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Rosa Lowinger: Author, Art Conservator, Curator

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Rosa Lowinger: Author, Art Conservator, Curator

Introduction to Rosa Lowinger. 2:59 min.. Interview: Raymond Elman. Post-Production: Lee Skye. Music Director: Charles Dye. Recorded 1/13/26, Miami.

 

ROSA LOWINGER is a noted Cuban-born American writer, curator, and art conservator. She is the author of “Dwell Time: A Memoir of Art, Exile, and Repair,” and “Tropicana Nights: The Life and Times of the Legendary Cuban Nightclub,” plus various articles on Cuban culture, modern art, and architecture. She is considered an expert in Cuba cultural travel, specializing in trips that focus on 1950’s nightlife, contemporary art, and architecture.

Lowinger’s grandparents fled poverty and antisemitism, immigrated to Cuba, and eventually settled in Miami. Lowinger is an alumnus of Brandeis University, receiving a Bachelor of Arts in fine arts and art history in 1978. She received a Master of Arts in art history and a certificate in art conservation from the New York University Institute of Fine Arts in 1982.

Lowinger is considered a leader in the field of conservation of built heritage, a subject which includes art, architecture, museum collections, and public spaces. She has been in private practice since 1982, first in Philadelphia, then in Charleston, South Carolina. In 1988, she founded Sculpture Conservation Studio in Los Angeles and served as its chief conservator and principal until 1998, when she sold the firm to concentrate more on writing. She remained active as the firm’s senior conservator through 2008, supervising most of its large scale architectural projects, most notably the conservation of Helen Lundeberg’s “History of Transportation” mural in Inglewood, CA. She is the lead conservator for the preservation of Miami’s Marine Stadium (Hilario Candela, 1963) and curated a 2013 exhibit about the stadium at the Coral Gables Museum titled “Concrete Paradise: Miami Marine Stadium.” In 2016 she co-curated “Promising Paradise: Cuban Allure, American Seduction” at the Wolfsonian Museum in Miami Beach.

In 2008 she was awarded the 2008–2009 Rome Prize in Conservation from the American Academy in Rome to research the history of vandalism against art and public space.

In that same year she parted ways with Sculpture Conservation Studio and formed Rosa Lowinger and Associates (RLA), a conservation firm with an international focus and offices in Miami and Los Angeles.

— Wikipedia

The videos below are organized by Success Factor, and run between 30 seconds and 9 minutes. Click on any video. You must be connected to the Internet to view the videos.

 

INSIGHT & INSPIRATION:   2:49 min.

Where did you grow up, and what was your first awareness of art of any discipline?

 

DEVELOP A VOICE:   1:32 min.

Growing up in Miami, did you feel more Cuban or American?

 

SELF-CONFIDENCE:   0:43 sec.

How did you lose your Spanish accent?

 

INSIGHT & INSPIRATION:    3:13 min.

When you wrote your memoir, “Dwell Time,” were you looking forward to documenting your chaotic youth? Or were you reluctant to tell the stories?

 

CRITICAL THINKING:    1:22 min.

Your metaphor — “You have to understand the nature of damage before you can tackle any kind of repair” — is brilliant.

 

OVERCOMES CHALLENGES TO SUCCEED:    1:45 min.

It sounds like you are in a good place with your mother now.

 

SEIZES OPPORTUNITIES:    2:12 min.

How long did it take you to write your memoir?

 

COMMUNITY VALUES:     2:31 min.

Tell us about your work on the Historic Hampton House.

 

INSIGHT & INSPIRATION:    3:08 min.

For me, the Hampton House is not a particularly beautiful building. But the history of the people who stayed at the Hampton House during the Jim Crow era is mind-blowing.

 

PERSEVERANCE FURTHERS:    1:11 min.

What’s on your drawing board?

 

CRITICAL THINKING:    1:00 min.

What’s your favorite movie?

 

CRITICAL THINKING:    1:02 min.

It’s difficult to find contemporary movies these days that are joyful.