Valeria Cordero Reyes is a Venezuelan, NY-based arts professional. She currently serves as Senior Art Legacy Advisor of Active Culture Partners, a New York-based boutique advisory firm co-founded by Cordero Reyes and Carlota Perez-Appelbaum in 2019 focused on supporting private collectors, artists and those entrusted with estate management in the creation, preservation and continuation of creative legacies. Active Culture Partners’ clients include The Cruz-Diez Foundation, and the Juan Carlos Maldonado Art Collection. 

Throughout her career, Cordero Reyes has developed and nurtured a wide range of international cultural programs, including art exhibitions, artist residencies, concerts, lectures and film festivals. Her collaborative style has resulted in numerous institutional partnerships that amplify impact and expand audiences while safeguarding resources. With a creative approach, Valeria has designed bespoke fundraising initiatives that are effective and innovative. 

Prior to Active Culture Partners, Valeria was the Executive Director of The Venezuelan American Endowment for the Arts, a NY-based public charity with the mission of promoting cultural exchange between Venezuela and The United States. Highlights of her tenure include establishing new and dynamic programs such as VAEA’s Artists’ Registry Online, a digital platform for artists;  the artist grant program Padrino, to offer small grants to artists in need; VAEA Movie Nights in collaboration with the Venezuelan Film Festival, to showcase Venezuelan films in the United States; VAEA Music in collaboration with Guataca Nights to feature Venezuelan musicians in the United States.

Furthermore, Valeria fostered partnerships with cultural institutions that resulted in support for groundbreaking exhibitions such as The Illusive Eye, an international survey on Kinetic and Op art; and MARISOL: Sculptures and Works on Paper, the artist’s first solo show in a New York museum; both at El Museo del Barrio; New Territories, Laboratories for Design, Craft and Art in Latin America, the first American museum group exhibition dedicated to contemporary Latin American design, at The Museum of Arts and Design; Magdalena Fernandez, the first major museum exhibition of the artist’s work presented in the United States, at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.  

Additionally, Valeria designed a comprehensive development program for VAEA that included individual giving through the creation of the Friends of VAEA program, government and institutional support, earned income streams and VAEA’s Annual Benefit Gala, which has become a staple of the NY philanthropic calendar. 

As an expert in philanthropy and the non-for-profit sector, Valeria has consulted for multiple international organizations playing a key role in the conception and execution of programs that advance clients’ missions while maximizing resources and amplifying their impact. She has worked with the NY agency JWP to support fundraising initiatives for such clients as amfAR International, CORE, City Harvest, Hudson River Park Friends, and Parsons School of Design. 

Valeria is an alum of the Aspen Institute’ Artist-Endowed Foundations Initiative 2023 Seminar on Strategy for Artist-Endowed Foundation Leaders, holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree from The School of Visual Arts in New York City and a Certificate in Arts Administration from New York University. Valeria is a member of ArtTable, The American Alliance of Museums, the Oral History Association, and the Catalogue Raisonné Scholars Association.

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