanchez

The annual ARTISTS, SCHOLARS & CURATORS: A LECTURE SERIES at NWSA will focus on ART-jacent Conversations this academic year. NWSA Visual Arts will host a variety of local and national experts to talk about what happens once the research is completed, the experimentation in the studio is done, and the body of work is produced. The invited experts will cover topics like how to put together a successful portfolio, how to connect with local art institutions, how do artist build their networks, and what opportunities for graduate education exist in Miami.  This series of lecture-conversations are organized in the spirit of helping students to build their tribe and their art communities.

Laura Novoa, Bakehouse Art Complex, Assistant Director of Programs + Community Engagement, Leyden Rodriguez-Casanova, Dimensions Variable, Co-Founder & Co-Director, and Ronald Sanchez, Laundromat Art Space, Executive Director, will introduce the organization they represent and provide NWSA students different ways in which they can get involved and navigate the local art scene. Laura Novoa manages the Bakehouse’s studio residency, organizing and implementing public and exhibition-related programming, and facilitating educational initiatives and community partnerships. Most recently, she curated Good Times (2023), a solo presentation by Chris Friday, at Oolite Arts and co-curated Still there are seeds to be gathered, a group exhibition featuring eighteen local women artists, with Karen Grimson in the Miami Design District. Novoa has previously held positions at the Pérez Art Museum Miami; the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid; and the Patricia and Phillip Frost Art Museum, Miami, FL. She holds an MA in Curating from the University of Essex  in Colchester, UK, where she curated the exhibition (C)overt Corporeality (2017) and was awarded the Thomas Puttfarken Dissertation Prize. She has an undergraduate degree in Art History and Communications from Saint Louis University - Madrid.
 
Leyden Rodriguez-Casanova was born in 1973 in Havana, Cuba and currently lives and works in Miami, Florida. He is currently one of the directors of Dimensions Variable (DV) in Miami. Select exhibitions include Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM), Miami, FL; The Center for Architecture and Design, Miami, FL; Factoria Habana, Havana, Cuba; Alejandra von Hartz Gallery, Miami, FL; ZONA MACO Arte Contemporaneo, Mexico City, Mexico; Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami, FL; Prosjektrom Normanns, Stavanger, Norway; Museo de Bellas Artes, Havana, Cuba; Bass Museum of Art, Miami Beach, FL; Abrons Arts Center, New York, NY; Shoshana Wayne Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; Locust Projects, Miami, FL; Frost Art Museum, Miami, Florida; David Castillo Gallery, Miami, FL; Casas Riegner Gallery, Bogota, Colombia; Socrates Sculpture Park, Long Island City, NY; Sculpture Center, Long Island City, NY; Fredric Snitzer Gallery, Miami, Florida.
 
Ronald Sanchez, (b. 1987 Tegucigalpa, HN) Artist, curator and creative entrepreneur. Ronald Sánchez immigrated to Miami, FL in 1994 where he has been living since. In 2015 Sánchez and a group of artist friends co-founded Laundromat Art Space. Sánchez oversees the mission directive of the gallery and is an entrepreneurial steward of its growth. Sánchez brings years of detailed administrative experience, an intuitive gift for entrepreneurship and partnership building.