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Carolina Alvarez-Mathies is a Salvadoran, Dallas-based arts professional. She currently serves as Executive Director at Dallas Contemporary, a leading arts institution that presents new and challenging ideas from regional, national and international artists in one of the fastest growing metroplexes of the United States.
Throughout her career, Alvarez-Mathies has integrated her background in communications and business development to foster innovations for institutions to better engage the public with contemporary art. She has spearheaded partnerships and fundraising initiatives that cross creative industries to engage diverse audiences and has advocated new approaches to philanthropy that prioritize social and community impact.
Since joining Dallas Contemporary as Deputy Director in 2019, Alvarez-Mathies has worked closely with the museum’s staff, board and stakeholders to recast the vision and mission of the institution. Since her appointment, she has amplified the museum’s digital presence and formalized new revenue streams to sustain the museum’s free and open programming, including the launch of an online store offering publications, prints and artist editions. Her work in driving more creative and sustainable models to support the museum, its artists and the wider community has led to greater cross-industry collaborations spanning art, fashion and design.
Prior to Dallas Contemporary, Alvarez-Mathies served as Director of External Affairs at the New York-based public arts non-profit Creative Time, where she worked on solo presentations with Pedro Reyes, Phil Collins, Sophie Calle and several multi-artist projects, including Pledges of Allegiance and Basilea, a project commissioned by Art Basel as well as the institutions annual Summit gatherings. She was previously Head of Communications at New York’s leading Latin American cultural institution El Museo del Barrio. There she supported blockbuster solo exhibitions by artists Antonio Lopez, Gabriel Figueroa and Marisol (Marisol Escobar). She also collaborated on group exhibitions like The Illusive Eye, an international survey on Kinetic and Op art featuring Lygia Clarke, Carlos Cruz Diez, Carmen Herrera, Gego and Julio le Parc amongst others and CUT N’ MIX: Contemporary Collage, which presented works by 26 artists including Jesse Amado, Maria Berrio and Catalina Parra.
A staunch supporter of Salvadoran contemporary art, Alvarez-Mathies sits on the advisory board of Y.ES Contemporary, a non-profit that creates opportunities for contemporary artists working in El Salvador and beyond. From 2017 to 2019, she served as El Salvador’s Ambassador on Special Mission for Cultural Affairs, with the dual goals of strengthening and promoting her native country’s culture worldwide and raising the visibility of Salvadoran artists by creating new opportunities for exposure and dialogue around their work.
Alvarez-Mathies is an alum of Texas Christian University. She is a Fellow of the Fourteenth Class of the Central America Leadership Initiative, making her a member of the Aspen Institute’s Global Leadership Network. In 2021, just two years into her tenure in Dallas, Alvarez-Mathies was named by DCEO Magazine as one of the region’s most influential leaders.
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