A Cuban photographer-printmaker teaching college art students in western Massachusetts. Legendary Cuban artists and photographers in lively conversation with audiences in Manhattan. An acclaimed documentary premiering in Los Angeles. U.S. dancers in Havana, Cuban dancers in Brooklyn. A U.S. Latin jazz orchestra playing alongside gifted young musicians in Matanzas.

The first round of grants awarded by the Fundación Cuba Avant-Garde, the sponsoring organization for Cuban Art News, touched on a spectrum of artistic disciplines, from visual arts and architecture to cinema, music and dance. “That was what we were looking for,” explained Howard Farber, who with his wife Patricia established the Fundación last year. “We’re interested in all facets of Cuban art and culture, and promoting cultural exchange between the countries.”

As the Fundación heads into its second funding season, Cuban Art News checked in with the first-round grantees.

Cuban Art News readers may recall the recent interview with Alysa Nahmias and Benjamin Murray, the producer-directors of Unfinished Spaces, the Fundación-supported documentary about the architecture of Cuba’s National Arts Schools. The film premiered in June at the Los Angeles Film Festival to glowing reviews. The big news now, Nahmias says, is that the film will appear in DocuWeeks, a project sponsored by the Independent Documentary Association. “As part of DocuWeeks,” says Nahmias, “Unfinished Spaces will qualify for Academy Award nomination, which requires a week of theatrical presentation in New York and LA.” The film will screen August 12-18 at the IFC Center in Lower Manhattan and August 19-25 at Laemmle’s Sunset 5 in Los Angeles. (A word to the wise: buy tickets now, as several of the screenings have already sold out.)

At the Center for Cuban Studies, says director Sandra Levinson, “the Fundación grant provided an excellent opportunity to do something we’ve always wanted to do”—a five part series, “Talking About Contemporary Cuban Art,” which included talks by Cuban artist Mabel Poblet, Bronx Museum of the Arts director Holly Block, and collector and print publisher Alex Rosenberg. One highlight, notes Levinson, was the conversation between acclaimed artists Tonel and Ernesto Oroza. “They deepened and expanded our understanding of the impact of the Special Period on Cuban identity and expression,” says Levinson, “as well as how those years have shaped our definition of ‘Cuban’ art.”

Another memorable conversation took place among Havana-based photo curator Lourdes Socarrás, master photojournalist Roberto Salas, and collector Ramiro Fernández. “Lourdes essentially took us through a history of Cuban photography organized by themes, and it was fascinating to see how Cuban photographers have treated the same subjects in different periods of the revolution,” Levinson recalls. “There were many photographers in the audience, so the questions were both subjective and technical.” The talks were recorded on video and will be posted on YouTube, further expanding the audience. “Being able to present this program was extremely important to us,” Levinson concludes.

The Fundación’s 2010 grants supported several cultural exchanges by dancers and musicians, including a a June 2011 trip to New York City by the Ballet Folklorico Cutumba as part of the ¡Sí Cuba! festival and a December 2010 trip to Cuba by composer-musician Arturo O’Farrill and the Chico O’Farrill Cuban Jazz Orchestra. "Fundacion Cuba Avant-Garde gave us the opportunity to make the most important connection of my personal and professional life," said Arturo O'Farrill. "To reconnect Chico O'Farrill with Cuba was a dream in the works for more than a decade. And to move the agenda of Cuban-American musical exchange forward was also a dream realized.”

The Fundación also funded a trip by several members of the New York City Ballet to the 22nd International Ballet Festival in Havana last October and November. “This was the first time a group of New York City Ballet dancers performed in Cuba,” says Ben Rodriguez-Cubeñas, director of the Cuban Artists Fund, which sponsored the dancers’ participation in the festival. The NYCB dancers performed for the Havana public on November 1 and 2, presenting works and excerpts by George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, and Christopher Wheeldon. One of the great crowd-pleasers turned out to be the pas de deux from Balanchine’s “Stars and Stripes,” in a stylish performance by NYCB dancers. “The exuberance of Megan Fairchild and bravura technique and sheer panache of Andrew Veyette were sensational,” wrote Sheila Cross on Ballet.co, “and the Cubans went wild.”

The last of the 2010-funded projects kicks off in early September, when artist Eduardo Hernández Santos, professor of drawing and printmaking at Havana’s San Alejandro School of Fine Arts, begins a six-week residency at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts. Two exhibitions of his work, gallery talks, lectures, and hands-on workshops will round out a teaching schedule that includes critiques of student photographic works and an alumni-sponsored trip to Los Angeles. “Hernández Santos’ remarkable prints and photographic collages mine the depths of Cuba’s soul,” says Jacqueline Hayden, professor of film and photography and coordinator of Hampshire’s Cuban Artist in Residence program. “His presence on campus will enrich all our lives, with an authentic mirror into ‘What is Cuba like now?’”

The deadline for application to Fundación Cuba Avant-Garde’s 2011 funding round is November 1, 2011. For more information, check the Fundación website.