Maria Gabriela Aldana, director of Art of Solidarity, has been working in partnership with the Baltimore Museum of Industry to lead “Echoes from the Key Bridge,” a community-centered oral history and video project, honoring firsthand accounts from the people most impacted by the tragic collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore Harbor on March 26, 2024. The collection includes Port workers, small business owners, first responders, social workers, and family members of the six men who fell into the Patapsco River and died. In our conversation with Maria, we will explore the impact of the project on the people who work in and around the harbor, as well as the importance of community-centered collections and archives.

Maria Gabriela Aldana is a bilingual artist, community organizer, oral historian, folklorist, and teacher. For over 20 years, she has produced murals, exhibitions, parades, films, traveling exhibitions, festivals, and multicultural events. Originally from Managua, Nicaragua, Ms. Aldana is a proud immigrant raised in Miami, Florida and living in Baltimore, Maryland. She earned her BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 2003 and was part of the first group in the USA to earn the MA in Community Arts in 2006. She founded Bmore Cultured in 2004, which organized a volunteer group of Black youth in Baltimore to venture to Nicaragua as African-American ambassadors and live in solidarity with rural communities. She then co-founded Art of Solidarity with Aleks Martray, which continued their partnership with Nicaragua. Ms. Aldana served as the first Community Arts Manager for Creative Alliance and was promoted to Education Director where she doubled the organization’s youth and education programs. There, she founded and directed Artesanas Mexicanas and Neighborhood Voices amongst other social justice and family programs. Aldana earned the prestigious award for top 30 Baltimore Visionaries by Baltimore Magazine.