PORTRAITS → Young culture professionals  

The series Portraits explores our contemporary cultural sector from the young workers perspectives. Many chose culture because it made them proud, it gave meaning to work, it inspired a vocation. What about this ideal cultural sector today ? 

Julia Serrano Cure is a cultural entrepreneur from Barranquilla (Colombia). Trained both as an art manager and an advertiser, she advocates for strengthening the arts in Colombia and aims at helping Colombian artists to gain more visibility to launch a carreer. Trained both in Colombia and London, she explored two distinct cultural contexts and art markets.

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Tell us, what are the main stages of your training and career?

I am a professional in advertising, cultural entrepreneur trained with the Chamber of Commerce in Bogotá, Colombia. I graduated from a Master in Arts in Arts and cultural management from Kings College London. I worked as a Client service representative at Phillips Auctioneers, London and as a Cultural entrepreneur – Visual artists manager.

Why did you choose to work for culture?

As a daughter of an artist, I have been passionate about art all my life, a passion that then became my life project. Experiencing and analyzing the market’s context, I began to focus on what is missing at a local and national level, where the art market is still under development and artists do not count on enough spaces to show their works or professionals to help them boost their careers.

 I have been passionate about art all my life, a passion that then became my life project.

Internationally speaking, something that surprised me is the ‘volunteering’ fact. The cultural field is very used to asking for young professionals to volunteer for jobs which can be tricky if a young professional wants/needs both to gain experience and make a living at the same time.

What is your mission and its main challenges?

I think I have many missions and career goals I want to achieve. I consider myself very curious, therefore, I am always creating new cultural projects. Locally speaking I want to become the art manager that helps strengthen the arts in my city, Barranquilla, working with and for Colombian artists in order to nationalize and internationalize their works. For such aim, I combine my two professions, advertising, and art manager while working with online and offline strategies.

Are there any differences from what you imagined and the field reality?

Yes. To be honest, nationally speaking, Colombia is still developing in many ways, and for a cultural professional it is usually harder to find jobs and investment for projects.

Internationally speaking, something that surprised me is the ‘volunteering’ fact. The cultural field is very used to asking for young professionals to volunteer for jobs which can be tricky if a young professional wants/needs both to gain experience and make a living at the same time. Further, a professional with a list of volunteering experience on the cv will have an advantage over the rest, which not always defines their capacities but their social and economic position.

How do you see yourself in the next 3 to 5 years ? 

I see myself innovating and traveling all over the world representing talented Colombian and Latin American visual artists, working together with different international galleries, venues and museums.

Are you satisfied with your wage level?

Im not sure if I can answer this question accurately. At the moment I am working on three different projects, two of them fairly paid and the other one which is my entrepreneurial project, unpaid. But one thing that is for sure is that I am not satisfied with the average Colombian wage level.

If you were Minister of Culture, what would you change first? 

Work by the hand with the Minister of Education, in order to educate citizens about the importance of arts and culture, which has always been lacking.

Work for democratization of rights and subsidies for artists who are mostly independent workers, and many of them do not have access to credits and pension, among other services.

Something that has been a cultural trigger for you? 

I’ve found many cultural triggers during my career, but I’m gonna stick to the present and say that this covid-19 pandemic has been changing me as a person and as a professional as isolation days go by.  As a cultural entrepreneur i’ve always been keen to design and work with cultural projects, but this crisis has changed in many ways my perception of myself, my city and the art world itself. So my focus now is to work on what the local and global market is lacking and innovate on that would be important for the art world’s reinvention. In other words, take advantage of this threat and turn it into a business opportunity.

Work for democratization of rights and subsidies for artists who are mostly independent workers, and many of them do not have access to credits and pension, among other services.