María del Mar Villafranca, honorary trustee of the Rodríguez-Acosta Foundation

María del Mar Villafranca, general director of Patronato de la Alhambra y Generalife (PAG) has been named honorary trustee of the Rodríguez-Acosta Foundation. The Board of the Granadan Foundation voted unanimously in favour of the appointment of Villafranca, who will share her duties with Federico Mayor Zaragoza, director of the Cultura de Paz Foundation; Francisco González Lodeiro, vice-chancellor of the University of Granada, and Antonio Jara, chairman of CajaGranada.
Born in Granada, Villafranca holds a PhD in History of Art from the University of Granada, and is an internationally-acknowledged expert in museology, cultural management and the research and preservation of cultural assets. She has taught History of Art in Granada and at various European universities. From 2000 to 2004 she was general director of the Government of Andalusia Instituciones del Patrimonio Histórico.
Villafranca has been president of the Andalusian Museums Commission for Archives and Bibliographic and Documentary Heritage, and has chaired several technical commissions and other bodies entrusted with the safekeeping of cultural, historical and artistic heritage. In June 2004 she was named general director of Patronato de la Alhambra y Generalife, a position she still holds today. As a result of her extensive experience in cultural management, she has had a body of work published and has been invited to talk at many international conferences and forums.