Arts Alive San Antonio

By JASMINA WELLINGHOFF, Editor —

After a longish search for a new executive director, the board of Luminaria has selected local arts advocate and marketing/PR specialist, Yadhira Lozano, as its new top executive. She succeeds Kathy Armstrong who led the organization for five years.

“I think it’s great. It’s wonderful,” said Lozano who had applied a while back and was surprised to receive the call telling her that she had been chosen for the job. “I love being busy and creative, and I am ready to immerse myself in everything that has to do with Luminaria. I love the festival, having visited so many times.”

The board was impressed with her long experience in the non-profit sector both here, in San Antonio, and in Los Angeles, said Eric Michael Garza, a board member and the chair of the search committee.

“That’s something that we really valued, the fact that she worked in Los Angeles,’ noted Garza. “When you think about it, L.A. has so many attractions, and to be able to run successfully an art institute while competing with so many larger attractions, that really set her apart (from other candidates). Luminaria is a local event but we will definitely like to attract people outside of San Antonio. We want it to be a draw for people to come to San Antonio. So, finding the right kind of talent to catch the tourists’ eye, was important, and helped move her to the top of the list.”

A native San Antonian, Lozano moved to L.A. to attend the University of Southern California where she pursued a degree in history. She later worked at the Mexican Cultural Institute in that city, staging large-scale Mexican Independence Day Festivals as well as smaller cultural celebrations, lectures and gallery openings. For nearly a decade, she served as public relations director for the Autry National Center, which includes the Southwest Museum of the American Indian and the Museum of the American West.

What brought her back to San Antonio was the opening of the Briscoe Western Art Museum in 2013, when she lent her PR expertise to the publicity and excitement surrounding the new museum’s inauguration.  She has since worked for three years at the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center and been active in the arts community, serving as the District 3 representative on the city’s Arts Commission. Most recently, she also took a part-time job as the executive director of the literary organization Voices De La Luna, and plans to keep it. “I am excited to be busy,” she said with a laugh.

Right now, Lozano is doing some community networking and a lot of reading and looking through Luminaria’s documents to familiarize herself with all the programs and activities of the organization, which has grown substantially beyond the annual fall festival. “I just started on Monday!” she pointed out.

Luminaria was founded by former mayor Phil Hardberger in 2008 as a night arts festival, inspired by La Nuit Blanche in Paris that features a city adorned with thousands of white lights and awash with art projects. Similar events take place in Madrid, Spain, and other cities in Europe and Canada. For the past several years, the San Antonio fest was centered in and around Hemisfair Park, though it may move to other locations in the future, said Garza.

This past year, Luminaria has also become a granting entity – issuing grants to individual artists –  as well as a sponsor or co-sponsor of “place making” projects such as the recently created public murals, four of which are downtown, while the fifth is on the wall of the visitors center at Mission San Jose.