Describe the main features of the measure/initiative:
The foundation's mission extends both to cultural institutions and individual creators whose projects are in line with the objectives of the FC, including artists, designers, writers, and intellectuals in general. This support is evident through artistic representation, the realization of exhibitions, national and international events and services that contribute to the development of artistic creation.
This is possible through the Caguayo Workshop on Monumental and Applied Arts, whose objective is that the artists have a professional space where they can implement the realization of monumental sculptures in bronze and other techniques, as well as artistic and utilitarian ceramics.
The Caguayo Foundation has the René Valdés Gallery, in which exhibitions of the most representative artists of the national and international levels are carried out. This is a space in which the work of the creators is promoted and services are provided for the sale of art objects, design, utilitarian ceramics, and sublimation in different media.
In addition, the FC stimulates the participation and organization of events, such as Vuelo de Bronce, in which works are created by Cuban and foreign artists. These works are donated to the public spaces of the city for the embellishment of the urban environment. Examples of this are the bronze pieces that surround the fountain of the Plaza Vieja in the city of Havana and on Enramadas Street in Santiago de Cuba.
Website of the measure/initiative, if available:
What are the results achieved so far through the implementation of the measure/initiative?:
During the almost twenty-five years of work of the foundation, it has provided the appropriate platform for artists linked thereto in order to implement their projects. Through the services offered by the Caguayo Workshop, the only one of its kind in Cuba, a large number of bronze sculptures have been made, both for the national territory and abroad, by renowned sculptors such as Esterio Segura, Tomás Lara, Alberto Lescay Merencio and the national visual arts award winners José Villa Soberón, Manuel Mendive, Nelson Domínguez, Eduardo Roca Salazar (Choco), among others.
Among the most representative works made in the workshop are: the equestrian figure of Antonio Maceo Grajales, located in the Revolution Square in Santiago de Cuba, the Monument to the Venezuelan Warrior Spirit in Puerto Cabello in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and the Monument to Neg Mawon in Martinique, the sculpture Homage to Alicia Alonso of the Grand Theater of Havana and the John Lennon sculpture, "The Martí Acusador", in the city of Havana, among others.
Also, in 2005, the international event Vuelo de Bronce was created by the initiative of the Cuban sculptor Alberto Lescay and the German sculptor Marco Flierl. The event is based on the idea of exchanging knowledge to develop the various forms of application of bronze in art. The implementation of innovative techniques that allow sustainable development also stands out. Its results can be seen in institutions and other public places in Cuba and Germany.
Approximately 50 Cuban designers and creators were represented at the 11th Design Week Mexico (DWM) in 2019, an event that annually promotes and contributes to design, with the support of the Ministry of Culture and the Caguayo Foundation. The event's program included exhibitions in several museums in Mexico City, interventions in public spaces, lectures, talks, audiovisual projections, academic activities, trade fairs and design-related tours.
Collateral to the event Design Week Mexico was the Conference entitled "Diseño Mutante" offered by the designer Luis Ramirez, Vice President of the Caguayo Foundation, in the Aula Magna of the Division of Graduate Studies of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), which constitutes another sign of recognition and tribute to Cuban design made by different generations, highlighting its current strengths and potential.
Another international project in which the Caguayo Foundation has been engaged is the exhibition Drapetomanía, which shows the history of the Antillean Group, an Afro-Cuban cultural and artistic movement that flourished between 1978 and 1983 and has been forgotten in the annals of Cuban culture and art. The Antillean Group proposed a vision of Cuban culture that highlighted the importance of African and Afro-Caribbean elements in the formation of the Cuban nation. This exhibition toured Cuba and is on display in the United States.
On the other hand, with the creation in 2015 of the René Valdés Cedeño Gallery, the public of Santiago can enjoy the visual offerings of other areas of the territory within their own context through the management of the Caguayo Foundation in the search for innovative proposals of marked artistic quality. This has made it possible to broaden the vision with respect to offerings in which the search for excellence and, as always, the anticipation that the national identity will be kept high, prevails. At the same time, it has been possible to develop other areas in the contribution of the formation of related courses of studies such as History of Art and the specialties of the professional academy of Visual Arts.
Currently, the Caguayo Foundation is looking for new ways to support the culture of the city and the country in general. Its insertion into the diverse plots and activities such as events, halls, contests and research about the most representative figures and processes constitute some of its paths. It is worth mentioning the recent contest launched by the foundation together with the National Museum of Cuban Contemporary Ceramics, called "Ideas en formas", to establish new precepts in utilitarian ceramics that identify native creations as renovating elements.