Gallery show of Cuban pictures should be shown by Ron Levitt

Jorge Reyes, who wrote the book Rediscovering Cuba: A Personal Memoir, recently approached the City of Coral Gables' Arts Advisory Board to allow the display at City Hall of the pictures he took in Cuba. The pictures are in no way a tie-in to his book-- each work was done at different times and for different reasons. However, because Reyes is also an employee of the City, the Board voted against the display citing a 'conflict of interest.' The South Florida artistic community is in an uproar.

(PRWEB) January 20, 2004 --It amazes me how some politicians, or those appointed to serve on governmental advisory boards, can come up with rulings that destroy the intent of what they are supposed to accomplish. In this case, the Gables Arts Advisory Board met recently to discuss an exhibition of photographs taken in Cuba by a young writer. Instead, no matter how worthwhile or interesting the exhibit is, it said it could not be shown because the artist is a city employee.

It said that would be a ``conflict of interest.''

I must tell you that in my time serving as assistant secretary of state, art by state employees was often exhibited in the Capitol. If the art is good, who cares if the artist works for a city, county, a corporation -- or is unemployed. The art should be the thing, not the employment status of the artist.

It all began when author Jorge Reyes, who works in the Gables Building and Zoning Department, celebrated the second edition of his book, Rediscovering Cuba: A Personal Memoir. He suggested having an exhibit of photographs he took on his second trip to the island in January 2003, a seven-day road trip that took him from Havana to Santiago de Cuba. He had left the island when he was 8 years old.

Now, in its second edition, Reyes' book updates his work originally written in 1999. In this edition, Reyes talks about his second trip to the island. On this trip he took extensive photography -- photos that he thought might be of interest to people in Coral Gables. The photos are nonpolitical in nature.

In 1982, Reyes, now 30, left Cuba, eventually settling permanently in Miami. He never thought of returning. In 1999 however, Reyes, along with his mother and an aunt, returned to Cuba hoping to say his final farewells to his grandmother, who was living through her last stages of cancer. And so begins what reviews have called a poignant story that takes the reader from the busy streets of Miami one summer afternoon into the surreal, far-away loneliness of Boniato, a small town on the outskirts of the city of Santiago de Cuba.

The photography exhibition is merely a byproduct of that trip, interesting enough for several corporations including Bacardi to consider hosting a party once the exhibit was set in City Hall.

But the Arts Advisory Board voted not to display the pictures, saying an employee should not be allowed to use municipal space for such undertakings. That makes as much sense as Attorney General John Ashcroft draping a nude figure of ''Justice'' to hide it from the TV cameras. Go figure.

What baffles me about this board is that instead of nurturing talent, it is throwing it down the tube. Instead of raising the morale of an entire municipality, it is basically implying that an employee cannot also be a talented person.

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