The In­ter-Amer­i­can De­vel­op­ment Bank’s Cul­tur­al Cen­tre will re-open on Fri­day with the work of artists from Bar­ba­dos, the Ba­hamas and Haiti among those be­ing fea­tured.

The IDB said that the 30th an­niver­sary of its Art Pro­gramme and Col­lec­tion high­lights di­ver­si­ty and in­clu­sion through the vi­sion of 16 Latin Amer­i­can and Caribbean artists and that the cen­ter is re­open­ing af­ter be­ing closed for three years due to the coro­n­avirus (COVID-19) health cri­sis.

As part of the re­open­ing, the Cul­tur­al Cen­ter has cu­rat­ed the “Emerg­ing Voic­es” ex­hi­bi­tion to al­low the lo­cal com­mu­ni­ty and vis­i­tors to get to know the work of pres­ti­gious artists such as the Bar­ba­di­an Si­mone Asia, Ba­hami­ans April Bey and Melis­sa Al­cena and US-based Hait­ian Charles Jean-Pierre, among oth­ers.

The IDB said the ex­hi­bi­tion, com­posed of some of the col­lec­tion’s re­cent ac­qui­si­tions, shows the new di­rec­tion of the IDB Art Col­lec­tion, while dis­play­ing the work of dif­fer­ent artists from the re­gion.

“This ex­hi­bi­tion re­in­forces the work of the IDB as an in­sti­tu­tion that looks to the fu­ture and is com­mit­ted to pro­mot­ing iden­ti­ty, di­ver­si­ty, and in­clu­sion in the re­gion. We aim to pro­mote the cre­ative tal­ent of emerg­ing and es­tab­lished young artists, par­tic­u­lar­ly those from un­der­rep­re­sent­ed com­mu­ni­ties in the vi­su­al arts, who help us un­der­stand the re­gion’s chal­lenges,” says Trinidad Zal­divar, Chief of the IDB’s Cul­ture and Cre­ativ­i­ty Unit.

The IDB said “Emerg­ing Voic­es” seeks to con­tribute and give voice to the on­go­ing ef­forts of the IDB to im­prove lives, re­duce the gen­der gap, and in­te­grate in­dige­nous peo­ples, Afro-de­scen­dants, and LGBTQ com­mu­ni­ties, whose voic­es are strate­gic for in­clu­sive and sus­tain­able so­ci­eties.

The ex­hi­bi­tion will fea­ture works by Leti­cia Bane­gas (Hon­duras), Manuel Chava­jay (Guatemala), María Raquel Cochez (Pana­ma), Ana Ele­na Garuz (Pana­ma), Jua­na Gómez (Chile), Koy­oltz­intli (Unit­ed States/Ecuador), Priscil­la Mon­ge (Cos­ta Ri­ca), An­to­nio Pichillá Quia­caín (Guatemala), Ale Ram­bar (Cos­ta Ri­ca), Na­talia Re­vil­la (Pe­ru), Car­men Ele­na Trigueros (El Sal­vador), and Rem­ber Yahuar­cani (Pe­ru).

The IDB Art Col­lec­tion, es­tab­lished in 1992, rep­re­sents the artis­tic and in­tel­lec­tu­al vi­tal­i­ty of the Bank’s 48 mem­ber coun­tries and con­tributes to un­der­stand­ing the cre­ative di­ver­si­ty of the re­gion.

The IDB Art Col­lec­tion will re­main open to the pub­lic un­til Au­gust 30.

WASH­ING­TON, Apr 11, CMC -

CMC/ag/ir/2023