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April 2005
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from Christmas in Havana
March 2005
ENTRE NOS, ANA B. REMOS
Este lunes concluyó en Nueva York el proyecto The Gates en Central Park, otra de las instalaciones de Christo y su esposa Jeanne-Claude, quienes acapararon la atención mundial en la década de los 80 con su Surrounded Islands en Miami. La pareja rodeó en aquel entonces 11 de las islas de la bahía de Biscayne con vívidas cintas rosadas, creando una peculiar instalación que reflejaba el típico estilo de vida de los miamenses, siempre entre tierra y agua. Su reciente The Gates en el Central Park ha atraído miles de turistas y ha avivado el gélido y triste invierno del parque. La instalación, que se extiende 23 millas de paseos y veredas del parque, consiste en más de 7,500 palios de unos 16 pies de alto de los cuales cuelgan telas de un intenso color azafrán. Para celebrar The Gates, y también para recordar el éxito de las Surrounded Islands, el Miami Art Museum (MAM) ofreció recientemente en sus predios un Pink Jam at MAM, cóctel que se llenó de gente.
Uno de los temas de conversación fue, precisamente y tal vez por la conexión del tema de la velada con Nueva York, la fiesta Images of Cuba que la Fundación Amistad ofreció en el Calle Ocho Supper Club de Nueva York y de la que aún se habla. La Fundación Amistad, creada en 1997 por la cubanoamericana Luly Duke para proporcionar ayuda humanitaria, médica, educativa y cultural a la isla, cuenta tanto con seguidores como con acérrimos opositores, ya que gran parte del exilio la acusa con disgusto de mantener una política antiembargo. Nacida en Cuba, Luly Alcebo de Duke creció en Miami, se graduó del Miami-Dade College y en 1975 se casó con Tony Duke, heredero de una de las fortunas (amasada gracias a la industria del tabaco) más antiguas de este país.
Los Duke acabaron convirtiéndose en unos de los mayores filántropos de los EE.UU. Duke University, sin ir más lejos, lleva desde 1924 este nombre en reconocimiento a los millones que le donó la familia. La pareja, que viven en East Hampton, tienen 10 hijos, incluyendo los de los matrimonios anteriores de él. Un hermano de Tony, Angier Biddle Duke,fue embajador norteamericano en Madrid y en 1990 visitó Cuba. Su experiencia allá y el relato que de ella le hizo a su cuñada, dejarían en ésta una profunda huella. Ni su rica vida (familiar, social y profesional), ni el golf ni los yates ya la llenaban, y emprendió la labor de ayudar a su pueblo cubano, sueño que se concretó en la Fundación Amistad. La organización ha llevado médicos, arquitectos, científicos, profesores, bibliotecarios, artistas, etc. para intercambiar conocimientos, y también proporcionado equipos y ayuda médica, pero su posición antiembargo le ha ganado el profundo rechazo de gran parte del exilio.
Aún así, la fiesta recaudatoria que la Fundación ofreció en Nueva York congregó un nutrido grupo de nombres de peso. Artistas como Arturo Cuenca, José Iraola, Tania Bruguera, Yoán e Iván Capote, Sandra Ceballos, Alexandre Arrechea, Fernando Rodríguez, Abelardo Morell y Bruce Buck donaron sus obras para la subasta. Entre los invitados: Michael Connors, autor del libro Cuban Elegance; Manuel González y María Elena Lagomasino, ambos del JP Morgan Private Banking; Elizabeth de Cuevas (hija de la chilena Margaret Rockefeller de Larraín, Marquesa de Cuevas), la diseñadora de carteras Sylvita Fernández-Freyre (cuya madre, Sylvia Freyre, fundó el Hispanic Institute de Nueva York y la organización Casita María que ayuda a los emigrantes), el inversionista Eduardo Mestre (hijo de Goar Mestre, que fue dueño de la CMQ), Christie Alcebo, el marchante de arte Raúl Suárez, la mexicana Yolanda Santo de Garza (gran coleccionista de arte, esposa del magnate mexicano David Garza y fundadora y presidenta del Ballet de Monterrey), María Pessino Gómez del Campo, John Ryan (viudo de María Luisa Lobo); su esposa Jacqueline y su hija Vicky Ryan Lobo quien, tras haberse marchado unos años a Cuba, acaba de regresar a Miami, se ha comprado un apartamento en Key Biscayne y planea dedicarse a temas relacionados con el arte; Lisandro Pérez y su esposa Lisa Carbajo, que viajaron desde Miami, al igual que Cristina de Cárdenas, una de las agentes (de bienes raíces) estrella de Cervera Real Estate.
March 2003
J.M. Kaplan Fund awards Fundación Amistad
$250,000 Grant
October 9, 2002 Fundación
Amistad raises $152,000 at Images of Cuba Luncheon
October 9, 2002 Fundación
Amistad receives Social Science Research Council Cuba Grant Competition
Fellowship award Fundación Amistad, Casa de las Americas, and
the Office of the Historian of the City of Havana: "Workshop: Management
of Archival Collections."
September 2001 New
office at Duke University
In September 2001 Fundación Amistad
opened an office at Duke
University with the goal of facilitating institutional linkages and
collaborative research between Duke scholars and Cuban counterpart
institutions and individuals. Fundación Amistad will work closely
with and advise Duke faculty, students and staff on such collaborative
enterprises as well as encourage campus-based cultural and artistic
events, academic exchanges and conferences on relevant topics concerning
the island. November 2000 Seventh Havana Art Biennial
The
7th Havana Art Biennial has been arranged by the Wilfredo Lam Art Center
in Cuba through UNESCO and took place in November 2000. This year's
event has been titled, "Closer to the Other," and over 170
artists, designers, and architects from more than 40 countries are
expected to participate. Fundación Amistad invited various
professionals and members of the art community to attend the Biennial
and participate in moderated working sessions. In additional to the
official Biennial events, Fundación Amistad, in conjunction with the
Ludwig Foundation, has arranged an organized visit for delegates to
Cuban galleries, studios, and cultural events throughout Havana.
August 2000 Librarian Conference and Exchange
Fundación Amistad invited and sponsored the trip to the United States of
Ernesto Sierra and Orlando Oliva, of the Library of the Casa de las
Americas, a multi-faceted cultural and arts institution in Havana. While
in the U.S. the librarians participated in the REFORMA Second National
Congress on The Power of Language: Planning for the 21st Century in
Arizona during August 3 - 6, 2000. Reforma is the acronym for the
Asociación Nacional para Promover Servicios Bibliotecarios a la
Población de Habla Hispana. Mr. Sierra made a presentation at the
Congress about the library at Casa de las Americas. This visit was a
component of a larger capacity building project with Casa de las
Americas in Havana, organized and implemented by Fundación Amistad.
After the Congress, Fundación Amistad together with the Northeast
Chapter of REFORMA arranged visits and meetings at other libraries in
the New York City area, as well as the Smithsonian Institutions, the
Library of Congress, and the libraries of Duke University and the
University of Chapel Hill. La Guinera Community Baseball
Initiative
In June 1999, Fundación Amistad sent a delegation to
La G¸inera, a community of 24,000 residents located on the outskirts of
Havana. Fundación's delegation studied the community center's various
programs designed to address the special needs of its young people. At
that time, the community leaders expressed their desire to begin
organizing baseball teams as a healthy recreational activity for youth,
but they noted the lack of equipment as a serious obstacle.
Subsequently, Fundación Amistad has collected baseball and other
sports equipment for La Guinera's six primary schools and two secondary
schools through a collection campaign launched in August 2000 in the
Long Island, New York. The enthusiastic response was reflected in
members' willingness to volunteer, as well as provide equipment and
monetary donations. This equipment was delivered in conjunction with the
Salvation Army. September 2000 July 2000 Visit of
Dr. Fernando GarcÌa Yip
In July, 2000, Fundación Amistad
sponsored a visit by Dr. Fernando de la Conception Garcia Yip, a
radiologist from the Cuban National Institute of Oncology and Radiology,
to attend the Chicago 2000 World Congress on Medical Physics and
Biomedical Engineering. While in Chicago he also attended a pre-Congress
short course on "New Techniques in Radiotherapy." Fundación
Amistad, together with the architectural and planning firm of Hardy
Holzman and Pfeiffer Associates (HHPA), also invited and co-sponsored
Adriana Choy, a Cuban graduate architecture student, to participate in
an educational internship at HHPA. While there, she worked directly with
the director of planning and urban design on design issues and projects.
"Towards a Happy Adolescence" Program Expansion
In 1999, Fundación Amistad began to implement a new program entitled,
"Towards a Happy Adolescence in the Year 2000" at the ClÌnica
del Adolescente in Havana, Cuba. The program, which is headed by Drs.
Elcida Alvarez and Elsa Gutierrez, has trained more than 20
professionals to work in schools on various issues surrounding child and
adolescent mental health. The grant also allowed the ClÌnica to purchase
much needed equipment and to implement an after-school program for
children. Fundación Amistad has worked with UNICEF to coordinate the
project with the Clínica. In July 2000, Fundación Amistad expanded the
"Towards a Happy Adolescence" program into more schools and
began to train teachers and other child mental health workers. To date,
over 150 children have been helped through the transition from childhood
to adolescence, and many more are in line to be assisted by this
program. The ClÌnica would like to expand the program into another five
schools and train another 20 professionals in the course by the end of
2001. Based on the success of this program, the ClÌnica staff is
developing a formal curriculum for the schools of child and adolescent
mental health issues. Dr. Gutierrez is authoring a book titled,
Adolescence: Life Phase 13 - 19. The book will include topics that both
teachers and children consider as relevant to this crucial period of
human development. June
2000 Cuban Congress on Child
and Adolescent Psychiatry in Havana, Cuba
In June 2000,
Fundación Amistad sponsored the participation of Dr. Elsa Morse and Dr.
Elissa Zelman in the first Cuban Congress on Child and Adolescent
Psychiatry. The conference included lectures, workshops and visits to
community-based mental health clinics. Many of the other American
delegates to the Congress were members of Fundación's January 1999
American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry delegation to Cuba.
Fundación is pleased to note the development of such subsequent,
independent projects from one of our past projects. In addition to
attending the congress, Drs. Morse and Zelman conducted an evaluation of
the ClÌnica del Adolescente s program, Towards a Happy Adolescence in
the Year 2000. Both doctors are staff members of the Boys Harbor's
Mental Health Clinic and are familiar with community and school-based
mental health programs. They concluded that the program is being
well-managed and is a valuable asset to the communities it services.
April 2000 The "Jornada CientÌfica Infantil:
Los Ninos de Hoy por el Mar del Futuro" (Children of Today for the
Ocean of the Future)
In an exchange developed directly as a
result of the February 2000 Environmental Educators Delegation's trip to
Cuba, Fundación Amistad, in conjunction with the National Aquarium of
Cuba, sponsored a student delegation of inner-city children from the
Boys Harbor Academy for Environmental Studies and the Environment. The
students traveled to Havana to attend the " Jornada CientÌfica
Infantil: Los Niños de Hoy por el Mar del Futuro." The group,
composed of 5th and 6th graders, had been studying fresh water pond and
salt water coastal and bay ecology through their work at the Harbor
Academy in Central Park and at the Boys Harbor Camp located on Three
Mile Harbor in East Hampton, NY. The students presented their class work
and the methodologies to children, teachers, and professionals at the
conference. While in Havana, the student group also gave a workshop
at the Metropolitan Park for students, teachers, and school
administrators on their studies in New York City's Central Park. The
goal of this workshop was to demonstrate to the Cuban educators and
children the Harbor's use of an urban park as a powerful setting and
tool for environmental education. The goal of the exchange was to
promote this type of community project in the Metropolitan Park and in
other urban parks throughout Cuba. Casa de las Americas: Resource
Development Training Program
In 1999, Fundación Amistad
organized an exploratory delegation from the Ford Foundation to meet
with the executive and operational management of Casa de las Americas to
discuss the need and viability of a resource development training
program. As a result, a program was designed to help Casa de las
Americas achieve its most pressing goal, which is to develop and
modernize its library. The Resource Development Training Program was
designed to provide Casa the means to secure funding for the future of
the library, and for the future of the organization as a whole through
prudent and effective policies and fundraising. In April, 2000,
Fundación Amistad implemented a week-long comprehensive training program
led by Michael Seltzer, former Acting Chair of Nonprofit Management at
the New School University, and a team of professional consultants and
educators in the fields of non-profit management, resource development
and fundraising. The team worked directly with approximately 20 of Casa
de las Americas staff members. The program consisted of workshops,
seminars, and presentations on the following topics:
Project Planning, Assessment, and Development
Resource Development:
Sources, Strategies and Planning
Resource Development Planning
Capital Campaign Planning
Grantsmanship
February 2000
Delegation of Environmental Educators
In February 2000,
Fundación Amistad organized a delegation of professionals in the field
of environmental education, including: Dr. Norman L. Christensen, Dean
and Professor of Duke University's Nicholas School of the Environment;
Dr. Cynthia Thomashow, Co-Director of the Center for Environmental
Education and Professor at Antioch College; and Dr. Robert James
Wallace, Director of The Harbor Academy for Environmental Studies and
the Arts at Boys Harbor in East Harlem, New York. Their Cuban hosts were
Enrique Dalmau and Dolores Rico of the Cuban Environmental Information
Management and Education Center. The delegation explored the priorities
of Cuban environmental groups, promoted collaboration with U.S.
scientists, and studied environmental education and awareness programs
on the island. The delegation met with professionals from government
agencies in Cuba that set environmental policies as well as
organizations involved in environmental education and the study of soil
and the atmosphere. These included the Metropolitan Park, the National
Zoo, the National Aquarium, the Museum of Natural History, and the
Sierra de Rosario Biosphere Reserve. Information
on older projects can be found in the past
projects section of the site. |
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