Starting this month, there is a new cultural meeting point in San Salvador. “Culto a El Salvador” is the name of an area in the lobby of Hotel Real Intercontinental San Salvador where each month the works of local artists will be displayed. “And as the name suggests, the emphasis is on exhibiting works that reflect the typical Salvadoran,” explains Ramiro Zepeda Roldán, manager of public relations of the hotel.

Internationally-known Kaqchikel Mayan artist Carlos Chávez presents Canto a la Esperanza at the Galería Panza Verde in La Antigua, Guatemala on Wed., 11th at 5pm. This collection is an expression of his long-time theme of persistence, which is at once melancholy and hopeful. Melancholy in its clarification of the losses resulting from violent conflict; but hopeful through Chávez’ sunny and fluid symbolism, particularly in the unexpected but masterful use of flower and dove motifs. Taken together, these complementary elements are a call to, or a celebration of, resilience.

Not entirely a spectator sport, the Colectiva de Arte 2004 is an art exhibit with a twist — “it is to teach,” says Leonor de Neuweiler, auxiliary board member of Junkabal in Guatemala City. “Seven famous artists will paint wooden trays in a workshop,” she explains. The trays will then be sold in a silent auction. Colectiva de Arte is the annual fundraiser organized by the board to benefit Junkabal, a professional training center for women. The exhibit opens on September 7th and runs until September 10th at Anacafé, 5a calle 0-50, zona 14. The workshop (Q75) will be held on Thursday, September 9, beginning at 4 p.m.

Traditional Mayan music and dance have a complementary relationship. The evolution of dance, however, has followed a somewhat different trajectory than that of music. In the case of music, change has been, most notably, along the lines of an enrichment and sophistication of the inventory of instruments in use since the arrival of the Spaniards. In the case of dance, change has been more of a conscious reshaping of the expression of spiritual beliefs, and the substitution of pre-Columbian themes with Christian ones and the large-scale introduction of European dance costumes support these new themes of performances.

“The shell must break before the bird can fly,” to quote an ancient sage. The hope at birth that one day a new life will become independent inevitably involves a severance, whether it’s a bird from its shell or a project from its sponsor.

December, a month for reflection on the past year and hope for the future—not necessarily in that order or in any order. Christmas and year-end both mingle the past and the future inextricably. Dickens knew that when he wrote his timeless A Christmas Carol. Seems fitting to the season to celebrate The Museum of the Archdiocese of Santiago Guatemala, which opened on February 3 of this year.

The great Spanish artist Francisco de Goya was left deaf by an illness at the age of 46. As if it were a cruel echo, a copy of the fifth edition of his copper etchings was left silent on a library shelf for decades. The volume was rediscovered in the library of the Escuela Nacional de Artes Plásticas in Guatemala City in June 2005 and will open in an exhibition behind glass on Friday, December 9 at 8:00 p.m. in the Museo Moderno Arte Marco Agusto Quiroa of Hotel Casa Santo Domingo, La Antigua Guatemala.

The exquisite watercolors of the Antigua Calendar have graced thousands of homes and offices around the world since 2002. Now the collection of 52 originals is on sale, all framed and of calendar size.

Celebrating 25 years of work by Rosamaría Pascual de Gámez, who may well be one of the most inspired of the Guatemalan painters alive today, Cantón Exposición/Fundación G & T Continental invites you to the inauguration of her show on Thursday, 2nd at 7pm.

Aged art might appear finished to an amateur. Frame it. Shelve it. Enjoy it forever. Done. Artifacts dug up long after their useful life is over, having been protected by whatever buried them, are ready for museum cases, right? Wrong. Composed of molecules in a micro world, neither art nor artifacts are dead or stagnant. Exposed to realities of a living environment, they are subject to constantly changing elements that can cause irreparable damage.