Maria Carmen Gambliel (1946–2025)

Maria Carmen Gambliel, a devoted artist, printmaker, and folklorist, passed away on May 24, 2025, at the age of seventy-nine. Born on June 11, 1946, in Minas Gerais, Brazil, she began her artistic journey in Belo Horizonte, where she co-founded the Casa Litográfica and taught at the esteemed Escola Guignard.

She moved to the U.S. in 1981 after receiving a scholarship to the University of New Mexico, where she earned her MA and MFA in printmaking and met her future husband, biochemist Hervé Gambliel. After time in New Mexico and Dallas, Texas—where she championed cultural initiatives—Maria Carmen settled in Boise, Idaho, in 1995. Two years later*, she became director of the Folk and Traditional Arts Program at the Idaho Commission on the Arts where she left a lasting mark by supporting artists of various ethnic backgrounds, refugees, cowboy poets, and folklore artists of all kinds.

Maria Carmen was dearly loved in the community she served for her engaging spirit, boundless energy, cultural advocacy, and enduring contributions to the arts.

She is survived by her husband Hervé, her son Pierre Gambliel and her brothers Renato and Pedro Rodrigues Pereira.

A celebration of life for Maria Carmen will happen on August 19, 2025 at the Basque Center in Boise, ID.

*In an earlier AFS newsletter, it was incorrectly stated that Maria Carmen held this position from 1998 until 2013—the start year should be 1997.