September 24, 2013

Art exhibit builds on students’ overseas experience

Expanding upon connections formed during their overseas program in Cuba, members of Lewis & Clark’s student group ACCION have brought a diverse array of Cuban art to Portland.

Expanding upon connections formed during their overseas program in Cuba, members of Lewis & Clark’s student group ACCION have brought a diverse array of Cuban art to Portland.

Titled Fugue, the exhibit features video installations, paintings, found object works, and collages by seven different artists from Havana’s Instituto Superior de Arte. With funding from Lewis & Clark, three of these artists were able to accompany their work to the United States and travel outside of Cuba for the first time.

Jack Andreoni ’14, a founding member of ACCION, believes that Fugue “aligns perfectly with ACCION’s goal of strengthening the networks we make abroad and opening up these networks to the greater Lewis & Clark and Portland communities.”

ACCION means action in Spanish, and it serves as an acronym for the Association of Cross Cultural Interchange and Overseas Networking. Sharing his motivation for involvement with the group, Andreoni says that the privilege of studying abroad “should not be looked at as an experience that takes place only over the course of the semester, but as an opportunity to create cross-cultural interchange.”

Fugue embodies ACCION’s mission of interchange by exploring such universal themes as space, time, and travel—as opposed to typical Cuban themes of revolution, counterrevolution, and political unrest. The exhibit’s highly accessible and relatable works reflect the artists’ attempts to transcend the physical and cultural barriers that separate Cuba from the United States.

Fugue can be seen at The Best Art Gallery in Portland through September 26.

Katrina Staaf ’16 contributed to this story.

Overseas and Off-campus Programs