Trinidadian born Art and Museum Educator Daniela Fifi has been appointed Vice President of Programs and Education at the Brooklyn Children’s Museum effective Monday July 10.
In her new role, Ms Fifi will be responsible for creating and implementing annual and long range plans for the BCM and will shape the vision and strategy for exhibitions, education and outreach, public programs and museum collections to create high quality, innovative and meaningful early childhood programs.
Her appointment is the latest in a long list of achievements which have been earning Ms Fifi a sterling reputation in the field of art education during the past few years.
Prior to her arrival in the United States, Ms. Fifi worked at the National Museum and Art Gallery of Trinidad and Tobago for three years and has subsequently been awarded numerous professional and academic honors including the President’s Scholar Award from the Pratt Institute, the Museum Education Research Fellowship at the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Columbia University Teacher’s College International Student Merit Award.
In 2015, while pursuing her Doctorate in Art Education at Teacher’s College, Columbia University, she beat out a competitive field of art and museum educators to earn the prestigious Samuel H. Kress Interpretive Fellowship Award, which she pursued at the Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Art Gallery at Columbia.
In 2016 she added two more important credits to her growing resume.
She was awarded a grant by Teacher’s College, Columbia University to organize a conference on the Social Responsibility of Museums and Cultural Institutions. Among the key note speakers at the successful event was Alissandra Cummings, Director of the Barbados Museum & Historical Society and former Chairperson of the Executive Board of UNESCO.
Shortly afterwards, Ms. Fifi was nominated by the British Arts Council to be one of three Caribbean representatives to attend the prestigious Museums What For Conference in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, at which she attended meetings and offered a Caribbean perspective on implementing best practices and partnerships among key institutions in the museums sector around the world.
Founded in 1899 by The Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, The Brooklyn Children’s Museum is the world’s first museum designed expressly for children.
Listed by Forbes Magazine as one of the 12 best children’s museums in the United States, it is New York City’s first and only LEED-certified green museum and demonstrates innovative uses of alternative energy sources and renewable building materials.
It remains one of only a handful of children’s museums with a permanent collection, which today includes nearly 30,000 cultural and natural science objects that are utilized in programs, exhibitions, and media.