Connecting people & cultures through heART
Through the art we expose the community to the wealth of the expressions of the humanity and promote a better comprehension of the world's cultural pluralism and diversity.
Art is the vehicle used by all communities in the past and present to represent their cultural lifetyle.
Belas Artes offers an environment that promotes first hand experience of cultures in many ways:
-Thematic and International Art Exhibits and group discussions
-International festivals which include visual art, music, dance, food, documentaries, and workshops
-Children "World Playground" in partnership with Putumayo world music
-Training the Trainer - offered to teachers to apply the world playground program in the classrooms.
-Storytelling
-Multiculturalism Program and training the trainers
- The elegant interior design of our multicultural center displays four cultural thematic rooms enhancing the contribution each culture offers
African-Latino: With vibrant terracotta colors and tropical garden simbolizes how these cultures' contributions to the world are related to the "earth element". It can be testified by their close relationshp with the earth through agriculture or dancing at the sound of drummig the song we hear is about grounding.
Middle-Eastern: As a tent in the middle of the dessert, this room evokes the thousand and one nights images. The softness and flow of the curtains appeals the element of the dessert that makes the major impact in the population that there resides is the wind or air. By living in an environment that is in constant change like the dunes, the Middle-Easterns offer us the learning of being flexible with the changes we face in life.
Asian: From India to Japan, passing through Thailand and China this room embodies the softness and wisdom of the orient that teaches us to have alignment in our emotions as the basis of any creation. The vital energy called "Chi" in Chinese, "Ki" in Japan, and "Prana" in India is the fundamental aspect of life. Considering that emotions as simbolized by water, the room's waterfall promotes relaxation to those who sit in its low sits while align their own spine and breath freely.
European-North American/Western: The Western room with its golden walls simbolizing the economic wealth also displays aspects of one of the main contributions of this culture to the world-technology. Imagine how in the internet the information goes through the wires like flames reaching all parts of the globe. The fire is also a symbol of the spark of the fiber optics as conduit of telecommunications exemplied in our fiber-optic lamps. Our masterpiece Flame Mosaic fireplace by the artist Erica Kavanagh is not only magnificent in its beauty but also embodies the mosaic that composes the Western Culture like it can as well be testified in the art of Gaudi.
Oasis Lounge: Above cultures and beyond labels, this upstairs room wth its side inner room incorporates the common aspects of all of us human beings. Despite the color of our skin, the shape of our body, the accent of our speach, where we come from, or in what we believe we all share the light of our spirit that manifests our life. The celestial feeling of the Oasis Lounge is created with all symbolic details that are part of its decor. With multiple meanings expresssed from the character of infinity painted in the walls, to the potential to become represented by the candles in the birds nests, the rainbow curtain as you go to the inner room, to the "connection fountain" in which a male and a female represent all differences coming together to celebrate the treasure/gift of an enlightened planet as the crystal "earth" moves in their hands.
The Art Gallery is the Expression & Connection Room which needless to explain why. This isthe space whee we have the art exhibits, music and dance performance, kids art classes, workshops and othe cultural expressions with the aim to "connect people and cultures through heART."