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Carlos Ruiz Cortés

Executive Director 
Institute of Puerto Rican Culture

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Carlos R. Ruiz Cortés is the Executive Director of the Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña (ICP). He was elected by unanimous decision of the ICP Board of Directors to implement and oversee public policy execution concerning arts, culture, and heritage in January 2017. This position is equivalent to the rank of an Executive Department Secretary.

 

Currently, as Executive Director, he oversees over two-hundred employees and contractors, over thirty-five historic buildings, two sub-corporations, and two theaters. Ruiz Cortés supervises the progress of eighteen divisions of the State ranging from the National Art Collection of Puerto Rico to the Council for the Conservation and Studies of Archaeological Subaquatic and Land Sites and Resources. Specifically, he oversees the Council for the Conservation and Studies of Archeological Subaquatic and Land Sites and Resources; Building Improvement and Conservation;  Support for the Arts; Cultural Promotion in Municipalities; Fine Arts Division; Popular Arts Division; Music and Theater Division -including 2 theaters; Built Historical Heritage; Parks and Museums Division; Archeology Division; Publications, Sales, Marketing, and Magazine Division; General Archive of Puerto Rico; and National Library of Puerto Rico.

 

Highlights during his term as Executive Director of ICP include facilitating accessibility and democratization of Puerto Rico’s heritage using technology. This has been possible with the support of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Google Arts and Culture, National Endowment for the Arts, National Endowment for the Humanities, and Pandora Music, among others.

 

Simultaneously, while leading ICP, Ruiz Cortés served as the Executive Director of the Corporación de las Artes Musicales (CAM), the public corporation of the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra, from 2018 until 2021. Highlights during his tenure include touring the Orchestra to the 2018 Latin Grammys in Los Angeles, CA, as well as active participation in the quick relocation to feature Lin Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton at the Centro de Bellas Artes in 2018, which kicked-off the tourism industry in Puerto Rico following the devastation of Hurricane María in 2017.  

 

Mr. Ruiz holds a BA in humanities from the University of Puerto Rico and is currently a PhD candidate at the Interamerican University of Puerto Rico. Prior to being the Executive Director of ICP he was a Professor at the Escuela Especializada Libre de Música Ernesto Ramos Antonini in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

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