Teaching Artist Spotlight: Milena Arango 

The series “Teaching Artist Spotlight” highlights our CCE Teaching Artists, who work in our afterschool programming and at The Foundations School. This is the second installment of this series. You can read the first installment here. 

Milena Arango has always been on the move.

From Colombia to the United States to Argentina and more, Ms. Arango has lived and traveled all over the world. She has studied art in places as diverse as Buenos Aires, Italy, and India. Now, she calls Florida home. She recently joined CCE as a Teaching Artist, working with our students at The Foundations School and in our C.A.D.R.E program. 

Her global perspective touches her work. “I grew up traveling and that has it’s good and bad, mostly good,” she said in an interview with Voyage MIA. “I have a lot of amazing memories and a lot of stories to tell, I’ve been to beautiful places and met some great people.” 

When she’s working with our students, Ms. Arango focuses on visual arts. She does a series called “Drawing and Painting with Nature” and also makes macrame dresses out of rope and paint. 

One of her major personal projects is called Vestigium Tectona Grandis (VTG). “I’ve been working on this project since 2016, it was made in La Pintada, Colombia,” Ms. Arango explained to Voyage MIA. “It’s a long piece of cloth (60 meters x 150cm) made with the in-print of the teak tree leaf. It’s my umbilical cord to my mother, to life, my connection to the universe. VTG it’s an extension of myself.” 

Ms. Arango attributes her success to a strong work ethic. “Keep on going,” she said to Voyage MIA. “Take a few breaks every now and then, and give yourself permission to have fun and enjoy life. But always keep working, enjoy what you do, and love what you do, it will definitely stand out.”

We can’t to see what incredible work Ms. Arango pushes our students to create!