After a five-year hiatus, the Museum returns to its Liberty Station home with new leadership, exhibitions & programming

Founded in 2001 by Deborah Szekely, world re-knowned philanthropist, health guru, and mastermind behind Rancho La Puerta Spa and Golden Door, the New Americans Museum returns to a booming NTC/Liberty Station Cultural Arts District with new leadership and a fresh and engaging approach to meeting its mission of celebrating the contributions of immigrants (post WWII) to our nation’s history. Since its inception, the Museum has established a track record of celebrating America’s immigrant communities through educational programming, including an oral histories project, immigrant essays competition, forums, exhibitions and civic events.

Deborah Szekely, 92—a formidable national figure and activist who has championed social justice and the building of understanding between cultures and backgrounds throughout her lifetime—conceived the Museum as an institution that would convene people of all cultures to celebrate the myriad of experiences and contributions that immigrants have made to build our great nation. The Museum’s new leadership team is poised to take the mission and vision to new and exciting heights.

Linda Caballero Sotelo, the Museum’s newly appointed Executive Director, is a first-generation immigrant, born and raised in Tijuana, Mexico. Caballero Sotelo is a true bi-cultural, bi-national individual who crossed the border into San Diego every day in childhood to attend school in the U.S. Those early experiences helped her understand firsthand the sacrifice her parents made to offer her the promise and opportunities of life in the United States. Caballero Sotelo comes to the New Americans Museum with over 20 years of notable professional experience as an executive director, business owner, community leader and bi-national arts figure.

“Linda’s remarkable background, energy and qualities have prepared her well to lead the New American’s Museum,” said Deborah Szekely, Founder and President. “With her diverse range of experiences—from visual arts management, non profits, programs, and advocacy, to the national and international perspectives and track record in innovative international art projects management such as inSITE97—Linda brings the understanding, experience, relationships, breadth and depth that we have been seeking to develop this next and exciting phase of the New Americans Museum. We are thrilled to have her.”

Together with the board of directors and a team of curators and advisers, the Museum has set in motion an exciting programming approach to an ever-more vibrant San Diego cultural arts scene. A more robust series of commissioned exhibitions will fill a busy 2015 Museum calendar with new and traveling shows. In addition, educational programming planned for the coming year will include the integration of technologies to digitize a oral histories archive collected over the last 8 years. Of special mention: the launch of a fully accessible Oral and Digital Narratives Recording Studio and Archives Center, the only one of its kind in San Diego; as well as hosting thought-provoking panels, forums, and discussions to explore topics and issues of identity, resilience, displacement, diversity, and innovation as starting points to unleash the national imagination.

The New Americans Museum will kick off the 2015 exhibitions calendar with an exciting opening weekend startingf Friday, January 16, 2015. Leading up to the opening, the community will be invited to attend an Open House to spend an evening with Deborah Szekely, the Museum’s board members, 2015 guest curators, and the executive director on Friday, December 5, 2014, 5pm-8pm.

The New Americans Museum is thrilled to welcome our friends, new and old, back to our home at NTC Liberty Station 2825 Dewey Road, San Diego, CA 92106. Please visit www.NewAmericansMuseum.org and join the mailing list to be the first to view the 2015 program calendar and secure invitations to the opening and exclusive friends of the museum events.