DESCRIPTION

THE OPEN AIR CONTEMPORARY ART MUSEUM
PUNTA ISLITA, NICOYA PENINSULA, COSTA RICA

The Open Air Contemporary Art Museum, the first of its kind in Central America, is sponsored by the four star resort Hotel Punta Islita as an integral part of its social responsibility model directed to local educational, cultural, economic projects.
From its beginning ten years ago Punta Islita Hotel has employed and trained
local residents. In addition, the Hotel has worked with local organizations to
develop better schooling, a church, a water system, a day care center, micro-
economic training, and a new art center. It has also promoted small enterprises
in the local rural villages, including training local artists who work with resources
from the area: driftwood, seeds, shells. Well-known artists have been invited to
Punta Islita to plan and oversee art installations, the results of which are evident
around the Hotel, at the airstrip, and in the village of Islita. The entire village has
become an art project, from murals on the buildings to outdoor sculpture to ongoing workshops involving the surrounding villages as well as Islita.

THE LANDING STRIP MOSAIC
JANE GOLDMAN AND THE PUNTA ISLITA VILLAGE COMMUNITY

As a result of an art exhibition at the Centro Cultural Costarricense
Norteamericano, in San Jose, Costa Rica in February 2005, Jane Goldman met
Loida Pretiz, director of the Open Air Contemporary Art Museum. Aware of Jane’s
public art work at Boston's Logan Airport, Loida invited her to visit the small
community of Islita on the Pacific coast, to design a mosaic floor for the reception
area at the Aeroporto de Punta Islita. Intrigued by the circumstances, and the
scale of the project (160 square feet, as compared to the 65,000+ square ft
at Logan), Jane accepted.

Creating a mosaic floor in ceramic tile for the Aeroporto de Punta Islita turned
out to be an inspiring experience. The subject of the piece is several species of
butterflies common to that part of the province of Guanacaste, set against a
background of “dry rain forest leaf litter”. The process of installation was like a
barn raising or quilting bee, as many people from local art groups took part in
preparing and installing the art work: Dona Cecilia, president of the Pappaturro
artist group (so named for the tree where they meet to sew); teenagers from
the Jovenes Islita; woodworkers from the Bosque Mar group; and workers from
the Hotel Punta Islita.

“It was a changing cast of characters and from time to time we installers would
be joined by spouses and kids, curious to see the progress of the work. Even
passengers waiting for their planes would pitch in and place or break up tile.
The final day local musicians played for us as we worked. The hotel van pulled
up full of volunteer workers, including the Head Chef. Food and drink materialized.
It was a party.”

”Everyone falls in love with the community of Islita”, says Florencia Urbino, a
Costa Rican artist who has worked with the local art groups. On the plane back
to San Jose, still high on the experience of common cause and the joy of a group
project, it occurred to Jane that Islita needed a printmaking studio. This would
serve as a permanent and central location for the creative output of this close
knit community where there is a living tradition of woodcarving, linear and
decorative narrative. In the words of Dona Cecilia, working on the Mariposas
artwork and joking around was,“better than therapy.”

THE PRINTMAKING STUDIO AT PUNTA ISLITA
CATHERINE KERNAN, JANE GOLDMAN, AND THE ARTISTS OF

MIXIT PRINT STUDIO

In November 2005 Catherine Kernan and Jane Goldman, partners in printmaking
studios for 20+ years and co-directors of Mixit Print Studio in Somerville
(Boston area) MA, shipped an 18” x 36” intaglio press and materials to Punta Islita,
and conducted a two day workshop. The response and enthusiasm were
overwhelming. We were expecting 9 participants. The first day eighteen people
showed up; the second day these participants brought their kids and spouses,
and we had twenty five in the workshop. Catherine taught the workshop in Spanish.
The results of this workshop were stunning.

We envision an ongoing relationship between Mixit Print Studio and the print
studio of Islita which will include regularly scheduled workshops in Islita taught
by visiting Mixit Print Studio artists, and visits to Mixit Print Studio by Islita artists.
The printmaking program has the potential to include techniques other than
woodcut / relief. Under discussion is possibility of offering bilingual print
workshops to guests and the children of guests at the hotel. Exhibitions,
portfolios, and marketing of the prints produced in the workshop are part of
the larger plan as well. A private bridge loan financed the purchase of the
Ettan press and a fundraiser is planned to finance this enterprise.