Could you reflect on your career so far, focusing on your work on community engagement?

Since I started to work in the museum field in 1996, when simultaneously finishing my Bachelor studies in Art History at the Art Academy of Latvia, I have been looking for answers about how contemporary art and art museums are relevant to peoples' lives. Through the years as a professional my attention always was drawn to community-based art projects. After completing an MA degree in International Museum Studies at Gothenburg University in 2004 I moved to Puerto Rico, a small island very far from my homeland of Latvia, a place with utterly different cultural traditions and customs. Everything was new: the language, the history of the country and the society. Nevertheless, what always inspired me were the people – generous, warmhearted and always welcoming. In Puerto Rico I began to volunteer at the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Puerto Rico (MAC) and soon after I was given an opportunity to work on a research project about the history of the Rafael M. de Labra Building, which had housed the Museum since 2002. Strategically located in one of the busiest areas in Santurce,2 it has served its community for almost 100 years, initially as a public intermediary school, a function it fulfilled until the late 1980s. It is a landmark of local cultural heritage and the island's history, which blends North American and tropical architecture traditions. This historical monument holds a very special place in the memories of local people and plays an essential role in understanding the connections between the past, present and future of Santurce. For me the research project was a means to engage personally with the community ' a real turning point; I could listen and look for new ways to create meaningful experiences through the arts which any person could relate to. Since November 2008, as Head of Public Programming and Education Department and together with the new Executive Director Marianne Ramirez Aponte, I embarked on the exciting journey of professional growth and fulfillment of my beliefs in the museum's capacity to become a catalyst for social changes, a centre for empowering learning experiences using art as an extraordinary tool for raising awareness and promoting cross-disciplinary dialogues.