Tariana Navas-Nieves is a respected scholar and curator with 16 years of experience. She earned her B.A. in Art History, Cum Laude, from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and an M.A., Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi in Latin American Art from the University of Texas, Austin. As Curator of Hispanic and Native American Art at the Taylor Museum she is responsible for a collection of 20,000 works. She has lectured extensively nationally and internationally, and has participated in numerous award selection committees. Navas-Nieves has organized more than 50 critically acclaimed exhibitions, and oversaw the re-installation of the Latin American and Native American galleries for the Taylor Museum’s new wing in August 2007. Since then, she has curated numerous special exhibitions for the Fine Arts Center, and has implemented the richest permanent collection exhibition program to date, with more than nine distinct exhibitions featuring works from the renowned Taylor collection.