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De vuelta a la presencialidad
Auspiciadores y colaboradores 2021
Instituciones culturales y educativas ArteLatAm Asociación Artesanos Ciudad Corazón Asociación Dominicana de Prensa y Crítica Cinematográfica (ADOPRESCI) Ballet Concierto Dominicano Catedral Metropolitana Santiago Apóstol el Mayor Centenario 1921-2021 – Ricardo Alegría Gallardo Centro de Estudios Avanzados de Puerto Rico y el Caribe (CEAPRC) Centro de Estudios Caribeños de la Pontificia Universidad
Católica Madre y Maestra Ediciones Furtivas Editorial Universitaria Bonó Escuela Latinoamericana de Cuentacuentos Cuentería Fundación Acción Verde Fundación Eduardo León Jimenes Fundación Graham Fundación LiLeón Fundación Propagas Fundación René del Risco Bermúdez Universidad APEC Sociedad Ecológica del Cibao Voluntariado de Museos de Ciudad Colonial Instituciones gubernamentales Ministerio de Cultura de la República Dominicana
Empresas Aerodom Aeropuerto Internacional del Cibao Anfibio Archipiélago Banco BHD León Banco Popular Dominicano Banreservas Citi Private Bank Cervecería Nacional Dominicana Edenorte Dominicana Excel La Aurora Malta Morena Synergies Corporation VINCI Airports Visa Internacional
Representaciones diplomáticas Embajada de Estados Unidos en República Dominicana Embajada de Francia en la República Dominicana Embajada de la Unión Europea
Medios de comunicación Editora Listín Diario Emisoras Raíces Plenamar Radio Santa María
Year in Review 2021 New Ways of Inhabiting Art and Culture
Art and Culture: Treading New and Challenging Paths
María Amalia León President of the Eduardo León Jimenes Foundation Director of Centro León
In 2021, Centro León held on ever more tightly to its core values; by way of art and culture, our goal was to further our understanding of how to live with the global sanitary situation and thus adapt to changes in a flexible manner, every step of the way. These conditions helped us develop an online talks program with the artists of the 28th Eduardo León Jimenes Art Contest alongside the international curators who were part of the process. We aimed to extend the reach of the works and subjects of this edition, so as to create a longing for an in-person encounter with art and culture. Eventually, the jury selected the winning pieces, which are now part of the Eduardo León Jimenes Visual Arts Collection. Our main line of work therefore remained unchanged and we were able to move along uninterruptedly both internally and publicly. Later on, we opened our doors as soon as the sanitary situation allowed us to do so, which meant having our audiences return to our exhibition halls and public spaces — always heeding the local and international health protocols established for museums and cultural centers. Little by little, those audiences were once again reunited with art and culture. This year, we also focused on strengthening our exchange and collaboration activities in order to help spread the knowledge of our own history. That included the release of Jaragua Won’t Crumble, a book and online exhibition on the birth, rise and fall of Santo Domingo’s legendary Jaragua Hotel, an icon of our architectural past. We also presented The Soul Inside: An Elsa Núñez Anthological Exhibition, a well-deserved show for this master of the Dominican visual arts. as advisers in charge of something that, all of a sudden, became a primary activity: culture turned into an oasis during those days of lockdown and isolation. Creativity helped us think beyond established boundaries and led us to new solutions to help overcome the distance between us and our audience. Livability brought us closer to the search for new ways of cohabiting in order to create friendly virtual spaces that could project closeness. And when it came to our comprehensive core concept, Education, we found ourselves engaged in a dual teacher-student role, as we had to find new ways of learning and disseminating knowledge. Here are, in greater detail, the results of this process.
This past year also allowed us to strengthen our interinstitutional collaborations. After a demanding round of applications, we received an award from the U.S. Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation. Presented by the United States Embassy in the Dominican Republic, these funds will allow us to create a collaborative research program focused on collection management. On the other hand, in order to showcase art beyond our walls, we have signed an agreement with AERODOM and VINCI Airports to design and produce art, archaeology and cultural exhibitions for the six national airports they operate. We also came together with the Center for Advanced Studies on Puerto Rico and the Caribbean in order to foster academic programs for both countries. Regarding our museological practice, we joined the Colonial City Museum Volunteer Association in order to create collaboration channels that can contribute to the development of public museums within that key urban spot for culture and tourism. In fact, with works underway, this colonial borough is precisely the place where Centro León will open its first location outside of Santiago, which will help us present our cultural proposals to new audiences. We are certainly hopeful about the possibility of sharing the lessons learned after nearly two decades of museum management and thus contribute to optimize the performance of our national museum system, exploring new ways and new roads that will help us evolve and therefore respond to the demands of our society and our environment.
Introduction
This report is a compilation and a summary of the many artistic and cultural activities that took place within the context of an active pandemic. This was, thus, an unusual and complex year that forced us to rethink our practice; to do so, we referred back to Centro León’s core concepts. From the standpoint of Identity, we were driven to see ourselves
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EXHIBITIONS
Centro León’s exhibition program is a reflection of the institution’s founding goals: promoting Dominican art and culture within its Caribbean context, while fostering spaces for reflection and the dissemination of knowledge. Now, at the same time, we’re also adapting to our current conditions by creating in-person and virtual spaces. Both the 28th Eduardo León Jimenes Art Contest and The Soul Inside: An Elsa Núñez Anthological Exhibition, as well as Jaragua Won’t Crumble, more than meet that expectation. In fact, as a token of encouragement for these proposals, Centro León received a special prize in the 2019 and the 2020 Critics’ Choice Awards, presented by the Dominican Association of Art Critics, due to our “cultural, educational and environmental initiatives presented via their innovative virtual platforms, and their support to Dominican visual arts even in spite of the sanitary measures related to COVID-19.”
“Art can’t be stopped,” said Dr. María Amalia León during her opening remarks at the exhibition for the 28th Eduardo León Jimenes
Art Contest. The president of the Eduardo León Jimenes Foundation and the director general of the Centro León was, indeed, quite right on that late-January evening. During this pandemic, art never stopped at all. The works were installed in the Temporary Exhibitions Hall and the opening was held online on January 28, led by Centro León’s head curator, Sara Hermann. As curator Alfonsina Jiménez later said in one of our digital talks, “the contest did take place, after all.” Thanks to the work of a group of tech and communications specialists, the works were immediately available via 360-degree online visits. In-person access came two months later, while the virtual experience also remained available. The audience was able to take in, both within the museum’s facilities as well as a click away, how artists decided to tackle the following subjects: the links between body and space, the construction or reinterpretation of collective and intimate stories, the stereotypes and patterns of power and their representation in visual culture, racialization, assigned gender roles, reflections from within one’s own body, the institutional art system and the artist community and its interactions, among others. The educational program was conceived and designed for a digital environment, as every single piece was made available on the exhibition’s website. That entailed uploading testimonials, short video and text from the artists speaking about their respective works, as well as provocations in the form of questions or prompts that called for reflection from children, teenagers and families. The website also included links to videos about the creative process of each artist, as well as their respective social media profiles.
The Awards
On June 1, the jury members fulfilled their assigned tasks and the award list was made public. This edition’s unanimous winners were Guadalupe Casasnovas with her Extinct Fauna of the Piantini Neighborhood and An Archaeological and Historic Site on 24 12th Street, José Morbán’s Monte Grande/Paramnesia and Raúl Morilla’s Memory in Agony —the latter was also the recipient of the audience’s award. Likewise, Julianny Ariza Vólquez received the editorial award for Atesoro. While Casasnovas and Morilla’s pieces dealt with the reconstruction of our memory, as well as our inhabited spaces and their architecture, Morbán rewrote history, bringing forth previously excluded characters. Meanwhile, Ariza Vólquez struck a contrast between the predominant symbols we domestically asume to have some aesthetic value and the African and Taíno inheritance we tend to confine to the past.
Horizontal Dialogues and Other Conversations
One of the tools we used to draw the audience closer to the artists was the Horizontal Dialogues series, which took place between February and April of 2021. We held nine conversations among the contest’s artists and a set of Hispanic curators, which included Puerto Rico’s Marina Reyes Franco, Peru’s Miguel López, Spain’s María Inés Rodríguez and Dominican researcher Ochy Curiel. Guided tours were no longer limited to walking around the exhibition itself; instead, we also offered three virtual tours between February and April. The first was presented by our head curator Sara Hermann, while the others were led by curators Joel Butler Fernández and Laura Bisonó Smith. Our designated curators, who assisted the artists during their production process —that is, Víctor Martínez, Winston Rodríguez, Alfonsina Martínez, Inmagela Abreu and Yina Jiménez Suriel—, were also part of an online event. During their talk, they explained that there is no standard process when helping artists develop their work, particularly during a pandemic. The curators also discussed the horizontal interactions behind the artist-curator relationship and the hurdles of sharing print reading material with artists. Nevertheless, both sides reached the synergic state needed to complete their respective creative development and thus bring to life their proposals. “We’re living inside a paradigm shift,” said Guadalupe Álvarez during her talk, titled Education on the Horizon of Contemporary Art. The art historian explained how moving away from established standards has modified the practice of art education, turning into something unspecific that feeds off the multiplicity of languages, techniques and methods of art production. These activities, part of the 28th Eduardo León Jimenes Art Contest, were sponsored by the Eduardo León Jimenes Foundation and Cervecería Nacional Dominicana.
The year’s second in-person exhibition was dedicated to a key name in visual arts, Elsa Núñez, as part of Centro León’s Great Masters of Dominican Arts program. Titled The Soul Inside: An Elsa Núñez Anthological Exhibition, it was open to the public from July 30 to October 10, 2021. The Temporary Exhibitions Hall at Centro León in Santiago de los Caballeros presented 50 pieces divided among five areas: The Permanence of Tears, Aesthetic Rearrangements, In Praise of Work, Woman: Life Cycles and Archetypes and Material Experiences. These divisions exposed the central aspects of Núñez’s paintings: the human condition, social demands, the connection to other art disciplines, the feminine figure and pictorial experimentation. The anthological show was curated by Paula Gómez and Miguel Piccini, with exhibition design by Leticia Moronta and Paula Flores. The opening was led by the then Minister of Culture, Carmen Heredia, alongside Dr. María Amalia León, the president of the Eduardo León Jimenes Foundation and director general of Centro León, artist Elsa Núñez, José Javier Dechamps, vice president of Banco BHD León’s Business Banking Division for the North Region, and Luis Felipe Rodríguez, Centro León’s adjunct manager for Cultural Programming. The Soul Inside: An Elsa Núñez Anthological Exhibition was on display thanks to joint support from the Eduardo León Jimenes Foundation, Banco BHD León and Cervecería Nacional Dominicana.
In Tandem
The art education and mediation program presented several complementary elements in different formats: the voice of the artist, links to other pieces in the Centro León Collection and prompts for individual reflection or group discussions. Also, the museum shop offered products related to the artist’s work and the exhibition itself. These activities we presented in tandem opened the door to remembrance, to musical appreciation and to an understanding of the themes and techniques present in the exhibition. On Wednesday, August 25, writer and cultural manager Freddy Ginebra shared his experiences with the artist: he remembered Núñez’s love story with artist Ángel Haché —in fact, he was the best man at their wedding—, the influence on her work of her years as a student in Spain as well as her penchant for classical music. And speaking of this particular musical preference, on Friday, August 27 the String Quartet of the Santiago Metropolitan Orchestra took over the Temporary Exhibitions Hall. Mozart, Bach, Puccini and Beethoven pieces were performed by first violinist Guillermo Mota, second violinist Henry Disla, cellist Manuel Belliard and double bassist Rigoberto Cabrera; they were directed by violinist Dania Cantizano. Artist Thelma Leonor Espinal led a guided tour on Saturday, September 25 titled Matter and Essence; the activity was attended by friends, students and art enthusiasts. Espinal referred to some of the painting techniques Núñez shared with her, such as the use of a spatula and a very particular one, using plaster gauze over canvas in order to add volume —a trick she learned in Spain. On Wednesday, September 29 art critic Marianne de Tolentino led a second public dialogue on the artist’s work. “Elsa Núñez’s abstraction stands close to poetry… it’s called lyrical abstraction, and it’s quite suggestive,” said De Tolentino. On Friday, October 8, the Cibao String Quartet and director Caonex Peguero-Camilo offered a second concert linked to the exhibition. Beyond the classical selection, the audience was able to participate on a starter course on music appreciation, led by Peguero. First violinist Ruth Herrera, along with second violinist Marcel Núñez, violist Marcos Herrera and cellist Raymond Félix performed Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons, Bach’s Allegro, Mozart’s Divertimento, José White’s La Bella Cubana and Julio Alberto Hernández’s Sarambo. The finissage took place on Sunday, October 10 with a free-entry open day, the presentation of a documentary on the exhibition along with a 360-degree virtual visit and other online materials, a conversation with artist Elsa Núñez and curators Miguel Piccini and Paula Gómez, as well as a guided tour.
That Sunday morning, Núñez provided a painting workshop for the children of Talleres Lab, who were able to apply the technical knowledge they had acquired in the program, under the close supervision of the artist. The exhibition’s 360-degree virtual visit is permanently available on our website, centroleon.org.do. The show’s catalog was presented on Tuesday, December 14 by curators Miguel Piccini and Paula Gómez in conversation with the artist and art historian Yolanda Wood on an online event, which was broadcast live via Centro León’s social media accounts.
1.3 Jaragua Won’t Crumble
There are new ways of presenting our tangible heritage and many other approaches to discussing architecture while, at the same time, speaking of history and our collective memory in the present tense. With Jaragua Won’t Crumble, a book and virtual exhibition, Centro León and the Eduardo León Jimenes Foundation have certainly entered those territories. The book, which analyzes Dominican modern architecture by way of the old Jaragua Hotel building, was presented in September of 2021 by co-authors Alex Martínez Suárez and Rab Messina precisely on the old grounds of the original structure, where the Renaissance Santo Domingo Jaragua Hotel & Casino now stands. The architect and the design editor presented the traumatic story of the hotel in 328 pages, ranging from the concurrent rise of reinforced concrete in Santo Domingo and the Trujillo dictatorship, as well as the vision of key architectural figure Guillermo González in the early 1940s and the landmark’s demolition process in 1985, surrounded by protests and murky political schemes. Apart from an English translation, the book includes a selection of images from the beginning of the Republican era to the urban challenges of 2021, as well as a detailed recreation of the blueprints and views of the hotel complex and its various modifications until it was torn down in the mid-1980s. The online exhibition was designed by Pablo Liz, while Samanta Sánchez Franco did the book layout —both working with an editorial design system devised by Ivanna Candelier. The prologue was written by architect and researcher José Enrique Delmonte. The project received funding from the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts thanks to a research grant for architectural projects.
Jaragua Won’t Crumble (and Neither Will Mercedes)
Speaking of our architectural heritage, Centro León brought together the authors of Jaragua Won’t Crumble, Alex Martínez Suárez and Rab Messina, and Raúl Morilla, the architect and artist behind Memory in Agony. The conversation, which saw the speakers compare notions of heritage, architecture and collective memory linked to two 20th-century landmark hotels —Jaragua (1942) and Mercedes (1929)—, took place in November in the museum’s Brothers León Asensio Auditorium. Memory in Agony, Morilla’s intervention on the Mercedes building, won the 28th Eduardo León Jimenes Art Contest —and it was also the recipient of that edition’s audience award. “I tried to tell this story as democratically as possible,” said Messina when referring to a style that eschews technical writing and leans towards literary non-fiction. As a sample, the co-author shared some of the book’s passages and spoke of the importance of bringing architectural knowledge to a non-specialized audience. Beyond highlighting the architectural importance of the Jaragua building and the many documents found during the research stage, Martínez spoke of the great value of the interviews they held with the people who either used, used to visit or changed the use of the hotel —which expanded the scope of the project from architecture on its own to other wider themes.
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CULTURE, BOTH VIRTUAL AND IN-PERSON
Talk of a before-and-after: the online and offline worlds now coexist in the programs and activities of the Centro León calendar, seizing the best of each and exponentially promoting access to contents that were previously limited by time or distance. The variety of training events, work sessions and leisure activities we shared in 2021 shine a light on the creativity and the institutional enthusiasm that made sure culture remained a thing to be shared and lived together, both virtually and in-person.
2.1 Centro León at Home
Online programming is an everyday matter for Centro León’s activities and projects. In 2021 we livestreamed on social media a wide range of conversations, meetings and conferences as supporting activities for our collections, for cultural manifestations or in order to reflect on topics related to our mission as an institution. The conference cycle The Caribbean: A Dream or a Reality, led by Dr. Delia Blanco, took place in two different sessions. The first one was held in January, and dealt with artistic production and its diversity in the region; it came to be thanks to the assistance of the Center for Caribbean Studies at the Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra. The second one took place in March, the month of International Francophonie, and was dedicated to French-language literature in the Caribbean, with special focus on its aesthetics and its diversity. Alongside the Dominican Association for Film Press and Critics (ADOPRESCI, according to its Spanish-language acronym), in February film critics Félix Manuel Lora, Alfonso Quiñones and José D’Laura presented their perspectives on the future of local and international cinema. The event was moderated by Mario Núñez, Centro León’s general coordinator for Marketing and Communications. Regarding our Preventive Archaeology program, in February we presented a talk titled Underwater Archaeology, led by archaeologists Jean Sébastien Guibert and Adolfo López along with sociologist Carlos Andújar. The specialists highlighted this field of archaeology, and its importance in the rescue of the many riches of our island’s surrounding seas. In late February, the topic The Birth of Nation: Tobacco or Herd? brought together historians Fernando Ferrán and Carlos Andújar in a dialogue concerning the role of the livestock and tobacco economies in the construction of Dominican identity. In March, Plenamar held a talk on the contents of its special-edition issue, discussing the effects of COVID-19 on the country from a socioeconomic, political, philosophical, media and cultural standpoint. The magazine event’s panelists were Fausto Rosario, José Rafael Mateo, Robert Paulino, Dinorah García and Isidoro Santana. In April, a month that includes the International Dance Day, we showcased the documentary on Ballet Concierto Dominicano. The event was attended by Carlos Veitía, the company’s artistic director, Sarah Esteva, its executive director, and Lisbell Piedra, an instructor and dancer at Ballet Concierto Dominicano and the prima ballerina at Ballet Nacional. The topic of legal norms linked to the protection of craft came to fore during a conversation in May between Edwin Espinal Hernández, a copyright specialist, and Wilfredo Padrón Iglesias, Centro León’s Cultural Projects coordinator. This event was part of our institution’s Craft: Culture and Development program, which we launched in 2012. The ArteLatAm platform joined Centro León in order to share our views on the many challenges and opportunities for Dominican artists in the post-pandemic era. Artist Carlos Torres Machado, the ArteLatAm’s co-founder and director, and Sarah Hermann, head curator at Centro León, had this public conversation in July alongside artist Guadalupe Casasnovas. Speaking of art encounters, in July we hosted Art in Process, an event that saw Dominican artist Karmadavis showcase his website, a result of the editorial award at the 27th Eduardo León Jimenes Art Contest, which took place in 2018. And in November we presented the publication of the winners of the 28th edition of the Radio Santa María Short Story Contest, as well as the rules for its next round. The event was attended by representatives from both the La Vega-based station and Centro León.
Veloz Maggiolo: Art and Science
In 2003, Marcio Veloz Magiolo, a renowned writer and a muchadmired anthropologist and archaeologist, was part of the team brought together to conceive the then-burgeoning Centro León. In April of 2021, he left this world. In recognition of his many contributions to the arts and sciences, the institution hosted a series of talks titled Marcio Veloz Maggiolo: A Life Dedicated to Culture. From May until August, we held four sessions dedicated to an
equal amount of his areas of expertise: critical thinking with Andrés L. Mateo, the Dominican Republic’s Ambassador to UNESCO; archaeology with archaeologist Jorge Ulloa Hung and historian Manuel García Arévalo; professional life and friendship with Bernardo Vega, and anthropology with anthropologists Glenis Tavárez and José Guerrero. These sessions were moderated by Carlos Andújar, our institution’s cultural advisor.
100th Anniversary of the Birth of Dr. Ricardo Alegría
Ricardo E. Alegría (born in San Juan, Puerto Rico on April 14, 1921 and died in the same city on July 7, 2011) was an anthropologist, archaeologist, historian, promoter, educator and champion of Puerto Rican culture. In light of the celebration of the 100th anniversary of his birth, Centro León held two online events in order to highlight his contributions and links to the Dominican Republic. In April, architect Eugenio Pérez Montás, anthropologist Soraya Aracena and historian Manuel García Arévalo spoke with Carlos Andújar, Centro León’s cultural advisor, on the impact of Dr. Alegría’s work in our country. In December, sociologist Dagoberto Tejeda Ortiz, professor Darío Tejeda and historian Carmen Durán Jourdain, led by Andújar, referred to Alegría’s links of friendship throughout the country.
Fradique: Logs and Letters
Centro León is committed to disseminating and contextualizing the Fradique Lizardo Documentary Fund for Dominican Folklore, declared in 2014 a part of UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register for Latin America and the Caribbean. In January we presented volumes Three and Four of Fradique Lizardo’s Logs on Folklore, via an online event titled Getting to Know Our Collections, with the participation of sociologist Carlos Andújar and anthropologist Edis Sánchez. Volume Five was presented in September, in a joint talk between Luis Felipe Rodríguez, Carlos Andújar and Wilfredo Padrón. Volume Six was likewise showcased in December, presented by Andújar and Sánchez. These logs are digital serial compilations of articles and other texts written by the Dominican folklorist; the six volumes are available for consultation over at centroleon.org.do. In April, Andújar spoke with Dagoberto Tejeda and Edis Sánchez about volumes one and two of Fradique Lizardo’s Letter Collection. This collection brings forth a selection of letters and other forms of written communication sent by Fradique, which highlight his international connections, his research interests and the activities related to Ballet Folklórico Dominicano, an institution he founded and later led. This series is also available for consultation on our website, centroleon.org.do.
PUCMM Conference Series
In 2021 we resumed our conference series in collaboration with the Center for Caribbean Studies at the Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra (PUCMM). From February to December we held nine events, which were broadcast live on Centro León’s social media accounts. In February, Doctor Antonio Vidal Ortega, the director of the Center for Caribbean Studies at PUCMM, had a presentation on the development of trade and transportation in 20th-century Puerto Plata. In March, historian MuKien Sang Ben presented Chinese Women: Pain and Hope. In April Dr. Esteban Prieto Vicioso, an architect and historian, spoke of the origin and evolution of vernacular architecture in the Dominican Republic. In June, professor Oscar Zazo Martín presented June 14 and July 26: Two Equally Misunderstood Guerrillas. In July, architect Daritza Nicodemo spoke of Santiago’s urban grid, as part of the activities of the official calendar for the Patronal Feast of Saint James the Great. Haiti: Close to the Edge was the name of the conference presented in September by journalist Deisy Toussaint, based on her frontline experiences during her coverage for the Telesur network. And in October, Luis Felipe Rodríguez shared his dissertation Cuba: The Flavors of Our Stew on the 20th of the month —coincidentally, that’s the Day for Cuban Culture. The presentation by Centro León’s adjunct manager for Cultural Programming dealt with the many aspects that form the country’s cultural identity. The comparative similarities between the student movements in the Dominican Republic and France in the late 1960s were explained by Esteban Tiburcio Gómez in November. In December, architect Harold Paz spoke of the architectural and heritage value of the Municipal Cemetery located on 30 de Marzo Street in Santiago de los Caballeros.
2.2 Musical Get-Togethers
What began as a pandemic-era response in 2020 has stayed on as a regular part of Centro León’s cultural calendar. This virtual space has fostered 10 sessions in 2021 —nine on different topics and one as a year-in-review activity. They were all moderated by musicologist Tommy García, the director of Casa de la Música. The first session took place in February, as Crispín Fernández and Juan Colón honored the memory of their former colleague, legendary Dominican saxophonist Tavito Vásquez. March saw Jochy Sánchez and Alexis Méndez speaking of the international contributions of Santiago-born artist Johnny Pacheco. Sánchez came back in April, alongside Nadia Nicola, to speak of the origins and cultural impact of salve, a traditional Dominican rhythm. In May, Bolero brought together music lovers Marivell Contreras, Alexis Méndez and Luis Felipe Rodríguez. In June, Rodríguez returned alongside García for a retrospective musical event. And in July, musicians Josean Jacobo, Alaima González and Javier Vargas shared their reflections on the challenges and opportunities of music in the face of COVID-19. Regarding the recent opening of the Casa de la Música museum, its director joined Alaima Gómez, Josean Jacobo and Luis Felipe Rodríguez, our adjunct manager for Cultural Programming, in September. Musical research in the Dominican Republic was the topic of conversation for October’s online get-together, with specialists Rossy Díaz and Yarelis Domínguez sharing their experiences in this field. In November, musicians Nadia Nicola and Alaima González spoke of the origin and meaning of Saint Cecilia and the International Musician’s Day, which is celebrated on November 22. And then, right on the (red) nose, December’s musical gettogether was dedicated to Christmas carols and the season’s traditional songs, thanks to musician Josean Jacobo and researcher Alexis Méndez.
2.3 Back to Being Together
In 2021 we went back to being together (in person). With limited capacity and following the sanitary protocols appointed for each phase, Centro León once more hosted face-to-face activities within its facilities. That meant the return of the Film Club, the Book Bunch, our guided projections, our dialogues and other activities.
Film Club
The Film Club returned in April, with the usual guidance by José D’Laura. The first session featured the 1925 classic The Gold Rush, written, directed and starred by Charlie Chaplin. We presented 17 other films between April and December. Among them were Argentina’s The Critic, Black Snow and Wild Tales, as well as Dominican documentary Cacú and American feature Fargo. We also hosted several film series, such as Masters of Painting, James Bond and Penélope Cruz. To do so, our Film Club was sponsored by Edenorte. The silver screen took a leap into our gardens with Cinema Europa, an open-air showcase made in collaboration with the European Union, with four films on display between July 22 and 24.
The Book Bunch
In the summer, our gatherings in the Media Center came back to life with new subjects. The last Saturday of every month, from July to December, we held five sessions aimed at promoting consultation and research within the bibliographic collections in this department. For the re-opening, Víctor Martínez, a researcher and curator at Centro León, led a discussion on the latest novel from Dominican writer Rita Indiana, Made in Saturn. In September, and regarding The Soul Inside: An Elsa Núñez Anthological Exhibition, the Book Bunch moved to the main hall with a reading by cultural collective Cemí Literario, focused on poets Jacques Viau, Carmen Natalia and Pedro Mir —whose works were featured in the exhibition itself. During our anniversary month, editorial designer Orlando Isaac spoke with Víctor Martínez on the graphic design layout and content management for the publications related to the Eduardo León Jimenes Art Contest up until the catalog of the 28th edition, which was presented during this event.
In November, 25 Dominican authors and artists presented their anthology Ramblings Under the Moon, which collects a series of poems, short stories and essays on their multi-generational experiences regarding ethnic-racial, geographic and ideological issues. At the end of the year, Valerie González and Alina Santos, two high school students from Colegio de La Salle, analyzed and shared some extracts from Over, a novel by Dominican writer Ramón Marrero Aristy.
CONEXIÓN
Architect and artist Lidia León represented the country at the 17th Venice Architecture Biennale with a project titled CONEXIÓN. The installation, an interior design proposal inspired by wabi sabi philosophy and our link to Mother Earth, was part of a dynamic, living structure that provided a space for connection and reflection both in Venice and in the Dominican Republic. The installation was joined by an audiovisual series titled Feminine Territory, which compiled several conversations among women regarding the space they inhabit. From August to November, the LiLeón Foundation held four guided projections in our Media Center. Architects César Payamps and María Ligia Grullón led the first, with their comments on the chapter dedicated to culture and heritage. Specialists Elvia Ojeda and George Wassaf Khoury shared their thoughts on habitat and urbanism; Milka Hernández and Ramón Paulino presented a conversation on tourism and sustainability, while artists Thelma Leonor Espinal and Fausto Ortíz discussed society, creativity and territory.
Conversations, Music in the Hall and Encounters
Our facilities hosted a series of conversations on memory, history, identity, art and cultural knowledge. We hosted the presentation of seven books, celebrated the 18th anniversary of our institution and held guided visits and many kinds of artistic presentations. Among the books were The City of the Heart by Paulo Herrera Maluf, published by Editorial Universitaria Bonó, as well as Timeless Chronicles, a collection of articles published between 1989 and 2020 by Marcela Montes de Oca Mirabal in La Información under the nom de plume Antonia González. There was also the novel So Many Reasons to Hate Emilia, by José Fernández Pequeño, published by Ediciones Furtivas, Pentiments, a collection of essays by Jochy Herrera and the fifth version of Freddy Ginebra’s Celebrating Life. Apart from that, we also shared selected music in our Caribbean Patio. In Santo Domingo, the Eduardo León Jimenes Foundation, Centro León and Grupo Puntacana presented the catalog for the Being Oscar de la Renta exhibition, alongside a series of essays and articles on its dedicated website —including pieces by Bernardo Vega, María José Rincón, Patricia Reid, Rocío Aranda Alvarado, Sócrates Mckinney, Isabelia Herrera, Silvio Torres-Saillant, Molly Sorkin and Karen Trivette, as well as interviews with Anna Wintour and Mihkail Baryshnikov. The book, print and bound in Italy, provides a 260-page overview behind the museographic resources of a show dedicated to that most universal of Dominicans. Being Oscar de la Renta was sponsored by Cervecería Nacional Dominicana, Citi Private Bank, Banco Popular Dominicano, Editora Listín Diario, Visa International, Cibao International Airport, Synergies Corporation, Fundación Propagas and Excel. Being Oscar de la Renta was also recognized during the 2019 and 2020 Critics’ Choice Awards, in the Best Individual Exhibition 2019 category. These awards are organized by the Dominican Association of Art Critics (ADCA, as per its Spanish acronym). For our 18th anniversary celebration, we had a list of activities on October 2: free entrance to the exhibition spaces, a crafts market, creative workshops and a guided tour. On Friday, October 29 the Santiago Metropolitan Orchestra took over our Caribbean Patio under Dania Cantizano’s conduction. Opera also came back to the Brothers León Asensio Auditorium in October, with the projection of Eugene Onegin, a Deborah Warner production of this Tchaikovsky composition, featuring soprano Anna Netrebko and baritone Peter Mattei. On the subject of architectural and historic heritage, on Saturday, November 20 historian Edwin Espinal H. and architect Harold Paz led a guided tour through Santiago’s Municipal Cemetery, located on 30 de Marzo Street. Stand-up comedian Carlos Sánchez kickstarted our Christmas celebrations with a show in our Caribbean Patio, sponsored by La Aurora Cigars. As a closing ceremony of sorts for the festive season, we held a cultural day called Christmas with Identity: we provided free entrance to the exhibition spaces, a crafts market, guided tours, a creative workshop led by specialists and a presentation of the Dancing Cocolo Theater of the Guloyas and the Brotherhood of the Holy Spirit of the Congos of Villa Mella, both part of UNESCO’s Intangible Heritage list. With Bachata of Mine: A Live Music Homage to Víctor Víctor, we honored the memory of the Santiago-born artist. It was an indelible soirée, joined by Rafael Solano, Pavel Núñez, José Antonio Rodríguez, Mariela Mercado, Bilma Olivence and Manerra in an event directed and produced by Jochy Sánchez with support from Banreservas and Centro León.
2.4 Educating Means Moving Forward
As the comprehensive core concept of Centro León, education is a part of every program and project we engage in. Our institution’s list of short courses and workshops reflects this link to the content on display through the exhibitions, the collections, the research projects and our cultural extension. In 2021 we carried out 25 training activities led by an equal number of educators, which had an impact on a total of 745 participants. Our Short Courses and Workshops unit offered both online and inperson classes for children, and the list also included courses on basic, advanced and mobile photography, lettering, basic painting, storytime sessions, vegetable gardening at home, reading, creative summer, Talleres Lab, musical appreciation, atelier visits and a painting workshop with artist Elsa Núñez. The Cultural Programming department focused on craft and archaeology. Under the Craft: Culture and Development program, we provided two workshops: Digital Marketing for Craft Companies and Copywriting and Mobile Photography, both aimed at strengthening the business skills of the region’s craftsmen and women. The Preventive Archaeology program, developed alongside the French Embassy in the Dominican Republic, carried out two editions of a short course titled The 21st-Century Museum. Remotely, 90 participants were exposed to the specialized knowledge of Virginio Gaudenzi, Andre Delpuech, Magdalena Ruiz Marmolejo, Francis Duranthon and Paz Núñez-Regueiro.
In November, as part of the closing activities for the archaeological program, Centro León and the French Embassy in the Dominican Republic organized the Conference on Dominican and Caribbean Archaeology: Challenges to a Changing of the Guard, which brought together specialists, researchers, members of academia and representatives from universities and the Ministry for Higher Education and Technology (MESCYT, as per its Spanish acronym). The work session began with a panel by Carlos Andújar, Centro León’s Cultural Projects advisor, Benoît Bérard, a professor of preColumbian archaeology at the Université des Antilles, archaeologist and researcher Bernardo Vega and archaeologist and historian Manuel García Arévalo. Apart from Bérard’s presence, the conference also welcomed Marie José Le Duc, the French Embassy’s attaché for Higher Education and French Language Cooperation, Frédéric Leroy, the director of the Department of Underwater and Archaeological Research (DRASSM, according to its French acronym) of the French Ministry of Culture, and Jean Sébastien Guibert, a professor at Martinique’s Université des Antilles. The participants were part of two separate work groups, as well as a plenary session focused on the need to strengthen training opportunities on the topics of archaeology and heritage, so as to produce a new generation of specialists.
2.5 Christmas in My Hood 2021
As we were still in the middle of an ongoing pandemic, Centro León decided to celebrate a slightly different version of our Capture Christmas in Your Hood photography contest, so that local communities could participate while still complying with existing sanitary measures. Apart from the photo contest, the Christmas in My Hood program also included a mobile photography workshop, providing participants with the opportunity to improve their technical skills on this subject. During previous editions, the program included a tour of the win-
ning neighborhoods, departing from the Centro León headquarters. Instead, in 2021, community members visited the museum, with a tour of the exhibition spaces and a Christmas celebration featuring live music. Photographers José Enrique Tavárez, José Manuel Antuñano and specialists Mario Núñez Muñoz and Wilfredo Padrón were the jury members who evaluated 11 submissions from 10 neighborhoods in Santiago de los Caballeros: Los Ciruelitos, Los Pepines, Cienfuegos, Ensanche Dolores, Ensanche Bermúdez, Villa Verde, Villa Olímpica, Las Américas, Hoya del Caimito and Reparto Peralta. They were all duly represented by their corresponding community associations. The winning neighborhoods were announced in early January 2022: first place went to 15th Street in Los Ciruelitos, second place went to 9th Street in the same neighborhood and third place went to Villa Verde. They received cash prizes of RD$55,000, RD$35,000 and RD$25,000, respectively.
Testimonials: Joy and Solidarity
Villa Verde’s Mercedes Román would like to “thank God, because it’s good to know that our communities are so close-knit… and thanks to Centro León for keeping us so happily together all year long, thanks to their many activities.” Like her, many other community members shared their opinions on the institution and our Christmas program. There was Las Américas’ Rudy Montán, who congratulated “everyone for their engagement and their commitment to their communities, and particularly the winners, who did a wonderful job and whose achievement is actually a triumph for us all. I would also like to thank Centro León for supporting us and for giving us the chance to express our views on Christmas in times of COVID, and for being able to share these images.” “Every community did a great job,” said Los Ciruelitos’ Gregorio Guzmán. “I saw their photos, I saw the great time they had even during these difficult pandemic times. I would like to congratulate every community, as well as Centro León for always coming up with these contests we certainly need during Christmas, which help bring joy and unity to every neighborhood.”
3
COLLABORATIVE SPACES
In 2021 we kept promoting the creation of collaborative spaces, as one of our institutional missions is to “support actions, strategies and collaboration programs with public and private institutions that carry out programs in diverse regional, national and international communities, in order to promote initiatives that can be deployed in different situations and contexts.” Beyond that, this year marks the beginning our our expansion to Santo Domingo, thanks to a new location in the capital’s Colonial City.
In 2020, Centro León submitted a project to the U.S. Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation (AFCP), created by the American Congress to support the conservation of cultural sites and forms of expression in other countries. In 2021, the Chargé d’Affaires of the United States Embassy in the Dominican Republic, Robert W. Thomas, presented a donation for US$85,492 from the AFCP, which will help create a collaborative research program focused on collection management. The project aims to promote exchanges that can foster respect and support for Taíno culture in the Dominican Republic, by connecting Centro León’s collections to American institutions such as the CUNY Dominican Studies Institute, the Museo del Barrio and the Smithsonian Institute. This initiative will prepare curators and other personnel in the fields of preservation techniques and object digitization. The Centro León collections included in this proposal combine Taíno, African and Spanish-origin pieces, as well as objects and cultural goods hailing from Dominican folklore —this includes Taíno artifacts more than 5,000 years old and colonial-era objects from five centuries ago. Isabel León de Bisonó and Guillermo León Herbert, members of the León Family Council and in representation of the family itself, received the funds on behalf of the institution and underlined the importance of preserving and digitizing collections. The AFCP Fund, created by the U.S. Congress in 2001, recently celebrated two decades of ongoing exchanges. It offers financial resources to cultural preservation projects selected through a demanding international contest. On the 20th anniversary of the AFCP, support for this particular project came from a special initiative from the Department of State focused on promoting institutional agreements between local and American organizations. This Fund has financed projects such as the restoration of historical buildings, the evaluation and conservation of manuscripts and museum collections, the preservation and protection of valuable archeological sites and the documentation of endangered Indigenous languages and traditional craft techniques. Since its inception in 2001, the AFCP has supported more than 500 cultural preservation projects in more than 100 countries. In the Dominican Republic, previously selected projects include the inventory of the permanent collection at the Museum of the Dominican Man, the digitization of photo negatives and film reels at the Memorial Museum of Dominican Resistance, the restoration of the Altar of the Sacred Relic in the Cathedral of Santo Domingo, the restoration and conservation of the textile collection of the Mirabal Sisters House Museum, the rescue and restoration of the 20thcentury mural Haitian Masacre, 1937 by Dominican artists José Ramírez Conde and Roberto Flores, and the preservation and digitization of the Sosúa Jewish Museum collection.
3.2 Agreement with AERODOM
We wanted to take our collections and exhibitions to unconventional spaces, in order to make them accessible to new audiences. With that in mind, the Eduardo León Jimenes Foundation, Centro León and Aeropuertos Dominicanos Siglo XXI (AERODOM), a VINCI Airports subsidiary, signed a collaboration agreement: AERODOMmanaged airports will be showcasing art exhibitions and temporary cultural installations, which travelers can enjoy free of charge. The parts involved agreed that these exhibitions must be based on the cultural and artistic expressions that wholly represent our Dominican qualities, so that they can help generate a process of cultural identification. These include temporary exhibitions featuring archaeological, ethnographic and visual art items. Likewise, they would include activities with Dominican artists related to the act of traveling and its paraphernalia, with objects linked to our national identity. Apart from that, there’s also the plan to provide artisanal and creative products featuring Centro León’s stamp of approval, based on the exhibitions on display. These would be sold at existing airport stores or in custom retail spaces. The official document was signed at the Centro León headquarters in Santiago, represented by María Amalia León, the president of the Eduardo León Jimenes Foundation; AERODOM was represented by Mónika Infante Henríquez, its director general. “Following the model of some of the world’s largest airports, in cities such as San Francisco, Istanbul, Amsterdam and Shanghai — where terminals feature dedicated spaces for exhibitions on the art and history of the host country—, we’re excited to engage in this partnership with Centro León to produce exhibitions that will help us unveil our national identity through the tools of visual art, while making the user experience much more pleasant for our travelers,” said Infante Henríquez. These initiatives will take place within the AERODOM-operated VINCI Airports network: the Las Américas José Francisco Peña Gómez International Airport in Santo Domingo, the President Dr. Joaquín Balaguer International Airport in Santo Domingo Norte, the Gregorio Luperón International Airport in Puerto Plata, the María Montez International Airport in Barahona and the President Juan Bosch International Airport and the Arroyo Barril Airfield, both located in Samaná.
Understanding the concept of Dominicanness within the Caribbean context entails strengthening our links with regional institutions that are working on similar goals. In that sense, Centro León and the Eduardo León Jimenes Foundation signed a collaboration agreement with the Center for Advanced Studies on Puerto Rico and the Caribbean (CEAPRC, as per its Spanish acronym). This initiative will foster the development of programs and projects related to Puerto Rican, Dominican and Caribbean art and culture.
