COURTESY THE CISNEROS FONTANALS FOUNDATION
Philanthropist and collector Manuel de Santaren is now the president of the Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation, the Miami-based organization devoted to promoting and hosting shows about Latin American art. De Santaren will oversee the foundation’s board and day-to-day operations, which include, among other things, managing an annual series of grants and commissions.
In addition to collecting video art and performance-related works, de Santaren founded a Boston–based interior-design firm called MDS, Inc. He currently co-chairs the Guggenheim Museum’s Photography Council and is on the advisory boards of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and the Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University.
CIFO’s former president, ARTnews Top 200 collector Ella Fontanals-Cisneros, will remain on the foundation’s board. Since Fontanals-Cisneros founded CIFO in 2002, she has been considered one of the Miami art scene’s most important members. She lent a significant grouping of works to the exhibition “Adiós Utopia: Dreams and Deceptions in Cuban Art Since 1950,” which was conceived of by CIFO and CIFO Europa, and which opens at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston next month. It will later travel to the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis in November.