Last Friday, officials of the Cuban and Italian governments confirmed a 2.5 million euro contribution by Italy to Havana’s Instituto de Arte Superior (ISA). The funding will help restore the original theater arts complex, and represents a major step in reclaiming the abandoned buildings of the National Art Schools, now acclaimed as architectural treasures.

With more than 50 semi-independent “collateral” exhibitions and events joining an already jammed official program, there’s no such thing as an overview for this year’s Bienal. But there are plenty of highlights—along with links to video clips, slide shows, photos, and more—in the first of several reports from Cuban Art News.

Anyone familiar with life in Havana knows that Cubans are big fans of Hollywood movies. And with Hollywood in Havana: Five Decades of Cuban Posters Promoting U.S. Films, Hollywood will have the chance to discover that for itself. Here’s a sneak preview of the show opening August 20.

Last Thursday, Cuban Art News ran a “sneak preview” interview with Celia and Yunior, whose new exhibition, Sala Discontinua (created with Ricardo Miguel Hernández), opened the next evening at the Centro de desarrollo de las artes visuales (DCAV). Now, here are photos from the opening that convey much more clearly what the artists had in mind, and the impact of the exhibition on its viewers.

At El Museo del Barrio in New York, The Illusive Eye takes its inspiration from a 1965 show at MoMA about Op art and related movements. But this time, the emphasis is on Latin America—and Cuban artists are part of the mix.

At the Cuban Pavilion, a pair of curators encouraged Cuban, Cuban-born, and foreign artists to bring fresh thinking to the idea of art as a mechanism of cultural, social, and economic exchange. The results ranged from video installations to a short-term cottage industry.

Last summer, S.M.A.K., the contemporary art museum in Ghent, Belgium, hosted Wilfredo Prieto: Speaking Badly About Stones (Hablando mal de las piedras). In this six-minute video, Prieto talks about the work in the show—including several pieces that are currently on view at the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes in Havana.

Now on view at the OAS Art Museum of the Americas, (Art)xiomas - Cuba Ahora: The Next Generation presents work by young and emerging artists from the Island. The show’s curator, Gabriela García Azcuy, talks about the exhibition in its newly expanded form.

For much of the 20th century, the covers that Andrés García Benítez designed for Carteles magazine captured the sophistication and wit of Cuban culture. Martin Garrido Gómez, director of the Provincial Art Center in Holguín, celebrates García Benítez’s art in his centennial year.