About us
Mission
The Jorge Marin Foundation is composed of a multidisciplinary team under the leadership of the artist, Jorge Marin. It strives to be a space in which high social impact projects are created, promoted and supported, using art and culture as a means to stimulate reflections on the social problems that guide our actions.
Vision
We seek to create projects that contribute positively to the communities with whom we work, and contribute to the reconstruction of the social fabric. Our work focuses on three main issues: education, migration, and reclaiming the public space. We use art and culture as high social impact tools that stimulate reflection and awareness. We strive to live in a country in which the well-being and development of every child is guaranteed, with an education model that cultivates their skills and values, promotes their freedom to enjoy their surroundings, and fosters secure, empathic, inclusive, tolerant and just communities and societies.
Values
Commitment to the communities with whom we work
Empathy, tolerance, and inclusion towards diversity
Passion and enthusiasm for our projects
Integrity in the management of resources
History of the Foundation
The Foundation was established in 2010 with the installation of Wings of Mexico – as part of the monumental exhibition Wings of the City– on Paseo de la Reforma in Mexico City. This demonstrated the direct impact of the work of Jorge Marin as a tool for social change.
The mass public reception of the Wings of the City led to the organization of a traveling exhibition of the work, initially across the country, and then in various cities in the United States. As we witnessed the Mexican community in the U.S. approach the piece with a sense of belonging, and dialogue and connect with their roots through the work, we were inspired to broaden our horizons and create the Jorge Marin Foundation.
The Jorge Marin Foundation was legally constituted in August 2017 as a non-profit organization with the aim of promoting and supporting the particular social causes that interest and concern the artist, Jorge Marin. The Foundation provides structure and a clear social calling to our various projects.
Since its inception, part of our strategy has involved the inclusion of a series of workshops and talks to accompany exhibitions. These are targeted at vulnerable communities and people, and provide access to their Mexican cultural and artistic patrimony. Our first workshop for children, entitled Vamos a Esculpir (Let’s Sculpt), together with other activities, earned the recognition of international organizations, such as UNICEF. As a result, in 2019, Jorge Marin was invited to be a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador and has subsequently actively collaborated in various projects.
We currently focus on three lines of action: education, migration, and reclaiming the public space. Based on these issues, we develop a variety of projects for vulnerable communities that promote and provide access to culture. Supported by UNICEF, we have developed educational and artistic activities that are offered to children and adolescents in vulnerable situations.
Today, the Jorge Marin Foundation conducts creative face-to-face and virtual workshops with communities of migrant children; it holds photographic competitions; creates audio-visual capsules to stimulate creativity; provides active support for the Salvador Alvarado de San Antonio primary school in the community of Sac Chich Acanceh, Yucatan; and has installed a public piece to stimulate reflection, while at the same time, reclaiming the public space for the community. We aim to continue creating projects that foster inclusion, tolerance, equity, empathy, creativity, and peace.
The team
We are a multidisciplinary team undertaking cultural proposals of a social nature, on both a national and international level, based on the work of the sculptor Jorge Marin. We aim to promote individual and collective reflection, citizen participation, and the reconstruction of the social fabric. We work in benefit of the society through workshops, intervention in public spaces, and support and awareness-raising activities regarding three issues: education: supporting and developing educational activities for children and adolescents; migration: undertaking actions to raise awareness among the population, and reclaiming the public space: interventions in public spaces to boost interactions by reclaiming spaces of daily interaction.
Jorge Marín
President
Born in Uruapan, Michoacan in 1963, he studied in the UNAM National School of Arts, and in the Manuel del Castillo Negrete National School of Conservation, Restauration and Museography, INAH. In 2013, he received the Melchor Ocampo Award from the Morelia congress, and in 2015, received an Honorary Doctoral Degree from the Autonomous University of Campeche.
In 2019, Jorge Marin was named a UNICEF Mexico Goodwill Ambassador for his commitment to and efforts towards migrant children, and contributions to guaranteeing the right of all children and adolescents to live with dignity regardless of their origin or their destination. Since his appointment, his commitment to and social work with children has intensified.
Over time, his work has extended beyond exhibition halls and private collections, to form part of the urban landscape in streets and plazas throughout the world. He has participated in more than 320 individual and collective exhibitions, with his work appearing in Mexico, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Panama, Canada, United States, Germany, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Spain, Denmark, France, Hungary, United Kingdom, Latvia, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Sweden, Turkey, Kuwait, Lebanon, Israel, United Arab Emirates, Egypt, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Singapore, and Japan.
In 2010, Jorge Marin exhibited three large sculptures in Paseo de la Reforma, one of the most emblematic sites in Mexico City. He aimed to expose his pieces more directly to the public and well as to their touch, sight, and direct interaction. Since then, both his work and his pursuit as a sculptor, have been enriched by the desire to reach an increasingly more diverse public.
In 2017, he created the Jorge Marin Foundation, aimed at undertaking projects of a social nature that use art to stimulate reflection, interaction, and the re-establishment of the social fabric.
With more than 30 years’ experience in the cultural arena, Sandra has participated in the organization of over 50 national and international exhibitions in the most highly recognized cultural venues, and in collaboration with more than 150 national and foreign museums. She is a speaker and lecturer on issues regarding cultural management, arts education, history of art and Mexican cinema. She is the coordinating editor of various art books.
Sandra Benito has a bachelor’s degree in art history from the Iberoamericana University, and a master’s and doctoral degrees in Mexican Art History of the 20th Century from the National Autonomous University of Mexico, as well as a speciality in Mexican and European art from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Executive Director
Journalist with over ten years of experience in media and cultural projects, specialist in the creation of strategies for multi-platform content and social media. Rosario has a bachelor’s degree in Journalism from the Communications Faculty of the University of Havana.
Director of communications
Artist and designer, graduate of the UNAM Faculty of Arts and Design. Valeria has undertaken graphic design and audio-visual tasks for public and private museums. She is also specialized in administration and management of exhibitions, classification of archives and logistics.
Communications coordinator
Lénika is a graphic and editorial designer, graduate of the Intercontinental University. She began working in the Social Communications department of the National DIF system. She has worked for magazines such as: Vertigo, Gente en Acción, Libertas and Aeditores, as well as on various art books. She was the graphics editor of the magazine, Comercio Exterior de Bancomext, and participated in the collective for communication and design for the Mexican National Campaign for Cultural Diversity (UNESCO, 2010).
Designer
Coordinator of the social projects developed by the Foundation in the Yucatan, such as the pedagogical project in the Salvador Alvarado Primary School, Trade Workshops, dog shelters, as well as campaigns for the sterilization and vaccination of dogs and cats, and the management, promotion and sales for the project, “Taller de barro Sac Chich” (Clay workshop Sac chich).
Lorena Vallejo has also worked in dentistry for over 10 years in her own clinic, with a clear social calling. In collaboration with the Jorge Marin Foundation, she has set up a dental clinic for community care in San Antonio Sac Chich. She has a bachelor's degree in stomatology from the Benemérita Autonomous University of Puebla, and is an intern for the Graphic Design degree at the UNAM.
Projects in the Yucatán
The Foundation in numbers
5 years in operation
50 workshops, with 14,075 virtual participants and 955 in-person participants
184,216 people reached through social media
Cities: Mexico: Ciudad Juarez, Tapachula, Sac Chic, Yucatán; Spain: Toledo, United States: Falls Park, Greenville
23 competitions with 2,717 participants | 19,000 reactions on social media.
Display of Wings of Mexico in 44 cities | 15 permanent installations – 29 temporary installations
12 monumental works installed in public spaces