National Council on the Arts Members

María López De León (San Antonio, TX)

María López De León is the Executive Director and board member of the National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures (NALAC). Ms. De León has been with NALAC for 14 years and has served as Executive Director for ten years. She has been involved in all aspects of development and implementation of the organization’s programs and strategic initiatives.

Under Ms. De León’s leadership, NALAC developed and launched three grant programs, the NALAC Fund for the Arts, a grant program for Latino artists and organizations; the Transnational Cultural Remittances, a grant program for artists and organizations in the U.S., Mexico, and Central America; the NALAC Diverse Arts Spaces program, a grant program that supports organizations that are part of the Ford Foundation’s Diverse Art Spaces to expand their Latino programming to diverse audiences and outreach to diverse communities. She has directed the continued development of 12 editions of the renowned annual Leadership Institute and the Latino Arts Advocacy Institute in Washington, D.C.; directed the convening of five national arts and cultural conferences and dozens of regional arts training workshops across the country. Under De León’s leadership, NALAC completed production of Visiones, a six-part documentary series on Latino art and culture for PBS and development of accompanying education curriculum distributed to over 35,000 schools. She is leading the efforts to renovate a historic site in San Antonio to serve as NALAC’s national offices and home to a national arts leadership training institute.

With more than 20 years of multifaceted experience in grass roots community efforts, working with community based organizations across the country, Ms. De León continues to serve on multiple arts and culture policy panels across the country. Ms. De León is a fellow of the Rockwood Leadership Institute and the Wallace Foundation Leadership in Excellence and Arts Participation (LEAP) program. Ms. De León serves on the board of the First People’s Fund and is an advisory council member of San Anto Cultural Arts and Women of Color in the Arts. She studied Journalism at the University of Texas at El Paso.

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