Name: Karla Centeno

Place of Birth: Chula Vista, CA

Place of Residence: San Diego, CA

Zodiac: Scorpio

Professional Titles: Director of Education and Engagement, Interim Senior Arts and Culture Funding Manager, Arts and Culture Project Manager, Director of Education and Public Programs, Gallery Educator, VIP Coordinator, Gallery Assistant, Secretary, Server, Bartender, Makeup Artist

Education: BA Art History, San Diego State University

Literature: Depends. If she wants to feel fabulous, Oscar Wilde. If she wants transcendence, Italo Calvino. If she wants fantasy, Stanislaw Lem. If she wants a little bit of everything, Jorge Luis Borges.

Film: Films by Lina Wertmüller, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Wong Kar Wai, Lucrecia Martel, Stanley Kubrick, Carlos Saura, Werner Herzog, Andrzej Wajda…

TV: Usually cartoons

Music: Depends on mood

Art: The kind that doesn’t take itself too seriously.

Pedagogy: Education should be fundamentally playful and curious. She sees all learning as inherently interdisciplinary (there are always connections to be drawn) but also sees the merit in a focused lesson. She believes the best educators teach students how to teach themselves. She questions conventional education and wonders what the world would look like without it.

Famous Celebrity Crush: Young Marlon Brando

Wish: Have the wits to study physics.

Likes: Writing about art but enjoys talking about it more.

Fascination: Outer space. She thinks about it a lot.

Philosophy: She sees a little wabi sabi in herself. She connects with nature in her own way. She attempts Vipassana meditation with little regularity. She enjoyed reading Proclus and talking about it with friends. She used to like Nietzsche but not so much anymore. While she views the arrow of time as limiting, she finds solace in the limitations of being human. She admires old philosophy for its old wisdom.

Hope: To go back to school someday.

Fear: The dark, which she attributes to her Catholic upbringing.

Attire: Anything black but starting to experiment with other colors.

Food: Sushi

Drink: Something bubbly like Topo Chico.

Quirk: Known to shower religiously.

Additional Comments: Honored to be a member of all of us. Her new friends inspire her.