We recently connected with Buen Provecho Collective and have shared our conversation below.

Buen Provecho Collective, appreciate you joining us today. Do you wish you had waited to pursue your creative career or do you wish you had started sooner?

We always knew we wanted to have creative careers, but despite it sounding very cliché, everything happened for us at exactly the right time. It’s like all of our life and work experiences, connections, and relationships, converged at the perfect moment in time for BPC to happen. It reminds me of a quote by Charlotte Eriksson:

“You must collect and pursue all your passions; let your desires lead you to foreign territories. Your path might look scattered for now, like you have no direction or clear aim, but one day, all those ideas and spread-out skills will combine and create a creation of impact, a combined masterpiece of everything you found to love, and that will be your legacy.”

And that’s why I think BPC came up and exactly the right time – Miranda’s experience as an art educator and artist, Matias’ experience as a F&B manager, our connections in Miami, seemed like scattered experiences. But in hindsight, they all led perfectly to this moment of convergence and genesis. Once we had the vision of what we wanted to create, we had all the tools and community support we needed. We couldn’t have done it earlier because the vision wasn’t there yet. And waiting longer would have been wasting time we couldn’t afford to waste any more.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Miranda is a visual artist and art educator, Matias has years of experience in F&B management. We are so passionate about building a genuine community, particularly as both of us immigrated to the US about 7 years ago and this has been an integral part of finding home & family away from home & family. Two things that really brought us together were food and art. There is nothing like food to gather people around a table and get to know each other, to show care for each other. And we also believe art and creative practices are really important to get to know oneself, as a meditative and healing practice, as a way to tell our stories and connect with others. Many think art is just for artists, but it isn’t about being a professional visual artist or being super technically proficient. It’s about teaching every single person we can about accessible tools and exercises to express themselves, create something, and enjoy the moment. Art is really powerful, and it shouldn’t be intimidating or exclusive.
We also focus a lot on supporting local creatives across many disciplines and providing platforms for them. Many people are very talented and capable, and just need a little support – wether its financial, motivational, structural, we want to uplift and be a resource for the local creative community.
The way all these ideas converge for us, is in putting together workshops and events. We collaborate with different artists, creatives, venues and institutions to put on creative events of all kinds and we have big plans for even more formats in 2024!

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

Buen Provecho Collective is a a Miami-based collective dedicated to 1) making art accessible to everyone, 2) fostering a genuine and supportive community, and 3) building a platform for creatives across disciplines. We try for everything we do to reflect this mission, and it hasn’t been hard since these 3 things honestly have so much overlap! Any time we are faced with creative or administrative decisions, we return to these 3 components. We know that whatever we do, if we embody these, we are on the right track.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

I think sometimes it can be difficult for people on the outside looking in to understand the choice to pursue a creative path when it doesn’t fit traditional expectations of success. In my case, (Miranda) I was in the middle of a PhD program in Ecosystem Science & Policy during the pandemic, when I realized that I had been avoiding my creative calling due to fear of failure. I am still very passionate about environmental science, but it wasn’t the right career move for me at the time and I was unhappy. I Mastered out of the program to pursue a creative career, which at the time was terrifying! I knew it was the right choice, but some people around me thought I had gone crazy. The insight I derived from this experience is to always follow your intuition, but also don’t be reckless about it – take the leap, but don’t forget the parachute.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.buenprovechocollective.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/buenprovecho.collective/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/buen-provecho-collective/

Image Credits
Carolina Menendez Isa Marie Garcia Daniel Bock