Claudio Mir is as an educator, theater professional, filmmaker, visual artist and musician. He holds a MFA in creative writing from Rutgers Newark, a BFA in visual arts from Mason Gross, and a BFA in acting from the National School of Theater in the Fine Arts Palace of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic—Claudio received the El Dorado Award for Best Dominican Actor of the Year for his performance in the play version of Regina Express—The 1988 film is a fictional retelling of the Regina Express tragedy, in which 22 Dominican stowaways died from suffocation during an attempt to gain a better life in September 1981.
He has also studied theater direction at the International School of Latin American and Caribbean Theater in Bologna, Italy, and earned his Associate Degree in Professional and Commercial Photography from Middlesex County College in New Jersey.
Currently, Claudio is Senior Program Coordinator for Community Outreach in the Rutgers-New Brunswick Collaborative Center for Community Engagement and previously was co-director of the Rutgers Bonner Leader Program.
Claudio was recognized as a NJ Governor’s Awards in Arts Education Award Recipient, in May 2004, following his 2003 selection to serve as a New Jersey State Arts Council Artist in the Schools. He conducted school residencies for Paper Mill Playhouse’s “Adopt a School” program in Asbury Park, East Orange and Middletown. Through Playwrights Theatre of New Jersey, Claudio directed a playwriting program for Latino boys and girls, grades three through six, whose families have recently arrived in this country. The program was located in Camden and North Plainfield.
His impact on the arts as well as on young people through exposing them to the arts is incalculable. Claudio Mir has created theater projects to help educate New Brunswick’s Latino population about breast cancer survival, prostate cancer and domestic violence. He has been the artistic director of Artist Mentoring Against Racism Drugs and Violence Summer Camp (AMARD&V) since 1997. The program encourages healthy relationships among local youths by focusing on themes such as building hope, resilience, and self-esteem. The purpose of the program is to provide youth with exposure to art as an alternative to violence and a way to increase self-esteem, community connections, hope for the future, resiliency, teamwork and other life skills.
The AMARD&V program has up to five dozen New Brunswick Area high school students, who, under the direction of Claudio, attend daily workshops in digital photography, visual arts, theater, vocals and Bomba, an Afro-Puerto Rican Cultural Dance. It culminates in an outdoor carnival parade, theater skits, music and dance performances, and an exhibition displaying the full range of artwork produced by the youths participating over the summer.
At the Rutgers Collaborative Center, he has been instrumental in working with the Rutgers academic departments to place students in community organizations and provide orientation and guidance throughout the semester.
During the COVID-19 pandemic Claudio worked with his community contacts to facilitate mobile food pantry deliveries to families in need is critical sections of communities of color in New Brunswick. He also worked with the Community Health Outreach Department of Robert Wood Johnson to facilitate free vaccination clinics in these same communities.