Meet Verónica Olivares-Weber
Artist, Educator, Curator & Community Engagement Facilitator
Born in Guadalajara, Mexico, and based in Princeton, New Jersey, Verónica Olivares-Weber is the founder of Mi Pueblo Lindo Heritage Arts and Princeton’s Festival Cultural Latino. With more than 20 years of teaching experience, she develops art classes, cultural programs, exhibitions, and collaborative projects that connect artistic practice with heritage, personal stories, and community knowledge.
A teaching faculty member at the Arts Council of Princeton since 2010, Verónica teaches ceramics, painting, sculpture, cartonería, metal embossing, and mixed media. Her work includes longstanding teaching with Princeton Young Achievers and Spanish Through Art, integrating artistic exploration with language learning and Latin American art. She served as artist-in-residence at Community Park School in 2022, 2023, and 2024 and taught visual arts to grades 4 to 8 at Village Charter School in Trenton.
As an independent guest artist and workshop developer, Verónica collaborates with the Princeton University Art Museum, Lewis Center for the Arts, Effron Center, and Carl A. Fields Center. She designs and leads original workshops inspired by museum collections, exhibitions, and cultural traditions, combining hands-on artmaking with interpretation, experimentation, and discussion. Her instruction adapts to different ages, experience levels, and educational settings, with English, Spanish, bilingual, and Spanish immersion options.
Through Princeton University’s Department of Spanish and Portuguese and the Program for Community-Engaged Scholarship (ProCES), she contributes to community-based learning, guest lectures, and oral history initiatives. Her Witherspoon-Jackson neighborhood tours explore local history, migration, housing, cultural preservation, and belonging.
Her curatorial work includes Art Across Dimensions: Latin American Women Artists in Resistance, Alas y Raíces, and Milagros de Corazón: Wings of Hope in Tin and Paper. She has also guided collaborative public art projects and contributed more than 15 years of Día de Muertos programming through original ofrenda installations, exhibitions, workshops, and cultural presentations.
Since founding Festival Cultural Latino in 2014, Verónica has directed its programming, artist and artisan coordination, community partnerships, sponsorship outreach, volunteer teams, and public communications. Her earlier work as Family Literacy Coordinator at Princeton Nursery School further informs her approach to family engagement and educational access.
Verónica’s community leadership includes service as Chair and Vice Chair of the Princeton Human Services Commission and past board roles with McCarter Theatre Center, the Arts Council of Princeton, LALDEF, and Housing Initiatives of Princeton. She serves on Civil Rights Princeton and the Arts Council of Princeton Advisory Board.
