Rate My Professor Rachel de Cuba

Rachel de Cuba is an Assistant Professor of Visual Arts and Discipline Coordinator at Eckerd College, specializing in Graphic Design. She holds a BFA in Studio Art from Flagler College, earned in 2013, and an MFA in Digital Art from Indiana University Bloomington, completed in 2019. As an interdisciplinary artist raised in Sebastian, Florida, by immigrant parents, de Cuba's practice investigates the roles of structures in politics and citizenship throughout the Americas. Her artwork probes the symbolism of house architecture linked to borders and democratic mechanisms, informed by personal family migration stories. Utilizing multimedia elements including video, sound installations, digital media, and craft techniques, she crafts immersive experiences that interrogate divisions between private and public domains, the emergence of the political in personal narratives, and the potency of objects over individuals across borders.

De Cuba's achievements include grant awards from Indiana University supporting her thesis research and an invitation to produce new media installations for the 2019 New Orleans Film Festival, funded by the Andy Warhol Foundation. Her mixed media pieces were selected for inclusion in the New American Paintings Southern 2022 Edition. Notable exhibitions feature her work in the southXeast contemporary art triennial at Florida Atlantic University in 2023 and Skyway 2024: A Contemporary Collaboration at The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota, Florida. Her expertise encompasses digital media, graphic design, fashion and textiles design, Caribbean diaspora studies, and Papiamento language influences. At Eckerd College's Nielsen Center for Visual Arts, she teaches graphic design courses, coordinates the Visual Arts discipline, and has developed specialized Winter Term classes on topics like sports branding and fashion design. She delivers artist talks, such as Material Memories, exploring memory, storytelling, craft, and democratic themes in the U.S. South and Caribbean regions.