News > November 13, 2008

By Ashton Astbury | Staff writer

On Nov. 7, The Cuba Project, the project for Professor Linda Howe’s entrepreneurship class, sponsored a night of Latin American cuisine, dancing and culture at the Millennium Art Gallery in efforts to raise money and awareness for their traveling exhibition, “Cuban Artists’ Books and Prints: 1985-2008,” which will open at the university’s Charlotte and Philip Hanes Art Gallery in fall 2009. Howe, who has conducted research in Cuba since the early 1990s, heads The Cuba Project. Howe’s study of the “interconnectedness of Cuba’s cultural scene, the intellectual’s relationship to cultural institutions and the underlying politics of cultural production” has introduced her to many talented artists of Cuban origin.

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Professor Linda Howe talks to a guest about The Cuba Project during an art exhibition featuring Cuban art at the organization’s fundraiser on Nov. 7. (Kelly Makepeace/Old Gold & Black)

According to Howe, The Cuba Project developed not only as part of her own research, but also from the student groups who have participated in the university’s Academic Summer Program in Cuba each year for nine years.

“We realized that 2009, the 50th anniversary of the Cuban Revolution, would be an important year for reflection and retrospection, but we didn’t want to focus on contentious U.S.-Cuba relations or politics — we wanted to focus on the island’s art and culture,” Howe said. The result is an exhibition that features over 100 “unique books, prints and related objects by 13 Cuban artists and several books made by (Cuba’s) Vigía Press.”

Through collaboration with the Romance Languages department, Howe formed a group of professors and students who were interested in the project.

Her next move was to approach the Office of Entrepreneurship to create courses that would “provide students from various disciplines the knowledge and training to work with and as professionals in the larger art and nonprofit world.” The outcome was the fall 2008 course “Entrepreneurship in Art Education and Educational Outreach: Cuban Artists’ Books and Prints: 1985-2008.”

“Students are organizing the content of the exhibit; coordinating its installation, launch and eventual travel; and creating educational outreach and curricular materials,” Howe said.

According to senior Eliese Norby, students involved in The Cuba Project are coordinated into four teams: managerial, biographical, content and film.

Norby, who is a member of the content team, is working with North Carolina teachers to integrate the exhibit into K-12 instruction through classroom materials, exhibit tours, performances and other activities.

“One lesson plan concerns the various styles implemented in creating the books and another is related to the historical and cultural themes – how Cuban culture relates to and affects the artwork,” Norby said.

Senior Katie Gomez added that the content team is currently “writing summaries for the over 100 books” to supplement their display in the exhibition, as well as be featured on The Cuba Project’s bilingual, interactive Web site.

According to senior Maury Riggan, the Web site is designed to be both “kid-friendly and art critic-friendly” and thelp younger students create their own books. The students’ handmade books may then be uploaded onto the interactive Web site.

Norby also explained the role of the film team, which is compromised of three students who, with the help of Lecturer Max Negin of the communications department, are organizing Howe’s footage of the Cuban artists and the Vigía Press to create a short film to be incorporated into the exhibition. “Students and professors are working to translate what’s being said from Spanish to English and transcribe it into a script,” Norby said.

Senior Maya Yette, a member of the film team, said, “It has definitely been a learning experience because we get to work with so many different groups. Working with film, Spanish language, art and digital media has truly been an interdisciplinary effort.”

According to Howe, the books that will be displayed in the exhibition are “aesthetically beautiful, spiritually rewarding, emotionally complex. Vigía Press is the only press of its kind.

“These artisans and artists have worked under challenging economic circumstances, especially after the Soviet Union collapsed. During the 1990s, it was difficult to get paper in Cuba. They’ve made 200 copies by hand of each and every book. It’s simply amazing!”

Howe stated that her goal for The Cuba Project is to “enhance awareness of great cultural expression, reach out to immigrant populations and to children, educating ourselves and other communities about Cuban culture.”

“The students working on the project have told me that they hope to deepen relations between the university community and the greater communities of Winston-Salem and the United States,” Howe said. “This is an opportunity to show what art can do to break down cultural, political and social barriers among peoples.”

The exhibition will open in New York City at the Grolier Club in May, with a symposium at the Museum of Modern Art, and will travel to the university in the fall.