Natalia Crujeiras: Guiding HistoryMiami Museum toward larger new home

Natalia Crujeiras, who became HistoryMiami CEO and executive director last October, is now leading, alongside Miami-Dade County, an effort to develop a larger museum with more exhibition capacity and better accessibility.

Ms. Crujeiras is the first woman to lead the museum in its 80 years. HistoryMiami, which has more than 37,000 three-dimensional artifacts and over 2 million historical photographs in the heart of downtown and conducts extensive ethnographic research, strives to continue to showcase Miami’s history and the ever-changing stories of Miamians, she said, in a new location that could be of the stature that the community deserves.

“As a leading history museum and as a community museum, we see history more as an opportunity to provide context of what’s happening today, but we want to invite our community to dream of a better Miami for the future,” she said.

Born and raised in Mexico but in Miami more than 20 years, Ms. Crujeiras said Miamians should share the pride of what unites us. “We have to build a sense of place with what connects us to one another, and that means celebrating our differences, and hopefully understanding that there is more that connects us than what differentiate us.”

Ms. Crujeiras, previously executive director of cultural affairs for Miami Dade College, led some of the most important cultural events in Miami, including the Miami Book Fair and the Miami Film Festival. She also oversaw landmarks and galleries such as the National History Landmark Freedom Tower and the Special Collections Galleries.

Earlier, she was chief content officer at the US Agency for Global Media, helping train journalists from nations where media are censored to expand access to news, information and uncensored internet.

Ms. Crujeiras spoke with Miami Today reporter Monica Correa.

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