Chair: Lauran Bonilla-Merchav (ICOM Costa Rica)

Lauran lives in Abangares, where her husband grows cucumbers and squash, and where together they raise their two children surrounded by forest, iguanas and monkeys. She holds a PhD in Art History and is an academic at the School of Fine Arts of the University of Costa Rica and at the Chorotega Campus of the National University. Through her teaching in these two distinct contexts (the former, the main campus of the only Central American university offering a degree in Art History; the latter, a rural campus with a strong focus on sustainability), she shares her passion for art, heritage and museums. In addition to her commitment to ICOM LAC, she serves as Secretary of the International Committee for Social Museology (SOMUS), where she develops her interest in community museums. After the major achievement represented by her family, she considers her next most significant accomplishment to be co-leading ICOM Define towards an updated and consensual definition of the museum.