SJCT To Host Viva Cuba!

San Juan Community Theatre will be hosting the photography exhibit, Viva Cuba! July 10 through August 29. There will be an opening reception with wine & appetizers on Friday, July 13 at 5 – 7 pm.

Malecon, Havanan, Cuba, May 2016 – Nancy Wing photo

The Viva Cuba! Photography Exhibition includes 52 photographs depicting the people and places of Cuba. Subjects range from the well-known landmarks and “dandes” posing for tourist dollars in Old Havana to a storekeeper in a tiny southeastern town, from teenage art school performers to sunrise in Cienfuegos and tobacco farming in Vinales.

All the images were made in 2016 and 2017 on two artist exchanges organized by Washington State’s World Trade Exchange (WTE) and led by photo stylist Nancy Wing and photographer/educator Ray Pfortner, both of Vashon Island, Washington. WTE does not offer tours, but true one-on-one artist exchanges, with a focus on meeting and creating art with local artisans.

The Viva Cuba! show has been traveling for 2 years, ironically only to islands: 2016 at the Hardware Store Gallery on Vashon Island, 2018 at the Mercer Island Community and Event Center and now at the San Juan Community Theatre Gallery. It will travel for the rest of 2018.

With the opening-door policy for Americans visiting Cuba under the Obama Administration, there was concern that the images in the show by now would be commonplace. The 2016 group arrived just as the first US cruise ship sailed south from Havana and Americans were flooding Cuba. European and Canadians were also flooding the island, fearing the wave of Americans would ruin Cuba for all tourists.

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