CCGB creating a cultural exchange
Ashley Coles
Issue date: 12/2/08 Section: Arts & Entertainment
Sixteen years ago, Susan Franklin embarked on a journey to Cuba to find new and exciting cultural arts.
"I met many wonderful people, including artists and cultural promoters. The people from the Sierra Maestra region revealed that isolation is not an obstacle to creative production," said Franklin. "I discovered that their isolation might in fact enhance objectivity, hence fostering a fresh global perspective."
As coordinator of the Cuban Canadian Green Bridge (CCGB), Franklin helped create this project between Canadian and Cuban artists to unite the creativity of these two diverse cultures.
"The objective of the CCGB is to show and exchange, at a community-based level, through the visual arts, ideas and perspectives from two apparently radically different socio-cultural contexts, on a theme of global concern - the environment," said Franklin.
CRAM gallery, the host for the event, is an organization compiled of local Niagara artists that will be traveling to Santiago de Cuba in May 2009. This project hopes to bring together people of the world through art.
"It is my aspiration that the creativity flowing from this project will enable our respective communities to focus on how we can turn the steady loss of our planet's biological and cultural diversity into a gain," said Franklin.
Through her journey she met many artists, including José Armando.
José Armando Medina Sanabia was born in Santiago de Cuba in 1977. He graduated from José Joaquín Tejada Fine Arts Academy in printmaking and drawing, has a Bachelor of Education in Visual Arts from the Frank País García Institute in Santiago de Cuba, and has been a professor of printmaking at the Fine Arts Academy since 2000.
Armando has participated in many Cuban national exhibitions, as well as fourteen international exhibitions. He has been selected for the Tenth International Biennale of Printmaking in Ourense, Spain, in Dec. 2009.
Armando is eager to work with the CCGB project and wishes to have an impact on the Canadian arts culture.
"I met many wonderful people, including artists and cultural promoters. The people from the Sierra Maestra region revealed that isolation is not an obstacle to creative production," said Franklin. "I discovered that their isolation might in fact enhance objectivity, hence fostering a fresh global perspective."
As coordinator of the Cuban Canadian Green Bridge (CCGB), Franklin helped create this project between Canadian and Cuban artists to unite the creativity of these two diverse cultures.
"The objective of the CCGB is to show and exchange, at a community-based level, through the visual arts, ideas and perspectives from two apparently radically different socio-cultural contexts, on a theme of global concern - the environment," said Franklin.
CRAM gallery, the host for the event, is an organization compiled of local Niagara artists that will be traveling to Santiago de Cuba in May 2009. This project hopes to bring together people of the world through art.
"It is my aspiration that the creativity flowing from this project will enable our respective communities to focus on how we can turn the steady loss of our planet's biological and cultural diversity into a gain," said Franklin.
Through her journey she met many artists, including José Armando.
José Armando Medina Sanabia was born in Santiago de Cuba in 1977. He graduated from José Joaquín Tejada Fine Arts Academy in printmaking and drawing, has a Bachelor of Education in Visual Arts from the Frank País García Institute in Santiago de Cuba, and has been a professor of printmaking at the Fine Arts Academy since 2000.
Armando has participated in many Cuban national exhibitions, as well as fourteen international exhibitions. He has been selected for the Tenth International Biennale of Printmaking in Ourense, Spain, in Dec. 2009.
Armando is eager to work with the CCGB project and wishes to have an impact on the Canadian arts culture.
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Finding Loose Slot Machines
posted 1/05/09 @ 8:50 AM EST
I would like to appreciate and thank you for the efforts you have made in writing this article. The CCGB has taken a decision having a vision in its mind and it will long last for sure. (Continued…)
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