Alumni Weekend at PennDesign - Reconnecting: Personal Perspectives on Art and Architecture in Cuba: Belmont Freeman and Gabriel Martinez

PennDesign welcomes alumni back to campus for the 2018 Penn Alumni Weekend. Architect and PennDesign alumnus Belmont Freeman (MFA’76) and artist Gabriel Martinez, senior lecturer in photography in the Department of Fine Arts at PennDesign, will discuss their personal perspectives on art and architecture in Cuba. 

Freeman is an architect of Cuban descent who has worked on projects in Cuba and regularly leads visitors on architectural tours there. Martinez is a Cuban-American artist whose most recent project “Between” explores the increased fluidity of relations and increased conversation between both Cubano populations- those within the island and those who have emigrated abroad. 

The Howard A. Silverstein and Patricia Bleznak Silverstein Photography Studio Abroad has enabled Penn students to travel internationally and participate in short-term residencies since 2009. Havana was the first Latin American location for the most recent Studio Abroad. Last spring semester, Martinez traveled with a group of 15 PennDesign undergraduate and MFA students to Cuba as part of the Photography Studio Abroad course he co-taught with colleague Brent Wahl. Throughout the semester and while in Havana, the group explored Cuba’s rich cultural heritage with a focused emphasis on contemporary aspects of art, culture and politics. The Silverstein Photography Studio course culminated with a public exhibition and catalogue.

This talk will take place in conjunction with the Architectural Archives exhibition Mario Romañach: Do You Love Architecture?, exploring the built and unbuilt work of celebrated Cuban architect and longtime PennDesign professor.

Following the talk, guests may join the University-Wide gallery hop (which begins at Archives and then goes to ICA). Beginning at 5:30pm, PennDesign hosts a school-wide happy hour on Meyerson Plaza, and opens the Year End Show in Meyerson Hall.