The renowned Cuban artist, Ivonne Ferrer, has been selected to represent Cuba in the fifth edition of the Hispafest 2024. Founded in 2018, the Hispanic-American Art and Culture Festival was created with the mission of integrating diverse artistic disciplines and offering a space for the multicultural community of Miami to come together. Each edition of the festival celebrates the richness and diversity of Hispanic-American cultures, highlighting immigrant artists from various countries who now reside in South Florida. HISPAFEST helps them connect with the city’s artistic network, fostering relationships that support their integration into the region's vibrant cultural scene.
The festival—lasting approximately a full month—is a project of the Bright Foundation, Inc., a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that promotes art and culture year-round, organizing activities that connect different communities through the common language of art. Led by its director and founder, Nubia Abají, and its principal curator, Felix Suazo, the foundation primarily supports artists based in Miami, coordinating exhibition spaces and fostering the continuity of their careers. Hispafest exalts the shared pride in our roots and awakens a sense of belonging to this multicultural community that has embraced us all, and of which we are all a part. Through the work carried out by the Bright Foundation and HISPAFEST to this day, they have solidified themselves as a key platform in the growing recognition of Miami as a global capital of art.
During the celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month, in September and October, HISPAFEST simultaneously organizes visual arts exhibitions at various locations across the city. One of the selected venues showcasing significant works by artists from this vast community is the Consulate General of Colombia, located on Aragon Avenue in Coral Gables. The exhibition, inaugurated on October 3, 2024, features works by notable artists such as Adriana Dorta, Apia, Carlos Guzmán, Claudia Henao, Corina Basterrechea, Franck de las Mercedes, Gladys Vargas, Martin Cano, Monica Jaramillo, Pilar Acuña, Rafel Montilla, Silvana Soriano, and Yanira López.
Representing Cuba were Carlos Guzmán, based in Panama, and Ivonne Ferrer, an artist residing in Miami who participated directly in the event. Ferrer exhibited works from her Portraits of Women series, including Synapse, a bronze sculpture produced in 2022, alongside an earlier version of the same, a homonymous collage created in 2020 in mixed media, colored pencil on Fine Arts Paper.
The inauguration was attended by prominent figures from the art world and diplomatic personnel from various regional embassies. Among them were the Consul General of Colombia, Edgar Montoy, Vice Consul Mayis Duluc representing the Consul General of the Dominican Republic in Miami, Geanilda Vázquez, and Cultural Attaché Mónica Trujillo. They opened the doors of the Colombian Consulate to various communities and artists, once again sharing Colombia’s rich culture during this celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month. Also present at the opening was Leonardo Rodríguez, Founder and General Director of the Museum of Contemporary Art of the Americas (MoCAA) in Kendall, Miami.
It is also worth noting that the Bright Foundation is celebrating its fifth anniversary concurrently with the festival. The final selection of works was curated by its director, Nubia Abají. The eclectic and vibrant exhibition, featuring artists each with their own individual vision and guided by no curatorial requirement other than the soul’s desire to express itself, once again reflects the essence of The Bright Foundation & HISPAFEST, showcasing the individuality of each selected artist, united in a celebration of unique voices.
The Bright Foundation, originally known as 'Hispafest, the Hispanic American Art and Culture Festival', in 2022 resumes the use of its registered name as “The Bright Foundation inc.” for all its activities of the year. The mission of our 501c3 nonprofit continues to be to promote art and culture in the region, and in this way, while promoting emerging and mid-career artists, it integrates the multicultural society together with a common language such as art.
Founded by our director, philanthropist and art lover Nubia Abaji, in 2018 during the pilot entrepreneurship program developed by Cisneros Media, the Venezuelan-American Chamber of Commerce, and the academic support of IESA (an educational institution for higher postgraduate studies), and then continuing at the Idea Center of Miami Dade College with her program, “Impact Miami,” Nubia Abaji joined a group of artists, curators, and people from the arts, in search of opening exhibition spaces that give the opportunity to emerging and mid-career artists (mostly immigrants or second and third generation immigrants) to exhibit their work and receive institutional support that guides them to continue growing their careers while developing the union of the multicultural community through art.
For this reason, “Hispafest” continues to be the name used for all events organized by The Bright Foundation, which exclusively promote Hispanic art and culture and are only made up of Hispanic-American artists, as is the case of Hispanic Heritage Month, in which different exhibitions are held annually as a result of this celebration, mainly in the months of September and October.
