2024-12-22T03:21:12-05:00 https://archinect.com/news/article/39624670/what-is-it-about-cuba-s-national-art-schools Places Journal 2012-02-28T04:28:00-05:00 >2012-02-28T11:01:07-05:00 <img src="https://archinect.gumlet.io/uploads/pf/pfyvgnfof2pmak5e.jpg?fit=crop&auto=compress%2Cformat&enlarge=true&w=1200" border="0" /><em><p>After I mentioned attending a screening of the new documentary film, Unfinished Spaces, about the National Art Schools in Havana, [my dinner companion] burst out: &ldquo;What is it about the Art Schools? Why do foreigners love them so much? There&rsquo;s nothing Cuban about those buildings. They&rsquo;re ridiculous architecture for Havana and I always hated them.&rdquo;</p></em><br /><br /><p> On Places, architect Belmont Freeman reconsiders the National Art Schools in Havana&nbsp;&mdash; the subject of John Loomis's groundbreaking book <em>Revolution of Forms</em>, as well as a new documentary film and an opera, and a cult favorite among architecture buffs. Does the North American obsession with the art schools carry a whiff of latent colonialism, or even racism? Freeman argues that the dramatic saga of the art schools has obscured the larger narrative of post-revolutionary Cuban architecture.</p>