Mariona Lloreta is a Mediterranean-American award-winning multidisciplinary artist, nonprofit leader, and educator whose work bridges creativity, philanthropy, and community transformation.
Working across film, poetry, painting, photography, and dance, Mariona explores identity, spirituality, and collective memory through stories that honor the invisible threads connecting people across cultures, generations, and histories. Her work examines the liminal spaces between presence and absence, brokenness and wholeness, memory and imagination, inviting audiences to consider how art can deepen our capacity for empathy, belonging, and collective care.
Alongside her artistic practice, Mariona has spent more than a decade leading initiatives that expand access to the arts and cultivate creative communities. As Director of Development & Engagement at GrubStreet, one of the nation's leading creative writing centers, she has led multimillion-dollar fundraising efforts, built partnerships with major foundations and individual philanthropists, designed equitable engagement strategies, and helped secure resources that enable thousands of writers to develop their craft. Whether mobilizing philanthropic investment or mentoring emerging artists, her leadership is rooted in the belief that creativity is a public good deserving of thoughtful stewardship and broad access.
Mariona's artistic work has received international recognition across film, poetry, and public art. Her poem Arabesque was selected for the City of Boston's Mayor's Poetry Program in 2025. Her recent multidisciplinary film ALTARS brings together Boston-based artists to explore memory, ritual, and healing in response to racial injustice in the United States.
Her earlier film A Lua Nunca Morre, directed and produced in Rio de Janeiro, received Best Experimental Film and Best Cinematography at the Oscar-qualifying Reel Sisters Film Festival and screened at the Oscar-qualifying Edmonton International Film Festival, New York Latino Film Festival, NALIP's Latino Media Fest, and festivals around the world. Amenze: In Between Worlds received Best Cinematography at Reel Sisters, earned a Best International Film nomination at BronzeLens, and screened at the Oscar-qualifying ZINEBI International Festival of Documentary and Short Film, among many others.
Her broader body of work includes editing the award-winning Nigerian feature The Ghost and the House of Truth; directing In the Absence of Things, starring acclaimed recording artist Somi; and producing documentary films including ReSignifications for New York University, Living Together for the Metropolitan Area Planning Council, and The Lagos Music Salon in Nigeria.
A dedicated educator and mentor, Mariona has served as an Affiliate Professor of Screenwriting at Emerson College, where she teaches emerging filmmakers to develop stories grounded in authenticity, cultural memory, and artistic rigor. Throughout her career she has designed accessible arts programming, developed free educational opportunities, mentored artists across disciplines, and championed pathways for immigrant artists, women, and historically underrepresented communities to thrive as creative leaders.
Born and raised in Barcelona, where art is woven into the architecture and everyday life of the city, Mariona understands creativity not as a profession but as an essential human language. Now based in Boston, her perspective as an immigrant informs a practice rooted in cultural exchange, belonging, and the belief that storytelling can bridge differences while honoring complexity.
Across every role she holds, as nonprofit executive, filmmaker, poet, educator, photographer, and community builder, Mariona is guided by a single conviction: that the arts have the power not only to reflect society, but to transform it. Her work seeks to preserve memory, cultivate connection, and create spaces where imagination becomes a catalyst for equity, healing, and lasting social change.
AWARDS & FELLOWSHIPS
2025, Winner - Opportunity Fund Award, City of Boston Arts and Culture, Boston, MA
2024, Winner - Mayor’s Poetry Program, City of Boston, Boston, MA
2024, Selected - Fay Chandler Emerging Art Exhibition, City of Boston, Boston, MA
2024, Winner - Collective Futures Fund, Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Boston, MA
2024, Winner - City of Boston Wake Up the Night Grant, Boston, MA
2022, Winner - New England Dance Fund, New England Foundation for the Arts, Boston, MA
2022, Winner - Opportunity Fund Award, City of Boston Arts and Culture, Boston, MA
2021, Winner - Artist Fellowship in Film & Video, Mass Cultural Council, Boston, MA
2021, Winner - Live Arts Boston (LAB) Grant, The Boston Foundation, Boston, MA
2021, Winner - Opportunity Fund Award, City of Boston Arts and Culture, Boston, MA
2021, Winner - Assets for Artists, Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA
2021, Winner - Art for Racial Justice Grant, Cambridge Arts Council, Cambridge, MA
2020, Winner - Radical Imagination for Racial Justice Grant, Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Boston, MA
2020, Winner - Best Experimental Film Award, Reel Sisters of the Diaspora Film Festival, A lua nunca morre (Oscar-Qualifying)
2020, Winner - Best Cinematography Award, Reel Sisters of the Diaspora Film Festival, A lua nunca morre (Oscar-Qualifying)
2020, Winner - City of Cambridge Vacant Storefront Design Contest, Boston, MA
2020, Winner - MetroCommon 2050 Community Engagement Grant, MAPC, Boston, MA
2019, Winner - Opportunity Fund Award, City of Boston Arts and Culture, Boston, MA
2019, Winner - MetroCommon 2050 Spark Grant Award, MAPC, Boston, MA
2019, Winner - Oil Painting Studio Art Grant, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
2019, Winner - Best Nigerian Film Award, Africa International Film Festival, Nigeria, The Ghost and the House of Truth
2019, Winner - Best Narrative Feature (World Cinema), Urbanworld Film Festival, The Ghost and the House of Truth