Lily Garafulic: A Life

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Lily Garafulic Yankovic, sculptor, was born in Antofagasta, Chile, on May 14, 1914, to Croatian parents, and was the youngest of nine siblings and spent her childhood in Antofagasta and at the age of 5 the family moved to Santiago. From a young age, Lily demonstrated great talent as a draftsman and was influenced by the artistic environment in which her brother, Andres Garafulic, an architect.

She entered the School of Fine Arts at the University of Chile in 1934. She studied drawing at Hernán Gazmuri's studio and later became the most gifted student in Lorenzo Domínguez's sculpture studio, becoming his assistant in the sculpture course in 1937. She was a member of the Generation of the 1940s.

In 1938, a stay in Paris allowed her to meet Constantin Brancuşi, whose simplicity and expressive power she always admired. She continued her training in sculpture and mosaic and stained glass techniques. In 1944, she was awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship which allowed her to come to New York. She enrolled in the New School for her outstanding performance, she entered the New School of Social Research in New York, where she was a student of José de Creeft. At the same time, she studied engraving at William Hayter's Atelier 17.

In addition to her career as s sculptor, she was also a professor, she also served as a no less important professor at the Faculty of Arts at the University of Chile. In 1947, she was appointed as a substitute professor of sculpture, a position that allowed her to train and mentor many new generations of sculptors.

In 1948, she received a scholarship from the University of Chile to attend the School of Ravenna, Italy, to study mosaic techniques. It was during this trip, during a visit to Paris, that she met André Breton.

In 1951, she was named full professor of Sculpture at the University of Chile.

In 1957, she was appointed Chilean representative to UNESCO at the International Association of Plastic Arts, Fine Arts Congress in Dubrovnik, Yugoslavia; in 1959, she served as President of the Symposium of Plastic Artists of the Southern Cone (UNESCO), Santiago, Chile; in 1960, she traveled to Easter Island to visit her teacher, Lorenzo Domínguez; in 1966, she traveled as a visiting professor at the School of Fine Arts in Lima, Peru; in 1971, she was a guest professor at Columbia University in New York, United States; in 1975, she served on the International Jury for UNICEF in New York, United States; and as a Representative at the Congress of Latin American Artists in Arica, Chile.  

In 1973, she was appointed to be the first woman Director of the National Museum of Fine Arts. During her tenure, which lasted until 1977, she was responsible, among other things, for the modernization of the heritage collection's conservation. Thanks to an agreement between the Museum, the OAS, and UNESCO, a Laboratory for the Restoration and Conservation of Works of Art was created at the National Museum of Fine Arts. This laboratory continued until October 1982, when the National Center for Conservation and Restoration of the Directorate of Libraries, Archives, and Museums (DIBAM) was established.

Considered among the three most important sculptors in the history of Chilean art— along with Rebeca Matte and Marta Colvin—Lily Garafulic has received high distinctions in Chile and international art circles. In 1985, she received the Circle of Art Critics Award; in 1992, the Rebeca Matte Prize awarded by the Ministry of Education; in 1995, the National Art Prize awarded by the Chilean government; and in 1997, she was named Professor Emeritus of the University of Chile. In 2018, the President of Croatia posthumously awarded her the Order of Merit Danica Hrvatska medal, one of the highest honors, for her life-long contributions to the arts and culture.

She passed away in Santiago, Chile on March 15, 2012 at the age of 98.

Gloria Garafulich-Grabois is a native of Chile and a citizen of the United States and Croatia.

In January 2018, the Government of Chile awarded her the grade of Dame of the Order of Merit Gabriela Mistral.

In October 2021, she was created Dame of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem.

She is a graduate of the University of Chile, she also studied at New York University. For a number of years worked at the Chilean Copper Company in New York. Thereafter she was Vice President at a Management Consulting firm serving the Financial Services Industry on Wall Street. Currently, Ms. Garafulich-Grabois works in the Center for Catholic Studies at Seton Hall University in South Orange, N.J., where she is the Director of the G. K. Chesterton Institute for Faith & Culture and the Managing Editor of two highly acclaimed academic journals, The Chesterton Review in its English version and The Lonergan Review, and Editor of the Spanish, Portuguese, French and Italian editions of The Chesterton Review. The Institute promotes the life, work and thought of the English writer G. K. Chesterton. In 2013, she designed and presented the exhibit “Chesterton and Freedom” at the 2013 New York Encounter organized by Crossroads Cultural Center in New York and was curator of the Chesterton Exhibit, and consultant to the stage production of Manalive at the 2013 Rimini Meeting in Italy. In 2011 she was co-Producer of the Rimini Meeting’s stage production of “The Ballad of the White Horse,” and literary advisor for the stage production of “Liberi Tutti!” –based on Chesterton’s play “The Surprise,” presented at the 2022 Rimini Meeting. She also produced and directed the “A Chestertonian Conversation with Father Ian Boyd.” She has also served in the Organizing Committee of the Annual Women’s Conference at Seton Hall University.

As President of the Gabriela Mistral Foundation, US, Ms. Garafulich-Grabois wrote, produced and directed the documentary “Gabriela Mistral: Her Life, Her Legacy” which was launched at a special event at The New York Times in October 2009. In 2013 the documentary was released in its Spanish version; and has since been released with German, Polish, Hebrew and Italian subtitles. Ms. Garafulich-Grabois is co-editor of the foundation’s special bilingual publication From Chile to the World—70 years of Gabriela Mistral’s Nobel Prize in Literature; Editor of the foundation’s annual journal The Mistral Review, co-editor of the recently released facsimile centenary edition of Gabriela Mistral’s second collection Ternura. She is a co-leader of “Chilean Women in Leadership-N.A.”—a project of the Gabriela Mistral Foundation, Inc. in alliance with We are Mef (We are Mujeres en Finanzas).

Areas of personal interest include a life-long commitment to international relations, women's and children’s issues, literature, the arts, classical and world music and writing, particularly in relation to Gabriela Mistral, Chilean and Latin American culture and volunteer work. In 2010 she established the Estelita Adult Literacy Project in rural and semi-rural areas in Chile.  Mrs. Garafulich-Grabois is the Founder and International Director of the Chapter in Chile of the National Museum of Women in the Arts (WDC), the first chapter in Latin America which was launched in June 2013. The Chapter’s mission is to promote women in all the disciplines of the arts. 

Mrs. Garafulich-Grabois is a member of the Executive Board of the Croatian Academy of America, a nonprofit organization that promotes the rich literary and intellectual production of Croatia.  In May 2014, Mrs. Garafulich-Grabois curated the US art exhibit “Lily Garafulic: Centenary Celebration” sponsored by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Chile which was presented in Washington DC and New York; and she completed the documentary about the Chilean sculptress entitled: “Lily Garafulic—in her own words” which was presented at a special event celebrating the centenary of her birth at the National Museum of Fine Arts in Santiago, Chile in May 2014, at the Embassy of Chile in WDC; the Organization of American States & the Art Museum of the Americas in WDC. The NY presentation was held as part of the Lily Garafulic Centennial Celebration at the Cervantes Institute in New York. The full-version of the documentary entitled “Lily Garafulic—a life” was presented in Chile in May 2017 and in 2025 will have its US premiere in Washington DC.

In 2019, she co-founded of Mamalluca Chilean Cinema Series USA—an annual event that promotes and highlights Chilean cinematographic production.  
As of 2021, she is Vice President of the US Chapter of the World Association of Women Journalists and Writers) In November 2016, she participated in the World Congress of the Association that was held in Chile.

For over 30 years she has been a member of the Junior League, where in the past, co-chaired the Leadership Committee of the Junior League of the Oranges and Short Hills.

She is member of the International Jury of Mondial Art Academia in France.

MaryLou Pagano is the Executive Director of the Fulton J. Sheen Center for Thought and Culture. She has spent 35 years in fundraising, beginning her career in the Development Office of the Archdiocese of New York. She has concentrated her efforts on advancing the mission of the Catholic Church through education, hospitals, and parish work. She began working at the Sheen Center in 2018.

One of her favorite Fulton J. Sheen quotes is: “Humility is the virtue by which we recognize ourselves as we truly are.” Pagano was instrumental in the rebranding process at The Sheen Center and is focused on introducing people to the place in New York City “Where Art and Spirituality Meet.” She lives in Westchester with her husband and has three adult children.