HistoryMiami gets new CEO from Miami Dade College

HistoryMiami Museum has selected Natalia Crujeiras as its new CEO and executive director, becoming the first woman to assume the leadership of the museum.

After a six-month search, the museum’s trustees unanimously voted in favor of Ms. Crujeiras. Starting Oct. 3, she will officially take on the role that was previously held by Jorge Zamanillo, who was tapped in February as founding director of the Smithsonian’s newly created National Museum of the American Latino in Washington, DC.

“I plan to spend the first part of my time really doing a deep discovery of all of the areas in the museum,” Ms. Crujeiras said. “I come from different institutions and I think that oftentimes new CEOs tend to fail because they don’t believe that you can translate past experience and successes into new cultures and operations. I always dive deep and really try to understand the culture, the processes, the talent and make sure that our teams participate with me in the new strategic vision for the museum.”

Previously, Ms. Crujeiras was executive director of cultural affairs for Miami Dade College and led six Miami-Dade cultural institutions, including the Miami Book Fair, the National History Landmark Freedom Tower, Miami Dade College Special Collections Galleries and the Miami Film Festival.

One significant layer of her strategic plan is to spearhead HistoryMiami’s search for a new home. The museum is working with the county and looking at alternative locations as part of a master plan project.

“We’re in the very early stages of the county’s proposal and things will adapt as the project progresses and when the county chooses a firm to develop,” she said. “We want to make sure that whoever is engaged with the construction of our estates has real museum design experience that will consider the needs of a museum of this nature of housing a collection as important as what we have.”

A big challenge the museum faces at its current location is its lack of curb appeal and visibility from the street, Ms. Crujeiras said.

“This whole concept of the county to think of a walking downtown where you can live, work, play and engage in activities, it’s a wonderful opportunity for us and we’re delighted that the county considers HistoryMiami as a critical component of what this revision downtown should be,” she added.

When finished, the museum would grow 50% larger as part of a plan for a master developer to redesign about 17 acres of county-owned land that include the present museum into a Metrocenter community. The Smithsonian Affiliate museum is to be rebuilt into a Cultural Plaza along with the county’s main public library.

Once completed, the Metrocenter would be a 24-hour community with housing, an intermodal transit terminal, educational buildings, parks and new cultural facilities. The whole proposed project could take up to 15 years.

HistoryMiami was founded in 1962 as the Historical Museum of Southern Florida by the Historical Association of Southern Florida. In 1983, the museum moved a site from near Vizcaya to its current location, where it now is spread over two buildings. Fast forward to 2010, the arts institution was renamed HistoryMiami Museum during its 70th anniversary.

The museum is home to over 37,000, artifacts from prehistoric archaeological finds to 20th century Afro-Cuban folk art, has more than 1 million historical images, and is considered one of the most important in Florida.

“Natalia is a high-energy change agent whose passionate commitment to highlighting and celebrating cultural and artistic resources will build upon HistoryMiami’s exceptional collection and continue to propel us forward in sharing our collective history with our community,” said John Shubin, HistoryMiami’s board of trustees chair. “She is a remarkable communicator and educator with a clear vision as to how our history influences and shapes who we are and how we consider and address our current circumstances.”