Anya Achtenberg Cuban Artist Tours

Anya Achtenberg, an award-winning fiction writer as well as poet. She has written several novels and poetry books. Her stories have received awards from Francis Ford Coppola’s Zoetrope, the Asheville Fiction Writers Workshop, the Raymond Carver Story Contest, and others. She received a Minnesota State Arts Board Individual Artist’s Initiative Grant to work on it in 2008 and she has taught creative writing at many colleges and universities.

Ms. Achtenberg is not an OFAC licensed Travel Service Provider. Her tours are organized through Marazul, a well known and respected Travel Service Provider.

Scheduled Cuban Art Trip

Writers, artists, and filmmakers journey to Cuba - April 3 to April 13, 2011

The custom-made program includes extensive meetings with Cuban writers, artists, filmmakers, scholars and others—very special opportunities for research and connection with Cuban professionals in your field. The journey will intersect with part of the Festival del Cine Pobre (the Festival of “Poor” Cinema) in Gibara in Holguin province. This festival of “low-budget”/alternative/independent film is called the “Sundance” of Cuba, with intelligent films representing every continent, and concerts and exhibitions in all media complementing the film events.

She is beginning to plan for a similar trip, as above, in April 2012.

She will also be planning, dates to be announced, a trip similar to the one she conducted in 2010, details as below:

Writers and Artists Research Delegation to Cuba - October 6-15, 2011

This trip to Havana and Matanzas province includes many meetings and activities that connect participants to their Cuban counterparts in the arts in Cuba.

Tentative itinerary includes:

• Visits to artists’ studios and other centers for the visual arts
• Meetings with the Union of Artists and Writers
• Visits to the Alejo Carpentier Foundation, Casa de las Americas and the Maqueta or scale model of Havana
• Varadero beach trip

Arts scene in Matanzas:

• Ediciones Vigia (handmade books)
• Cuban Association of Artists and Artesans
• Schools for the arts and for arts instructors