CULTURAL ACTIVISM
Susana believes that everyone should contribute to a more equitable art world, and through her side projects she has been able to include artists from different backgrounds facing financial difficulties. She helped African based artists to be seen and exhibited in New York at no cost to them. They were exhibited on posters displayed throughout different locations in NYC from 2021 - 2023. They were also exhibited at the Hamptons Fine Art Fair 2022 and the TriBeCa Art Show 2023.
ARTWORKS-NYC
New York, New York - ArtWorks NYC is a nonprofit organization that offers a visual literacy program to underserved public schools throughout NYC’s five boroughs. Volunteer instructors lead classroom workshops along guided visits to either The Met Museum or the Brooklyn Museum. The art in this program reflects NYC’s diverse school population with art from different cultures, from antiquity to present day. There, Aldanondo was a trained museum guide, guiding NYC public school children and their teachers through a walk visiting works of art they were becoming familiar with.This program was geared to third to fifth graders of the NYC Public School system.
CITY AS STUDIO
Turning to my surroundings to explore identity and awareness related to the places we inhabit by choice or by the inevitable, I set out to bring my painting into the streets of New York City, the city, its people, it’s vibrancy as my subject matter of nonrepresentational work. A project meant to bring culture into the streets, to the everyday places, to the everyday people, making the experience of art: its process and its finalized visuals available to everyone. My work in this project binds the visual and performing arts together, with the aspect of human interaction at its core. Solitude takes a backseat in this project, though solitude is an important aspect to the creation of most works of art, what we as artists create in solitude is based or influenced by our interactions with the world. My project binds the two together. I access solitude under any circumstances, I carry it within, and can in a crowded space access it, or renounce it as needed. During this ongoing project I created works of art n midtown, Harlem, the Upper West Side, the Upper East Side, Central Park, the Lower East Side, the West Village, Chelsea, SoHo, Chinatown, Jackson Heights (Queens), Astoria (Queens), and Brooklyn, bringing my work and my interaction to the people of these neighborhoods.
ICELAND ART FESTIVAL SPEAKING PRESENTATIONPresented the project she worked on while in Eyrarbakki, presenting the art exhibition which consisted of paintings on paper made by the inmates at the local prison and also by the school children at the local school. Through the power of art, these very different groups of individuals came together as creators, demonstrating that a real community can come together through compassion and understanding of different backgrounds, creating conscience that the two co-existed in the same municipality. The works presented shed light on the many similarities in inspiration found in the works, which spoke of hopes, dreams for the future, a love for family and love of the arts, making a clear connection to the shared humanity by this two groups.The exhibition was presented to the public at the local community center.This program was funded by the Ministry of Culture in Iceland, through a local organization.
ART FESTIVAL ICELAND
Selected to join a group of fellow international artists who came together to explore the sense of time and identity, empathy and compassion. While there, Susana worked closely with the local town, school and with Litla-Hraun the largest prison in Iceland, to help create an art festival bringing together everyone in the community, based on the concepts of empathy and compassion, while learning about social interaction, Icelandic festivities & identity, and the social, justice, and the Scandinavian welfare system.She led a painting workshop for 40-50 inmates at the local prison. She also led a workshop sharing her experience as an abstract expressionist artist at the local school and led a painting workshop for the 11th and 12th grades.
SUAREZ PAZ TANGO - PAINT THE MUSIC PROGRAM
Guest Artist - Aldanondo lead the painting workshop offered in connection with exploring the visual arts through music offered by NYC based tango orchestra and quartet Suarez Paz Tango, during the Roosevelt Island Arts Festival.
NEW YORK SOCIETY OF WOMEN ARTISTS EXHIBITION
Aldanondo created a piece to help create awareness of the struggles the LGTBQ community and specifically transgender women experience. She researched the life of a famous transgender woman in Argentina, who spoke about the realities transgender women experience being shunned from their families and communities, being exposed to violence and fearing for their safety. Aldanondo explored a tango titled “Malena” which also speaks of the struggles and hidden sadness of a woman, a sadness she hides behind her singing tango, showing her feelings through the lyrics of a song, comparing her suffering to the sound of a ‘bandoneon.’ Geared toward inclusion, Aldanondo made this piece and was presented during an exhibition during Women’s History month, by the New York Society of Women Artists, in an effort to include all transgender women during Women’s History month.
STUDIO IN THE STREETS
Aldanondo’s project is geared toward creating inclusion in the art world and helping artists from disadvantaged situations from remote corners of the world be seen.She exhibited works by an artist from Florida, and three artists from the slums of Nairobi, Kenya on her wall in SoHo, NYC.Aldanondo is always looking for ways to showcase talent from around the world. All profits of any sales from this project benefit the artists.The program currently hosts artists from around the world while also generating income for local NYC based artists who wish to host artists in their practice.
CONTRIBUTOR TO ORGANIZATIONS
Aldanondo believes in supporting organizations that work to improve the lives of others. She contributes regularly to organizations such as Special Citizens, The New York Foundation for the Arts, recently took part of an exhibition with a mission to support NeonArts/Carnegie Hall through Nippon Gallery for NYC's 19th Annual New York/Tokyo Juried Exhibition.
She is also invited every year to take part of the Benefit for the Rema Hort Mann Foundation, in Tribeca, New York, which supports artists who are undergoing cancer treatment as well as emerging artist grants. The selection of artists and artworks is only via invitation.
She is a member at the Kino Saito Center in Upstate New York, the Southern Vermont Arts Center in Vermont, and a member and Friends Supporter at the Art Students League of New York, and Artists of Ronnie Landfield.
To inquire about speaking presentations or cultural collaborations please fill out the contact form in the Contact section of the website.