To leave
Displacement is not understood only as physical movement. It also implies the rupture of cultural ecosystems, loss of professional circuits, symbolic relocation and entry into new institutional fields.
A program developed in collaboration with VAEA · Venezuelan American Endowment for the Arts · 501(c)(3) · New York
Where dispersion becomes
public memory.
The New York/Venezuela Chapter of Exodus & Resilience is developed in collaboration with VAEA — a New York-based 501(c)(3) public charity — as a structured cultural program to document, exhibit, educate and publicly activate contemporary Venezuelan art created in diaspora.
VAEA
New York-based 501(c)(3) public charity
Chapter site
Program information, documentation and public materials
7.7M+
Venezuelans in diaspora
SDG 4 · 10 · 16
Education, reduced inequalities and cultural justice
The crisis behind the program
Venezuela has lost more than 20% of its population in a decade. Among those who left is an entire generation of artists, curators, educators and cultural workers — still creating, still thinking, still producing work.
Source: UNHCR · R4V Regional Platform, 2026
The New York/Venezuela Chapter
A structured program for cultural preservation, critical education and public impact.
Full program →Why this program exists
The Venezuelan diaspora — over 7.7 million people in more than 90 countries — carries a rich, sustained and underdocumented artistic production. Despite its quality and continuity, Venezuelan artists in diaspora face a specific barrier: institutional exclusion from the exhibition, documentation and critical circuits of their host countries. This gap is not a matter of talent. It is a matter of infrastructure.
From the perspective of transnationalism (Glick Schiller, Basch and Szanton Blanc, 1994), this artistic production does not belong only to the country of origin or to the host country. It inhabits a simultaneous space of memory, displacement and cultural recomposition. The New York/Venezuela Chapter works precisely within that threshold: where migrant experience becomes archive, public conversation, cultural citizenship and critical learning.
What the New York/Venezuela Chapter does
The New York/Venezuela Chapter of Exodus & Resilience is developed in collaboration with the Venezuelan American Endowment for the Arts (VAEA), a New York-based 501(c)(3) public charity. The chapter combines professional documentation, institutional exhibition, critical education and measurable cultural impact.
VAEA serves as the U.S. nonprofit institutional reference for the chapter. Exodus & Resilience provides the curatorial, educational, documentation and program framework, including the public-facing chapter website, research structure and editorial materials.
The program understands curating as a form of civic infrastructure. From a logic of expanded curating, exhibitions, archive, mediation, critical texts, education and impact measurement form part of one integrated system of cultural recognition.
A transversal educational layer
The program incorporates principles of Education for Sustainable Development, transformative learning and critical thinking. Education is not an addition to the curatorial program, but a central dimension of its impact: turning artworks, archives, testimonies and cultural processes into tools for understanding migration, memory, belonging, cultural rights and social justice.
Institutional contact for VAEA and the New York/Venezuela Chapter: omar@vaearts.org
Program coordination: info@exodusandresilience.org
Shared conceptual grammar
To leave, to sustain and to recompose.
The four Exodus & Resilience programs share a common conceptual grammar: to leave, to sustain and to recompose. In New York, this grammar is activated through the experience of the Venezuelan diaspora as a transnational community: a community that left a territory, sustains cultural and affective ties to it, and recomposes new forms of cultural citizenship in the host country.
To sustain
Diaspora sustains memory, networks, artistic practices and affective ties across territories. Archive, documentation and mediation allow that continuity to become visible and transmissible.
To recompose
Contemporary art makes it possible to build new forms of belonging and public recognition. From the third space (Bhabha, 1994), diaspora produces cultural languages of its own.
Four pillars of action
What the program actually does.
01 — Document
Research & Archive
Professional documentation of artworks, artistic processes and trajectories: interviews, technical records, professional photography, critical texts and audiovisual archive. Each entry follows contemporary curatorial documentation protocols.
02 — Exhibit
Exhibition & Activation
Public activations and institutional exhibitions in museums, universities and cultural centers across the U.S. and internationally. Future venue conversations will be announced only when formal agreements are confirmed.
03 — Educate
Education & Mediation
Pedagogical resources, artist talks and educational programs for students, educators, universities and Venezuelan migrant communities — using contemporary art as a tool to analyze migration, memory, identity, transformative learning and cultural rights.
04 — Measure
Impact & Reporting
Rigorous measurement framework aligned with UN 2030 SDGs 4, 10, 11 and 16. Program indicators and public reports will be published when verified activity data are available. Donations and nonprofit compliance are handled through VAEA’s institutional framework.
Phase One · Framework
01
02
03
04
05
06
Initial cohort
Artists under selection through curatorial review.
Curatorial design
Exhibitions and public activations in development.
Education
Public programs and learning materials for diaspora communities.
24 months
Initial implementation horizon for Phase One.
Funders
Priority funders identified for 2026 outreach.
Venues
Museums, universities and cultural partners under strategic cultivation.
Institutional structure
Designed for nonprofit clarity.
VAEA — Venezuelan American Endowment for the Arts
The Venezuelan American Endowment for the Arts (VAEA) is a New York-based 501(c)(3) public charity and the U.S. nonprofit institutional reference for the New York/Venezuela Chapter. Donations designated for this chapter are received through VAEA’s institutional channels and may be tax-deductible to the extent permitted by U.S. law.
VAEA provides the nonprofit context for institutional relationships, donor stewardship, charitable compliance and public accountability connected to the chapter.
Exodus & Resilience — Program and curatorial framework
Exodus & Resilience provides the curatorial, educational, documentation and public-facing program framework for the New York/Venezuela Chapter. This includes the chapter website, editorial materials, cultural research, archive structure and impact framework.
Transparency commitment
The chapter is presented publicly as a founding-stage cultural program. Program outcomes, indicators, exhibitions, artist cohorts and confirmed institutional agreements will be published only when verifiable documentation exists.
Read the full VAEA & Exodus & Resilience institutional relationship
The people behind the program
Three professional roles, one platform.
President · VAEA 501(c)(3)
Ali Cordero Casal
Venezuelan American Endowment for the Arts · New Rochelle, NY
President of VAEA and primary institutional counterpart. Ali brings nonprofit infrastructure, institutional oversight and an extensive personal network within the Venezuelan-American artistic community.
Founder and Curatorial Director · Exodus & Resilience
Omar Bustillos Palis
Exodus & Resilience · Barcelona / New York
Founder of Exodus & Resilience and the program's operational architect. Venezuelan-born, Barcelona-based since 2003. Training in Marketing Analytics (ESADE) and Contemporary Art (MoMA New York). The New York/Venezuela Chapter builds on his curatorial and editorial framework for documenting migration, memory and contemporary Venezuelan art in diaspora.
Guest curatorship · In development
Curatorial direction
Exodus & Resilience · International curatorial network
The program brings together a network of curators, researchers and cultural professionals to support artist selection, the conceptual development of the archive, the production of critical texts and future institutional exhibitions. Curatorial collaborations will be formally announced as working agreements and the public phases of the New York/Venezuela Chapter are consolidated.
Foundation pipeline
Priority funding landscape under strategic review.
Priority One — Strong mission alignment
Ford Foundation
Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
Open Society Foundations
Rockefeller Brothers Fund
MacArthur Foundation
Knight Foundation
NED
Unbound Philanthropy
Four Freedoms Fund
Tinker Foundation
Fundación Cisneros
Vilcek Foundation
NYSCA
NEA
Priority Two — Strategic pipeline
Carnegie Corporation
Nathan Cummings Foundation
Surdna Foundation
Mertz Gilmore Foundation
Andy Warhol Foundation
Bloomberg Philanthropies
Humanity United
Smith Richardson Foundation
Americas Society
UNESCO-Aschberg
Prince Claus Fund
British Council
Foundation names are listed as a research and outreach landscape. Inclusion does not imply endorsement, funding, partnership or active grant approval.
Venezuelan American Endowment for the Arts
Your support builds cultural infrastructure for Venezuelan art in diaspora.
VAEA is a New York-based 501(c)(3) public charity. Donations designated for the New York/Venezuela Chapter are received through VAEA and may be tax-deductible to the extent permitted by U.S. law.