Sandra Ramos y Lorenzo
Luego, comunicarnos se hace cada dia mas dificil
(Then, communication between us will each day be made more difficult) 1992-1993
Calcography, 19 1/2 in. x 23 1/2 in.
Gift to the U.Va. Art Museum |
When Jill Hartz, director of the U.Va. Art Museum, and a group of museum members first visited Havana in January 2002, they found a thriving art scene. Top Cuban artists—though hampered by chronic shortages of supplies—are well-supported by the Castro government, which affords them comparatively comfortable living arrangements and allows them to travel freely. In exchange, the government receives a share of the sale of exported Cuban works.
Visual artists appear to enjoy more artistic freedom than Cuba’s writers, Hartz finds. Their work is "as socially and politically engaged as contemporary art in this country and many others," she wrote in her introduction to the catalog for last fall’s exhibit, "Mi Cuerpo, Mi Pais: Cuban Art Today."
Many of the pieces for that exhibition—produced by such internationally recognized artists as Juan Carlos Alom, Augustin Bejarano Caballero, Nelson Dominguez, José Fors, Aimée Garcia, Eduardo Hernandez, José Armando Mariño, Ibrahim Miranda, Cirenaica Moreira and Raul Corrales—were purchased during a second trip to Cuba in 2003, while others were provisional gifts to the museum. Though United States law bans the import of many items from Cuba, artwork is one of the exceptions, and U.S. citizens are permitted to travel to Cuba for artistic and educational purposes.
The museum receives a small amount of funds from the state—about $45,000 annually—earmarked for works to be used in the curriculum. "Until recently, that was our major source of funding," Hartz says, "but now we are starting to build up private funds." The museum’s Cuban purchases were funded through gifts and endowments deposited with the U.Va. Fund, which the U.Va. Alumni Association administers. Among those are the $500,000 Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation Acquisition Endowment and another endowment for European paintings. Additionally, patrons sometimes earmark annual gifts for acquisitions, while others respond to fundraising campaigns targeting specific works.
Gifts through the U.Va. Fund "help us further our mission and enlarge our circle of friends," says Hartz, who already is looking forward to a third trip to Cuba to seek works from other prominent artists not already represented in U.Va.’s collection.
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