I live in an area renowned for the arts. Venues include Tanglewood, summer home of the Boston Symphony, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, Williamstown Theatre Festival, and museums as varied as the Norman Rockwell the Clark Art Institute and the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Arts. One thing they all have in common is the need to build future audiences and attract underrepresented members of the community.

This is one reason I was so impressed with the way art lives in communities in Cuba. Whether it was a world famous artist contributing to revitalizing a neighborhood by renovating his house, artists “giving back” by transforming once run-down areas into beautiful and income generating tourist attractions, or an “outsider art” project providing support for artists with mental illness, the arts in Havana were a source of pride in the communities we visited.

In a recent post I wrote about the artist Esterio Segura and his determination to test the limits of censorship. The first thing Segura shared with us, however, was his commitment to renovating his home over the past ten years so that it could be an anchor in the community.

Construction worker at Segura’s home and studio

We visited two communities that had been transformed by art. The first, “Fusterlandia,” had been a small, impoverished fishing village until Jose Fuster, an artist who had been trained at a post-revolutionary art school, decided to use his art to “give back.” Houses and entire streets have become amazing works of fantastical and political art.

Mosaics highlight another source of community pride: family health care.

Mosaic of the yacht, Granma, which brought Castro and the revolutionaries back to Cuba.

The second was an area with Santeria themed murals by the artist Salvador Gonzalez Escalona. Here, abandoned objects like old bathtubs were transformed into showcases for poetry. But of special note was the “community workshop.” in the center of the streetscape.

Finally, we visited the Art Brut Project, a gallery devoted to “outsider art,” much of which was created by artists with mental illness. I bought this piece there, by a man who turned to religion after the death of his young son sent him into depression. According to his bio, “the way he combines the texts and drawings in his works produces an entangled and almost illegible material that only he can completely understand.”

I decided to go to Cuba primarily for the International Jazz festival, which was wonderful. I was grateful to also discover a vibrant world of visual arts embedded in the life of the community.

Cuba, Art in Community

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