Архитектура + Градостроительство

With his book “Sugar, Cigars & Revolution: The Making of Cuban New York,” sociologist Lisandro Pérez reconstructs the influential community of Cuban intellectuals, merchants, workers, and artists that grew and thrived on another island—Manhattan. Lidia Hernández Tapia talks with Pérez about New York and the shaping of Cuban national identity in the crucial years before independence.

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.

This past year has seen some notable public art installations, particularly in the New York area and Southern California. Here’s a quick look at some of the works by (and about) Cuban and Cuban American artists that debuted in 2018–2019.

From "Artes de Cuba" at the Kennedy Center to Tania Bruguera at MoMA in New York and Tate Modern, Cuban art and artists continued to expand their presence internationally in 2018. But the most popular stories were on other topics.

Built in the early 1960s, Cuba’s National Art Schools (now part of the Instituto Superior de Artes, or ISA) have long been regarded as a landmark in modern international architecture. A recently announced grant from the Getty Foundation lays the groundwork for a broader restoration project.