#12 Muraleando

WHERE I WENT AND WHY
Muraleando was a stop on our Arts and Architecture tour of Cuba.  It is an example of how one or two folks can make a difference in a community.  Not only is it a collection of murals, but it has become a community center with more than 60 artists, musicians, and instructors.  It serves 262 children in after school programs including 32 children with special needs.

WHAT TO KNOW IF YOU WANT TO GO
Muraleando is the in the Lawton neighborhood of 10 de Octubre, a suburb of Havana.   It seemed hard to find.  Get a map and a trustworthy taxi driver if it is not on your tour!  Make an appointment and ask for Victor to be your tourguide.  If you google images of Muraleando, he even comes up on them!  He is their best cheerleader and speaks great English.

Victor, making sure we all had fun at Muraleando

WHAT I SAW
Muraleando is a spectacular collection of murals, sculptures from found materials, artists' collective, a venue for performance art, and a cultural center for children's art classes afterschool.  We were entertained by a salsa band and dancers (and invited to dance!) while we ate an especially prepared lunch.  Then Victor gave us a tour of the classrooms, galleries, sculptures and murals.

Salsa dancing at Muraleando

Owls made from '52 Buick parts!
Murals in the background - they are working on
embellishing them (similar to the one at the top of the blog)

Victor ends his tour by giving Maxine a gallant kiss!

WHAT I LEARNED
Muraleando began about 20 years ago as a project to improve the neighborhood.  Manuel Diaz Baldrich and Ernesto Quirch Paz were able to secure an old defunct water tower (used for steam trains).  Over-flowing with garbage, they hauled off 65 truckloads of garbage and salvaged many car parts and other items to use in their "found art" sculptures.  Using "sweat equity" they started the arduous task of transforming the tower into a community center.  Today it is a vibrant place and a monument to how a few people with vision can change their environment.  What was a poor suburb is now a vibrant community.

Every part of Muraleando is decorated with art

IF MON$Y WERE NO OBJECT...

I loved the sculptures from found objects!  I'm not sure if they were for sale, but this would not exactly fit in my suitcase and shipping was not an option!  Victor explained to us how expensive and hard acrylic paint was to get for their murals.  We of course made a donation.

#11 CELEBRATING QUIRKY PEOPLE

There's a fine line between quirky, crazy, and just plain weird.  I guess it all depends on your definition.  But if someone is a "little" crazy and harmless, we tend to celebrate them.  Such it is with Charlotte's Gold Man, and Havana's Brass Man, both celebrated with public art.

WHERE I WENT AND WHY
I had already taken some pictures of Charlotte's Gold Man when he returned after a major make over due to a car crash and had planned an art blog about him.  Then when we were in Havana, we came across their version, called the Brass Man.


WHAT TO KNOW IF YOU WANT TO GO...
Charlotte's Gold man is at the infamous corner of Queens, Providence and Selwyn Avenue across from the Harris Teeter and Myers Park Methodist.  Havana's Gold man is on San Francisco Square and is named El Caballero de Paris.

WHAT I SAW...

I was delighted to see that the statue of Hugh McManaway in Charlotte has returned and was reinforced with a pedestal. I took my granddaughters there to celebrate its return.

 
When we were in Old Havana, we passed by the statue of El Caballero de Paris several times, and each time folks were gathered around either posing for pictures or hearing his story from a guide.

WHAT I LEARNED...

CHARLOTTE'S GOLD MAN..

In the 60's and 70's Hugh McManaway would direct traffic despite the intersection having a stoplight.  It is just what he did.  He grew up in a Victorian mansion a few blocks away.  He was the quirky man in the affluent neighborhood and often spoke in rhyme.  "I work for Jesus and not for pay.  My name is Hugh Pharr McManaway."    When he died in 1998, 2 sisters from the neighborhood raised money for the statue.  Falling far short of the $65,000 needed for their design, they were rescued by the former CEO of Bank of America, Hugh McColl who put in the rest.  

While Mr. McManaway stood in the intersection off and on for over a decade and was never hurt, his statue has not fared as well.  It has been knocked over several times and the last time, the city kept it for a year, reinforcing it with steel and forming the substantial pedestal.

When Ella was in preschool, we had to drive past Charlotte's Gold Man everyday.  We always hoped that he was dressed for a special occasion.  When he was, I would have to drive around the block several times so that Ella could memorize every detail.

HAVANA'S BRASS MAN

The Caballero de Paris was actually a Spanish immigrant to Havana named Jose Maria Lopez Lledlin  who was imprisoned in the 20's for a crime he did not commit.  This left him mentally impaired. He had some restaurant jobs and a benefactor in a sugar plantation office. He was best known for riding the city buses and dressing as a "musketeer" in a long black silk cape.  He loved to stop and talk philosophy, politics, and current events and was well known as gentle and well respected.  He never begged for alms and would often give folks small gifts or change.  He would sometimes sleep on park benches. He and Mr. McManaway died just 10  years apart.

The statue of El Caballero is of him as pedestrian and it is said to bring luck to hold his hand and beard.  They have become polished over the years as folks continue to seek good luck from him.

THE CHEERLEADER OF MURALEANDO

We encountered another quirky and delightful man in Cuba in Muraleando (see future blogpost).  Victor teaches Russian, but most of his time is spent giving guided tours of Muraleando, a Cuban cultural center known for its murals, sculptures of found objects, and art classes.  His enthusiasm was contagious and I predict one day there will be a sculpture of him in Muraleando!

#10 FINDING FINE ART IN CUBA

Our docent at the Fine Arts Museum
beside a coffee house made of coffee pots!

WHERE I WENT AND WHY
On our trip to Cuba our first week was devoted to arts and architecture.  We visited the Cuban Fine Art Museum on our first day of the tour.

  

WHAT TO KNOW IF YOU WANT TO GO
There are two fine art museums in Havana, one completely devoted to Cuban artists and another with an international collection.  We went to the one by Cuban artists.  It is in Old Havana directly across from the Military Museum and the boat Fidel Castro used in their revolution.  The building was renovated a few years ago, but be careful.  Not all of the renovations "matched up" with the old building and you'll be walking along and suddenly there will be a 1-2 inch unmarked step!  The day we were there they were setting up for a concert in the atrium and the band had blown a circuit.  The docent kept apologizing for the "poor illumination."  The museum has many windows with natural light, so this did not deter us, and some rooms were lit.

WHAT I SAW
A docent took us through the museum.  We saw colonial, revolutionary, and modern art.  With a few exceptions, much of the art had fairly dark content.

This was entitled "The Happy Farmer"

WHAT I LEARNED
Cuban artists are chameleons.  They were easily influenced by the art movements in Europe.  We were shown several examples of an artist's work before visiting Europe and then just a few years later, their style would change radically to reflect the Cubism, or Expressionism they encountered on their trip.  

Much of the revolutionary art has only surfaced since 2000 when restrictions on artists were lessened even though much of it was done in the 50's.  

After visiting Andy Warhol in New York, the artist came back and did this painting of Fidel.

My favorite was this painting done after a visit to New York and Andy Warhol.

Among the faces are San Marti, the artist, his mother, Camilo Cienfuegos, Che Guevara, Lenin, Ho Chi Min, Castro (under the star) George Hamilton from the Beatles, Carl Marx, and Bogart .

After completing my tour and reflecting on the collection, I realized that the modern and contemporary art can also be defined by what is missing.  There was no art influenced by or using computers, video, or internet media.  Cuba is still in its internet infancy and artists have yet to adopt any of this new technology.  I guess that will be the next big influence when artists begin to travel outside of Cuba again.

IF MON$Y WERE NO OBJECT, WOULD I BUY IT
Most of the art was too political for my taste, and would require more history and context than I know.  With just a few exceptions, most of it had very dark content.  I did love this paper mache sculpture of Latin instruments.

WE LIKED IT SO MUCH WE BOUGHT IT
We actually bought the museum print/poster of the Warhol-type piece for $3!  A museum print would never cost that little in America!  Of course, let's not discuss how much it is costing me to have it framed!!