ABOUT
Photographer | Specialist in International Cultural Cooperation, Creative Economy, and Governance
Founder and CEO Creatividad y Cultura Glocal A.C. | RedU40 Mexico Coordinator
Mexican Afro descendent cultural manager specialized in the 2005 UNESCO Convention. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Arts from Universidad Veracruzana, a Bachelor’s degree in Cultural Management from Universidad de Guadalajara, a Master’s degree in International Studies from the Colegio de Veracruz and a postgraduate degree in International Cultural Relations in the Iberoamerican Region from the OEI and the University of Girona. She worked on gender equality projects through photography in coordination with UN Women Asia-Pacific in Bangkok. She also served as a consultant for the Universidad Veracruzana, Instituto Veracruzano para la Cultura, UNESCO Mexico, the Mexican Network of Creative Cities of UNESCO, the Embassy of Canada in Mexico, the Ministry of Cultures, Arts and Heritage of the Government of Chile, and for the Cultural Diplomacy Platform of the European Union.
Luanda is the founder and CEO of Creatividad y Cultura Glocal A.C. Mexican NGO that specialized in cultural and creative industries and links the public and private sectors with civil society within the framework of the implementation of the 2005 UNESCO Convention. In 2021, she was reviewer and coordinator of the Global Civil Society Coordination Group of the 2005 Convention in the review process of chapter 4 dedicated to civil society participation in UNESCO’s Global Report 2022 on the implementation of the 2005 Convention entitled Re| Shaping Policies for Creativity. She was also part of the coordinating group of the 3rd Global Civil Society Forum, designing content and operating the forum in coordination with the secretariat of the 2005 Convention in Paris. In 2023 she will take part in the task force for the 4th Global Civil Society Forum, and was invited by German Commission for UNESCO and IFCCD to be part of the editorial team for the “Fair Culture Chapter”.
In 2022, she started designing and coordinating the female Afro descendent artist’s forum as part of the International Summit of Afro-descendent and Afro indigenous women artists, a Latin American initiative started in Peru that offers spaces for Afro-descendant and Afro-indigenous women to create and represent their own narratives, breaking with the colonial imaginaries that pigeonhole them into stereotyped or irrelevant stories and roles in the audiovisual and performing arts.
As a photographer, she presented her work in collective and individual exhibits in Mexico, the USA, and Colombia, and was awarded 1st place in the 1st Veracruz artist Biennale with her work about the visibility of women in sports in the Middle East region.