Featured Grantee Interview: Building Bridges Art Exchange (BBAX)

Type of art/cultural activity: Nonprofit Gallery/Visual Arts Programming

Name/Position: Marisa Caichiolo/Founder, Executive Director

Years working and/or living in Santa Monica: at Bergamot Station since 2011

What are your organization’s 1-2 most important programs?

First, our Artists in Residence and Curatorial Residency programs build creative communities by employing local, national and international artists and curators, working internationally through our partner museums, institutions, and foundations. Equally important are our international exchanges with institutions, museums and Ministries of Culture. (We currently have 34 partner countries).

What’s the most interesting thing you do that Santa Monicans know least about?

Last year we had programs with communities from Russia, Iran, Japan, Austria, Mexico, Spain, and Italy, among others. These programs created a connection with both the younger and older immigrants who came from those countries to be part of this community. Some of our national and international partners include the Denver-based organization Redline and Guadalajara’s MUSA (Mexico). We are now giving several prizes to two or three artists each year. For me, as a Latin American immigrant and as a female artist, it was a big dream to create a more unified world of understanding and to have a narrative, a dialogue and an open discussion about the social and political issues in today’s world.

This article was recently featured in Explore #ArtSaMo - February 2021 newsletter.