Get the latest Syracuse news delivered right to your inbox.
Subscribe to our newsletter here.

Lights shone through the Syracuse City Hall Atrium, balloons adorned its posts and Cuban music played over the speakers. Syracuse community members gathered Sunday to celebrate Cuban culture in an event titled, “Art for Art’s Sake.”

“This is the second of what we hope to be many more events, celebrating the creativity of the people in central New York,” Richard Breyer, the event’s co-organizer, said.

While Cuban culture is the event’s core, artists were given the freedom to express what it means to them. Breyer and Dennis Kinsey, professors in the Newhouse School of Public Communications, launched the event series last May to highlight local artists and give them space to celebrate “Art for Art’s Sake.”

Tere Paniagua, Syracuse University’s executive director of cultural engagement for the Hispanic community, acted as a judge for the event alongside artist Eberto Aguila Diaz, who recently came to Syracuse from Cuba.

“I love that these central New York artists have chosen Cuba as inspiration and as the theme for all of them to research and explore,” Paniagua said. “What a better way to learn about Latin American culture than through its art, and through your own representation of what that means.”

Breyer, who lived in Colombia for two years and traveled throughout Latin America, wanted to highlight the region’s richness. The inspiration for the theme came from listening to Cuban music with Kinsey.

“It was really fun going back to the experiences I’ve had in my youth that helped form me,” Breyer said. “(I got to) appreciate the color and spirit and the communal feeling that I was gifted in my time in Latin America.”

The event highlighted many Latine artists, including María Victoria Castaño Uña, a Cuban artist whose handmade jewelry is sold in Wildflowers Armory. At the show, Castaño presented her series “Orishas,” the name for the deities central to Afro-Cuban religion. Castaño’s work is made entirely with recycled materials like cardboard and silicon.

Ella Chan | Asst. Photo Editor

Tere Paniagua, executive director of Cultural Engagement for the Hispanic Community at Syracuse University and one of the artist judges, explained the process and history behind the competition’s first-place oil painting. Cuban artist Abisay Puentes’ painting depicted violent rushing water around a person walking to stop a stone tower in the middle of the water.

While the event aimed to highlight Cuban culture, the gallery also included art that diverged from the theme. Kinsey and Breyer wanted to create an environment where any artist could have their work showcased and celebrated.

An important part of the gallery for them was that no one had to pay for their work to be showcased, Kinsey said.

“Not everyone gets to show off their work, at least not frequently enough,” Kinsey said. “Making art doesn’t have to be making a masterpiece or selling it. Art is life enhancing in and of itself.”

Richard “Sarge” Rodriguez, owner of the gallery Sargepoureum, has collaborated with Kinsey and Breyer in the past and showcased some of his art at the event. Rodriguez and his studio didn’t have much time to create new works central to the theme, so they included art outside of Cuban culture as well.

Rodriguez’s daughter, Cassandra Rodriguez, also displayed her work for the first time in a gallery. A filmmaker by trade, art has been something she has pursued in both her professional and personal life.

“(Art) became my friend, my pastime. I just love to create; it’s my own world,” Cassandra said.

There were also artists at the showcase new to Cuban art and culture. When reaching out to central New York’s artist community, Kinsey said many artists were hesitant, but grew into the opportunity.

Erika Schneider, an assistant professor of public relations at Newhouse, also made a piece for the event, using the experience as an outlet to learn about Cuba and delve into artistic expression. In a presentation to the event’s attendees, Schneider said her research on Cuban art and culture was integral to the painting process.

Seeing consistent themes of light, vibrancy and color reflected throughout the exhibit, Schneider hoped to capture and honor those qualities with her work.

“Hopefully one day I can be (in Cuba) in person to see with my own eyes,” Schneider said.

Published on September 29, 2024 at 10:47 pm