A photo essay that chronologically follows a 5-Star guided tour of the Altos de Chavón campus in La Romana, D.R., by Stephen D. Kaplan, director of the Altos de Chavón School of Design located there. Kaplan's association with Altos de Chavón dates back to its creation in 1981.
The visit was initiated when Arlene Alvarez, Director of the Altos de Chavón Regional Museum of Archeology, invited Katherine Jones, Director of the Graduate Program in Museum Studies at the Harvard University Extension School, to view the museum on the school's campus in La Romana, D.R.
This is a world class oasis of culture, history, education and luxury in La Romana at the eastern end of the Dominican Republic.
Entrance to Casa de Campo, a replica 16th century Mediterranean village on spacious grounds in La Romana on the eastern end of the Dominican Republic. An architectural gem, the property contains privately owned villas, restaurants, boutiques featuring clothing and jewelry, and an amphitheater seating 5000 people!
The crowning jewel is the Altos de Chavón School of Design with an enrollment of 125 students from across the world and a renowned Artists in Residence Program that deepens the school's academic offerings.
The Museo Arqueológico Regional, rich with displays describing the island's prehistoric culture and artifacts of its indigenous inhabitants, is centered in the midst of the village. Its outreach program for school children is robust and, in fact, offers inspiration to the youngsters as well as to the students of the School of Design
Security checkpoints leading to Altos de Chavón School of Design and surrounding villas.
The School of Design offers instruction in Fine Arts, Graphic Design, Digital Design, Interior Design, Photography and Fashion, with a teaching staff steeped in experience, dedicated to academic excellence and nurturing a hotbed of young creative talent. The architectural ambience is breathtaking.
Under the leadership of Museum Director Arlene Alvarez, the Museo Arqueológico Regional has an aggressive outreach program to introduce students to their island's historic heritage.
Students welcomed to the museum by their guide. Their teachers have been given pre-visit information that provides them with context for what they and their students are about to see.
A future post will describe the mission of the Museo Aqueológico Regional.
Calle di Las Piedras (Street of the Stones). This replica of a 16th century Mediterranean village is a stunning work of art all by itself. Dominican architect Jose Antonio Caro and Italian master designer and cinematographer Roberto Coppa planned the village stone by stone. Variations of texture, color, shape, architectural design produce an inspiring environment and source of creative energy for the School of Design and a sense of history surrounding the museum. Every detail of Altos de Chavón was handcrafted by local artisans.
Commercial enterprises for villa owners and tourists on the Casa de Campo.
To achieve the look of antiquity, cinematographer Roberto Coppa and architect José Antonio Caro created buildings with bricked up windows to make them appear abandoned.
Breakfast Club! Director Stephen Kaplan invites several students to join him for breakfast once a week. The interaction between staff, artists in residence and teachers creates a sense of community and adds a jolt of vitality to the program.
Since the village is also a tourist destination, some areas are for students only. The school takes security seriously.
The academic setting includes a set of nine classrooms, many of which we toured, student lounge (not visited), library, computer lab and sculpture studio, as well as administrative offices. The school enrollment: approximately 125 students in 40 units furnished with capacity of 2 to 5 students in each one.
Disciplines taught: Fine Arts, Graphic Design, Digital Design, Interior Design, Photography and Fashion, with a teaching staff dedicated to academic excellence in the world of art and design.
Mark Lineweaver (left, chatting with Kaplan) has just concluded an art class as we enter. Invited to be an Artist in Residence of the Altos de Chavón Cultural Center Foundation in 1993, he has taught there ever since. LINKS
Lineweaver has tasked his students in his drawing class to explore contrasts in light.
Class dismissed.
Christina Sanchez-Kozyreva, Maria Inéz Rodriguez, and Yan Xing are some of the current artists in residence.
A new screening room is nearly complete, the latest addition to the school, will add a dimension of digital visual arts to the school.
Katherine Jones, Director of the Museum Studies Program at the Harvard University Extension School, was invited to the tour the school and the museum's collection by Arlene Alvarez, the Museo Arqueológico Regional Director. Director Stephen Kaplan has been associated with the school since 1981.
Student residences. The School of Design maintains two beautiful buildings that house approximately 125 students in 40 units furnished with capacity of 2 to 5 students in each one.
Installation created by students uses traditional straw brooms used by indigenous people.
Jones, the master painter Rafael Salomon of the maintenance staff, Kaplan, Alvarez.
Believe it or not, these are watercolor portraits.
Proud artist, self portrait by Haitian student Maiker Avila Lopez.
This is the only class we saw in action during our tour. Artist Elsa Cáceres (black slacks, chatting with Harvard Museum Studies Program Director Katherine Jones; students are drawing an object that appealed to them in a visit to the Museo Arqueológico earlier in the day.
Confluence of technology and good old fashioned hand produced art...
as students capture photos of objects that interested them on iPhones then draw the objects in class...
and are thoroughly engaged...from iPhones to paper then who knows... digitized, instagrammed, hologrammed, redrawn?
Thank you, Elsa Cáceres...from Stephen Kaplan, Arlene Alvarez and Katherine Jones!
School of Design Library contains 12,000 volumes.
Arlene Alvarez and librarian Diogenes Alcala.
Kaplan explains that the library includes rare volumes with hand drawn frontispieces and an ancient map (shown here) of the Dominican Republic.
Stacks and rows...12,000 volumes packed into this compact library.
Continuing a Five Star Tour through meticulously managed environment by Director Stephen Kaplan.
Sculpture studio: this bust has been created over a wire armature.
Art seems to grow out of the ground here. The synergy between earth and art is ever-present.
A discotheque and karaoke joint...even artists, maybe especially artists, need a place to blow off steam.
Admiring the construction of the beautiful archway interrupted by the blonde giving me the eye on the way through the campus.
Ceramics studio flooded with natural light from above; three directors - Arlene Alvarez, director of the ceramics program Damar Castaño, Katherine Jones
From this piece of clay...to this vase.
"The potter is an extension of the clay," says Director Stephen Kaplan.
glazing and paint...inspiration awaits; a reproduction of a Taino bowl
Electric kiln (above), gas kiln with massive door ready to be shut tight during firing ( background); director of the ceramics program, Damar Castaño.
Stonework and flora merge to create a step back in time.
Close up views of the stonework, all done by local craftsmen, in this recreated 16th century Mediterranean village are just as arresting as the art work in the art gallery on the grounds. The distinction between artisan and artist is quite porous. Stonemasons are probably the most under-appreciated artists of all.
Arresting views everywhere reinforce the creative endeavors of the students in The School of Design...
including the walkways!
The hefty iron handles (and perhaps the chains) on this gate were forged by hand by local artisans.
Hail, Caesar! A big surprise in this small scale village - a 5000-seat amphitheater with a grand view of the Altos de Chavón River.
Who knew that the amphitheater in this little village is a major venue for musicians and singers. Jennifer Lopez was scheduled to perform here later in the month. If people in the Dominican Republic had never heard of Altos de Chavón in La Romana, they will soon!
So many design elements so well maintained...
and such a vibrant community of students...
eager to learn.
The silk screen printing studio...Arlene Alvarez and head of the silk screen lab.
The smell of fresh ink is like perfume to aspiring silk screen artists...
preparing screens for the next layer of paint.
Classrooms for fabric and design
Shopping al fresco...
with a reminder that this is an international destination.
And in case you forget you're in a Caribbean island with a deep connection with music, here's a band in the main plaza.
Martha Victoria, Funding Office; Carmen Lorente, Director of Special Programs; Arlene Alvarez, Director of Museo Arqqueologico; Stephen Kaplan, Director of Altos de Chavón in La Romana, D.R.; Katherine Jones, Director of the Graduate Program in Museum Studies at the Harvard University Extension School.
View of the Altos de Chavón River from the terrace above.
Directors Stephen Kaplan, Katherine Jones and pt at large; well-rounded students need a well-rounded social life!
Self-portraits show the range of students in the School of Design.
Hallways and offices are filled with artwork.
Artwork in one of the galleries...
and in one respect, the village of Altos de Chavón is one huge piece of art.
Charles Bludhorn, the man behind the creation of the village and the school, is worthy of a Hollywood documentary. Bludhorn was president of Gulf & Western, the company that owned a huge chunk of land in the Dominican Republic, and popularized it as a tourist destination, and advocated for island's inhabitants, including certainty that local students had equal access to the prestigious School of Design. Oh, he also owned Paramount Pictures, whose artists helped create the village of Altos de Chavón.
Photos by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.
2018 Dominican World Series: Drama and Obsession
February 25, 2018
Quisqueya Stadium Juan Marichal
Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
Baseball in the Dominican Republic isn’t a national sport. It’s a national obsession. Combine sport, soap opera, zealous conviction, tribal membership, and you begin to understand how embedded the game is in the national psyche.
January marks the end of the regular baseball season and the beginning of the playoffs to determine which of island’s 6 teams will represent the Dominican Republic in the Caribbean World Series. The rivalries are intense. The fault lines in allegiances are known to fracture family gatherings.
Teams from Santo Domingo (Tigres del Licey/Tigers) and Santiago (the Águilas/Eagles), the second largest city in the Dominican Republic are duking it out in a best of seven series. The winning team will head to Mexico to joust with winning teams from Venezuela, Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Mexico. This is a heavyweight bout. Pride, loyalty, family honor, bragging rights, ride on the results.
Our host, Alex Martinez, used every connection he has to get great tickets to the fourth game in the best of seven series. The Santiago Eagles (Áigules) are up two games to one.
Walking up the ramp into the stadium feels like entering an alternate universe. Yes, I see lush green grass, the clay colored base paths and the pitchers mound and coaches boxes and dugouts and players in different uniforms so it’s a baseball game but, if I close my eyes, I would swear I was at a World Cup soccer match. The energy, cheering, and singing are awesome and unrelenting.
A run scores! Fans from the Tigers or the Eagles are on their feet. The stands become an open-air discotheque as 15,000 partisans stand up and joyously dance, hip-shaking Latin moves that look more at home on a sweat-filled dance club than a baseball park. I am smack in the middle of a sublime cultural experience.
Vendors selling hats, pennants and flags lined the streets on the way to the ballpark. Our host buys us hats and pennants, blue for the hometown team Tigers and, since his wife is from Santiago, yellow for the Santiago Eagles. We have become partisans. The stadium is jammed with them, a sea of blue with dots of yellow, like buoys floating on the Caribbean Sea’s surface, in perpetual motion.
Fervent energy in every row from top to bottom, joy on faces one moment then disappointment and heartbreak on the next. The game is a virtual roller caster ride with emotions rising and plummeting, people living and dying with each pitch and each hit.
Spectators rooting for opposing teams sometime sit side-by-side. The banter is non-stop after a hit, a walk, an error, a disputed call by the home plate umpire.The fans sitting in front of us are perfect examples. When a good play is made they leap up, wave their pennants and shoot "We're gonna win!" looks at their friends.
A sporting event creates instant kinships between strangers. Rooting for the same team, we are comrades in arms. Frank has brought his own sign that he unfurls at every moment of glory for the hometown team Licey Tigers.
“Please show me your sign,”says I.
“Boston, “I reply after he asks me where I’m from.
“Pedro Martinez!” Frank shouts after extending his hand to greet me.
“Just elected to the Hall of Fame,” says I.
“And Vladimir Guerrero, too!” says he.
Don’t think for a minute that everyone in the stadium does not know the names of every Dominican player in the big leagues.
A team makes a good play? Sections of the park look like scenes from Sir Walter Scott novel. Yellow or blue pennants are boisterously hoisted as if readying for battle.
You remember the word fanatic? Well, the word fan is in there somewhere and inside this ballpark we are in a world of fans and fanatics. The announcer introduces each player to come to bat in the same sonorous tones in which you would hear a prizefighter introduced a boxing match. Drama. Relentless. Drama. I love this!
This is the fourth game of the championship series. The Eagles from Santiago have won two games. The Tigers have won one in a seven game series.
The series rotates back-and-forth between the cities of Santiago and Santo Domingo. It is hard to estimate how much alcohol will be consumed, how many yellow and blue flags and baseball caps and other paraphernalia will be sold, how many friendly conversations and arguments will take place, how many newspaper stories will be written, and how many hearts will be broken.
Fathers and mothers bring their kids. Games like this germinate bonding experiences that could last a lifetime.
The Eagles hold onto a lead for the first part of the game and to the delirium of their fans, the Tigers tie the game in the ninth-inning. Extra innings. Fans are at the edge of their seats with every pitch, every play, every out. I can practically hear their hearts beating. At the end of the 10th inning the Tigers break through and score the winning run
Bedlam in the stands. Players from the Tigers swarm onto the field, a conga line of victors.
We say goodbye to Frank and our fellow baseball fans and head for the car. The Dugout and First Base (of course), two open-air bars on opposite corners are rockin’ with fans who watched on TV. The scene feels more like New Year’s Eve.
To define this as a baseball game would do no justice to what we just experienced: a cultural event of seismic proportions. History, heritage and honor on a baseball diamond.
PS
Edwin Encanation, Bartolo Colon, Dellin Betances, Melky Cabrera, Yoenis Cespedes, Cleveland manager Terry Francona are former Santiago Eagles players. There are dozens more who play in the American and National Leagues.
The Quisqueya Stadium Juan Marichal was re-named in 2014 after the Dominican pitcher, one of the first Dominican players to play in the big leagues in the US and the first elected to the Hall of Fame in 1983.
Oh, also cheerleaders who vault onto the field between innings. And karaoke at the seventh inning when a fan is invited to take the mic and, to the delight of thousands, belt out a popular song. I had to see this to believe it.
Photos and videos by Paul A.Tamburello,Jr.
July 17, 2018 in Commentaries, Travel | Permalink | Comments (4)