Meet Marisa Caichiolo of Building Bridges Art Exchange in Santa Monica

Today we’d like to introduce you to Marisa Caichiolo.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Marisa. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there. I have a degree in Art History, curatorial studies and Psychologist. I moved to LA from Argentina at the end of 1999, to work as an artist for Nickelodeon and Paramount Pictures on movies like “Rugrats go Wild” and “The Wild Thornberrys Movie” The animation world was my first introduction to the city of Los Angeles. Simultaneously, I also had my own art studio, to make my own work, which was located in DTLA. I’d spend my mornings working at the animation studios and my evenings in my own art studio, producing artwork. I shared studios with other artists in downtown LA on Figueroa and 8th street. Then I moved to other locations. For a long time, I shared a studio with Courtney Reid before moving to the Santa Fe Art Colony. In 2005 I started building the foundations of my career as a curator and as the founder and director of what today is known as Building Bridges Art Exchange foundation (BBAX), a non-profit art organization based in the LA County.

From the very beginning, Building Bridges’s mission statement was to provide an art platform that would enable artists from all over the world to connect, establish peaceful dialogue and create narratives that would explore political and social movements as well as issues impacting different regions of the world. I want to make sure that my organization is a vehicle for the exploration and examination of socio-political problems in today’s changing world.

When Building Bridges was founded thirteen years ago, (with partners as Mayra Degiovanni & Jaime Enrique Deilfin Villafuerte) we established long-term collaborations with the Mexican government, Mexico’s Ministry of Culture, with Mexican universities and cultural centers in Baja California. Many people were initially involved in the project, including friends that are also involved today. Some of them members of the Board of Directors or the Advisory Board.