The ten finalists who have been recommended to the CINTAS Foundation Board for consideration for the 2012 – 2013 CINTAS Foundation Fellowship in Visual Arts are participating in the 2012 – 2013 CINTAS Foundation Fellowship in Visual Arts finalists’ exhibition, which opens October 10, 2012 at the MDC Museum of Art + Design at Miami Dade College’s Freedom Tower. For more information about the foundation, please see: http://www.cintasfoundation.org/

The Cintas Foundation Finalists exhibit at MDC Museum of Art + Design| Freedom Tower will be the first venue in Florida to display Xavier Cortada’s 180Endangered World: Eastern Hemisphere drawings.

The work depicts endangered animals originally featured in the artist’s 2008North Pole installation. Cortada’s “Endangered World” project has also addressed global biodiversity loss through art installations at the South Pole (2007), Holland (2009) and Biscayne National Park (2010) and through online participatory art projects.

See www.endangeredworld.org

The CINTAS Foundation awards fellowships annually to creative artists of Cuban lineage who live outside of Cuba.

The Cintas Foundation was established with funds from the estate of the late Oscar B. Cintas, a former Cuban ambassador to the United States and a prominent industrialist and patron of the arts. Cintas fellowships acknowledge creative accomplishments and encourage the development of creative artists in architecture, literature, music composition and the visual arts. Past recipients include writers Oscar Hijuelos, Maria Irene Fornes and Reinaldo Arenas; visual artists Cundo Bermudez, Quisqueya Henriquez, Gean Moreno, Baruj Salinas, Mario Petrirena, Jose Chardiet, Luis Gispert, Maria Brito, Liset Castillo, Carlos Alfonso and Andres Serrano; architect Andres Martin Duany, and composers Orlando Garcia and Tania Leon.

The ten finalists who have been recommended to the CINTAS Foundation Board for consideration for the 2012 – 2013 CINTAS Foundation Fellowship in Visual Arts are (listed in alphabetical order below):

1. Jose Luis Alonso Mateo
2. Ray Azcuy
3. Ramon Bofill
4. Xavier Cortada
5. Nereida Garcia-Ferraz
6. Patricia Margarita Hernandez
7. Gabriel Martinez
8. Jillian Mayer
9. Shie Moreno
10. Primitivo Suarez Wolfe

Each of the ten finalists’ work will be included in the 2012 – 2013 CINTAS Foundation Fellowship in Visual Arts finalists’ exhibition, which opens October 10, 2012 at the MDC Museum of Art + Design at Miami Dade College’s Freedom Tower.

For more information see: http://www.cintasfoundation.org/

Miami Dade College and CINTAS Foundation Announce 2012 Fellowship Finalists
MDC’s Museum of Art + Design is exhibiting the works of visual arts finalists at the Iconic Freedom Tower at Miami Dade College

Miami, Sept. 24, 2012 – Miami Dade College (MDC), stewards of the world-renowned CINTAS Fellows Collection, will announce this year’s finalists for the annual CINTAS Foundation Fellowship competition in three categories: visual arts, music composition and architecture, at an opening reception at 7 p.m. Wednesday, October 10. The winners of the Fellowships will be announced at an awards reception on December 4.

An exhibition of the visual arts finalists’ works will open October 11 at the MDC Museum of Art + Design at the Freedom Tower. The art work will remain on exhibit through Dec. 14, free and open to the public, during gallery hours.

The 2012 CINTAS Fellowship finalists are:

VISUAL ARTS:

José Luis Alonso Mateo, Ray Azcuy, Ramon Bofill, Xavier Cortada, Nereida García-Ferraz, Patricia Margarita Hernandez, Gabriel Martinez, Jillian Mayer, Shie Moreno and Primitivo Suarez Wolfe.

The jury: Jennifer Basile, artist and associate senior professor of painting and drawing at MDC, Christopher Cook, Executive Director of LegalArt, a non-profit contemporary arts space in downtown Miami, George Kinghorn, Director & Curator of the University of Maine Museum of Art, Michael Rooks, Wieland Family Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the High Museum in Atlanta and Jane Simon, Curator at University of South Florida Contemporary Art Museum.

MUSIC:

Finalists will be announced at the opening reception.

The jury: Ileana Perez Velazquez, associate professor of music at Williams College and internationally known musician, Augusta Reade Thomas, Grammy-winning composer and Carlos Sanchez Gutierrez, Professor of Composition at the Eastman School of Music.

ARCHITECTURE:

Finalists will be announced at the opening reception.

The jury: Guillermo Carreras, renowned architect with more than 50 years’ experience in all phases of architecture in the United States, Europe and Latin America, Manuel Castedo, founder of M. Castedo Architects in New York City, a firm with work ranging widely in its variety of projects, and Ana Paula Ibarra, Principal at VIA Design Studio, Miami.

The only one of its kind in the nation, the CINTAS Fellowship program has honored some of the world’s most talented Cuban artists. The winner of each category will receive a $10,000 award and the opportunity to complete the project outlined in his or her proposal. Fellowships in Visual Arts and Music Composition are awarded annually. Fellowships in Architecture and Creative Writing are awarded in alternating years.

About the CINTAS Foundation

The CINTAS Fellowship Program encourages creative development in architecture, literature, music composition and the visual arts. The Foundation was established with funds from the estate of Oscar B. CINTAS (1887-1957), the former Cuban ambassador to the United States, a prominent industrialist and patron of the arts. In June of 2011, the Cintas Foundation entered into an extended loan to MDC’s Art Gallery System (AGS) of the Cintas Fellows Collection, comprised of nearly 300 pieces by artists of Cuban descent living outside Cuba who have received prestigious Cintas Fellowships, awarded since 1963. The collection is comprised of gifts made by the fellows to the foundation. More than 200 artists are represented in the collection through a wide variety of media including paintings, prints, photographs, drawings, films, sculptures and installation art. The vast scope of the collection reflects the heterogeneous nature of the artistic production of Cuban artists, spanning across various generations, and their significant aesthetic and historical contribution to modern and contemporary art.

www.cintasfoundation.org.

Miami Dade College

Miami Dade College has a long and rich history of involvement in the cultural arts, providing South Florida with a vast array of artistic and literary offerings including The Miami Book Fair International, the Center @ MDC, the Miami International Film Festival, the MDC Live! Performing Arts Series, the Cuban Cinema Series, the Prometeo Theatre, the Miami Leadership Roundtable speakers’ series, the Miami International Sculpture Park, a renowned art gallery system, several campus theaters, and the nationally recognized School of Entertainment and Design Technology. It is also the home of the National Historic Landmark Miami Freedom Tower.

For more information about the CINTAS program at MDC, please contact Jessica Brodsky at 305-237-7722, or jbrodsky@mdc.edu.

For more information about the exhibition, please contact MDC’s Museums and Galleries of Art + Design at 305-237-7700.

Media-only contacts: Juan Mendieta, MDC director of communications, 305-237-7611, jmendiet@mdc.edu; Tere Estorino Florin, director of media relations, 305-237-3949, testorino@mdc.edu; or Sue Arrowsmith, 305-237-3710, sue.arrowsmith@mdc.edu.

This and other MDC releases are available on the web at www.mdc.edu.

###