Our Partners in Cuba
Host Academic Institution in Cuba
Alejo Carpentier Foundation
The Alejo Carpentier Foundation, is non-profit, nongovernmental cultural organization, created in 1983 to promote and preserve the intellectual and literary legacy of Cuban novelist, journalist, and musicologist Alejo Carpentier. Its director is the renowned Cuban essayist and art critic Graziella Pogolotti. Pogolotti is also one of the founders and mentor of the Hampshire-Cuba Program in Havana. The foundation has two venues: the main office in Vedado, in the former home of Alejo Carpentier and his spouse, devoted to research, publishing, and the preservation of Carpentier’s papers and legacy, and a second one in Old Havana primarily used for expositions, cultural activities, and meetings.
The Alejo Carpentier Foundation relies on donations and grants to finance its activities. Hampshire College’s connection to this institution allows students to receive independent tutoring and project supervision from Cuba’s most prominent intellectuals and artists, while the tuition fees generated go directly to helping the Foundation restore Carpentier’s personal library, publish books, grant scholarships to Cuban researchers and supply its offices with better equipment to facilitate its ongoing work. For more information about Alejo Carpentier and his work please visit http://www.fundacioncarpentier.cult.cu.
Additional/Former Partners in Cuba
UNEAC, the National Association of Writers and Artists of Cuba is an organization that represents Cuban writers and artists of all kinds. This group consists of renowned and active writers and artists as well as academics from the University of Havana, and other institutions of higher learning. Many of these writers, artists, and scholars have acted as tutors for students participating in the Hampshire College program since 1998 when the Hampshire in Havana semester program officially began.
The Oficina del Historiador de la Ciudad de la Habana (Office of the Historian of the City of Havana) is a prestigious institution entrusted with cataloging, preserving, promoting, and rebuilding the city of Havana's rich architectural and historic heritage. Hampshire faculty and students have actively worked with the office over the past few years in compiling a digital photographic record of Havana's historic Old City. Through this and other collaborations, Hampshire College has forged some special partnerships with the office. These partnerships provide for unique experiences and academic possibilities for students participating on the Hampshire College program in Havana. Students can work again in a tutorial capacity in projects from sociological inquiries to actual participation in the rebuilding process.
ICAIC: Instituto Cubano de Arte e Industria Cinematográficos. Members of ICAIC will provide a series of lectures in combination with the Havana film festival. Additional time will be shared between tutors and students, assigned readings, and festival activities.
CIPS: The Center for the Study of Psychology and Sociology
ISA: The Instituto Superior de Arte is the only university in Cuba dedicated exclusively to the arts. The institute is composed of faculties of music, plastic arts (sculpture, painting, photography), scenic arts (ballet, contemporary dance, modern dance, folkloric dance, acting, and theater and playwriting), and the faculty of radio, cinema, and television. Enrolled students follow a five-year course of study, while there are non-degree courses and workshops of varying lengths for foreign students, working professionals, and artists.
TEMAS: Temas is a quarterly journal first published in January 1995 with the expressed purpose of creating a place for critical reflection and debate in regards to contemporary issues in culture and social thought affecting Cuba and abroad. The magazine exhibits diverse points of view and ideas that can enrich the knowledge of Cuban and international reality from a multidisciplinary perspective, through this stimulating the exchange of ideas and offering a space to a plurality of opinions. Members of its editiorial committee come from varied fields such as political science, sociology, social science, cultural theory, and the arts.
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