Draft:Luis Valenzuela

Luis Valenzuela was born into a family of four generations of artists in Caracas, Venezuela. Growing up surrounded by artistic influences, he developed a deep appreciation for creativity from an early age. Valenzuela's childhood was shaped by his exposure to various art forms and his innate passion for artistic expression.

Career
Valenzuela's career has been marked by a diverse range of roles and achievements in the fields of art, education, and community engagement. He has served as a Master Teaching Artist, Visual Artist, fashion designer, Journalist, Art Curator, Fashion Curator, and more, dedicating his entire career to Art Education and creative expression. Throughout his journey, Valenzuela has pioneered green art and eco-friendly fashion design, founding initiatives such as Earth day Miami© and EcoArtFashion© to promote sustainability in the fashion industry. His work has been showcased at prestigious events and featured in international fashion magazines, solidifying his reputation as a trailblazer in the field.

In 2014, Valenzuela started inspiring more kids and teens through a unique US Non-profit organization, Arts for Learning Miami Chapter, leading after-school programs in the Public Education System and other institutions, introducing students to the New Media Arts world, a creative way to combine Art, Design, and Technology, and also sharing his innovative lesson plans for Arts Integration and the 21 Century Skills program, a way to engage students in a creative process and enjoy learning using the Arts as a tool. In 2018, Valenzuela joined the Education Department at the Coral Gables Museum as the Director of Education, bringing his unique way of educating visitors. In 2020, with an established career in visual arts, education, and his passion for Music and Opera, Luis Valenzuela joined the Florida Grand Opera (FGO) staff as a Director of Education, in charge of the company's programs in the areas of community relations, and education, creating unique students' and teachers' experiences with opera through access to the FGO world-class productions. In 2022, Valenzuela completed his studies as a Master Teaching Artist, a title that opened new doors to continue his passion for arts education.

Valenzuela has successfully worked with distinguished institutions such as Lowe Art Museum, Miami Art Museum now PAMM, Chelsea Art Museum NYC, Patricia and Phillip Frost Museum of Science, The Kennedy Center Washington DC, and Holland-based Virtual Shoe Museum, Art fairs such as Design Miami, Art Miami, Art Wynwood and New Art Dealers Alliance (NADA), and private labels like SWAROVSKI, Neiman Marcus, Blomingdale's, TAG Heuer, Grolsch, among others.

Valenzuela's art trajectory always focuses more on innovation than tradition, but he believes history is one of the most respected and valuable tools; studying history helps us understand how events in the past made things the way they are today. Valenzuela's curious mindset and involvement in the fashion, art, and education fields enabled him to build one of the world's finest and most exciting private shoe collections with invaluable information for historical research in many aspects of humanity, YES, another of Valenzuela's passions includes documenting the social part of humanity. He found a way to do it by collecting historical shoes since 2010, now with almost 800 pairs of shoes from designers worldwide, a collection named ¨Memories¨ that he also uses to educate the next generations about the past and the present state of design to inspire them for new ideas. In 2022, Valenzuela established the Miami Shoe Museum as a virtual resource. MSM, the virtual home of Valenzuela's historic shoe collection, hosts over 800 shoes and related objects, thanks to Valenzuela's vision of collecting history through the years.