Adriana is a museologist, researcher, and consultant in human rights and social justice museology. Currently, she directs ElevateMuse which is a research and consulting initiative she founded to contribute to the development of the museology of social justice and human rights. At Concordia University’s Ethnography Lab she also co-initiated a Working Group devoted to researching Human Rights issues. The research group’s current project is a study of the ethnography of museums addressing issues of Human Rights.
In her 20 years of work in the museum field, Adriana created and directed the Department of Communications at the National Museum of Colombia and served as Associate Vice-President of Cultural Programs at the Museum of Latin American Art in Los Angeles, California.
In Canada, she also worked at the Royal British Columbia Museum, collaborated with the first international exhibition of the Museum of Memory and Human Rights of Chile in Montreal, curated the Temporary Museum of Memory and Solidarity with the Armed Conflict in collaboration with the Colombian community in Quebec, and she has provided consulting services to the Montreal Holocaust Museum.
Early in her research career, she began investigating what was known at the time as museology of peace and reconciliation, in relation to memory and identity construction, with Dr. Peter van Mensch as the adviser. In 2000, she presented her M.A. research project on Museology of Peace and Reconciliation for Colombia through Indigenous Intangible Spiritual Heritage at the international museology course The Role of Museums in the Development of Peace and Tolerance, in Dubrovnik, Croatia. And she has since continued her research in connection with community building, social justice, and human rights. Additionally, Adriana taught exhibitions and public programs development at the University of San Diego, USA.
Adriana holds an M.A. in Museology from the Amsterdam University of the Arts-Reinwardt Academy, Netherlands. She also holds a Graduate specialization in Cultural Management from the Universidad del Rosario, and a B.A. in Social Communication and Journalism from the Universidad Javeriana, Colombia.
She is now pursuing a doctoral degree in Social and Cultural Analysis at Concordia University, with Dr. Meir Amor as the advisor. Her doctoral research builds on her M.A. thesis and focuses on the movement of museums as agents of social change, combining advocacy with memory and geared to address issues of social justice education and human rights protection. She is interested in the social impact of museums and the development of an innovative framework of human rights for museums in connection with service, capacity and community building.