7 – 8 pm
ESTE CHARLA | Heritage and cultural fusions
Hoor al Qasimi, director, Sharhaj Art Foundation (Sharjah)
Halona Norton-Westbrook, director, Honolulu Museum of Art (Honolulu)
Moderated by Hugo Achugar, Emeritus Professor, Univeristy of Miami (Miami)
This program will be held in English, with translation

HALONA NORTON-WESTBROOK
Halona Norton-Westbrook is the Director and CEO of the Honolulu Museum of Art. She was raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. Received a B.A. in American History and Studio Art from Mills College, an M.A. in Art History from Courtauld Institute of Art in London, and a Ph.D. in Museology from the University of Manchester. Halona took up her role in Honolulu in January 2020, having most recently served as Director of Curatorial Affairs and Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Toledo Museum of Art. Prior to that she was the recipient of the Andrew W. Mellon Leadership Fellowship at the Toledo Museum of Art, a program inaugurated in 2012 to train the next generation of museum leaders.

HOOR AL QASIMI
President and Director of Sharjah Art Foundation, established the Foundation in 2009 as a catalyst and advocate for the arts in Sharjah, in the region and around the world. Al Qasimi was curator of Sharjah Biennial 15: Thinking Historically in the Present (2023). In addition to her role at the Foundation, Al Qasimi also serves as the President of The Africa Institute, President and Director of the Sharjah Architecture Triennial and Creative Director of the London-based fashion brand QASIMI. In 2025, she will serve as Artistic Director of the sixth Aichi Triennale.

HUGO ACHUGAR
Achugar graduated from the Instituto de Profesores Artigas with a degree in literature and taught secondary education in Uruguay until he was dismissed by the Uruguayan dictatorship. He then relocated to Caracas, where he worked as a researcher for the Rómulo Gallegos Center for Latin American Studies. He has held professorships in Venezuela, the United States, and Uruguay. He currently teaches cultural policies at Universidad de la República in Uruguay.