Orlando Graves Bolaños

Senior Director of Arts Programming

Orlando Graves Bolaños is Senior Director of Arts Programming at COCA. In this role, Orlando is responsible for leading artistic and programmatic initiatives, continuing to align with COCA’s mission-driven offerings, which inspire, challenge, and educate its community of patrons and students. Orlando works to advance, implement, facilitate, and advocate for the artistic plans and visions of COCA’s program and education teams.

Previously, Orlando served as Director of Gallery Facilitation & Experience for The DoSeum, the San Antonio children’s museum, where he led a team of informal educators dedicated to the design and facilitation of STEAM and literacy experiences for families and educators. He promoted the arts to children through the creation of an artist-in-residence program that employs socially engaged and social practice artists to design meaningful installations and experiences for kids, 0–10 years of age.

He earned his M.F.A. in Studio Art from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid and is completing his Ph.D. via the Interdisciplinary Learning and Teaching program at the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA). Throughout his more than 20 years abroad, art education played a foundational part in his career starting as a teaching artist. He worked with 200 professional multidisciplinary artists across Spain to create unique residencies benefiting 18,000 Title I students.

Orlando also was an instructor in the Interdisciplinary Learning and Teaching Department at UTSA, where he worked with preservice teachers.