On Friday night, my husband and I got a rare opportunity to have a night out on our own!  As I read about a Night in Havana event at one of my favorite places (Laumeier Sculpture Park),  I knew what we were doing for the night!  

In case you are not familiar Laumeier Sculpture Park is a large county park with art installations and arts education.  There will be many more posts on this quirky hike and other events, but for now I’m focusing on the Aronson Fine Arts Center that looks more like a modern art museum.  This is the second time I’ve had the chance to be a part of their opening weekend of an exhibit. This time the installation is the Cuban poster art of Carlos Zamora. This opening was done on theme and in style!

As you entered the large space, there was a cocktail bar set up on the left by a wall of windows, a large dance area, tables and snacks, posters along the walls, and a printmaking area in the back.   The cocktail area was hosted by Spirits of St. Louis Distillery and used their rum, along with lime juice, mint, and mint syrup to serve up a strong, but delicious mojito. They also had a punch I did not get a chance to try, because I love mojitos!

My husband and I quickly joined Mambo Revolution in learning some basic Latin American dance moves and I quickly remembered the “quick, quick, slow” characteristic of the style.  I felt like I was doing great when we worked by ourselves, but when we started working on partner dancing, my husband and I laughed at each other as we tried to learn our turns.  One of Mambo Revolution’s dancers helped us and by the end of the lesson, we kind of felt like we knew what we were doing.

After dancing we tried the light snacks of chips and salsa, Cuban skewers of sweet pickles (the only pickles I like), cheese, and ham, along with these coconut flavored sandwich cookies.  It all went great with the mojitos!

Then it was time to try our hand at printmaking, sponsored by Central Print.  The staff taught us to create our own stencil by using Zamora’s prints as inspiration to draw our shapes and then cut them out with an exacto knife.  After, our stencil was placed on a larger piece of paper and we set a screen on top. We picked either black, red, or blue paint to then drag across the screen two times and, voila, we had a masterpiece!   

• 

• 

• 

I can’t imagine a better way to engage with Carlos Zamora’s work than tasting and feeling Cuba, while taking a try at his art medium.  While this event is over, you can view Zamora’s work at Aronson Fine Arts Center through December 22nd and they have many upcoming events, including Food Truck night, Mud and Merlot, and even a Yappy Hour for your favorite pup!