Merchants’ Street, today Maceo, was originally conceived as the Merchants’ Corridor. The Association of Merchants of Camagüey was in charge of the order and maintenance of all the emporiums that were emerging there. For this reason, homes are a minority in this busy artery.
On the morning of Saturday, April 15th, the area picked up the pace with the presence of private businesses and state entities, who came together to provide a different and enjoyable morning. They filled the two blocks with art that is born in the city and takes to the streets, to show passers-by their way of doing things.
Various commercial, gastronomic and cultural offers were available to the people of Camagüey until noon, in the corridor of the Creative Cultural Circuit of Camagüey.
The proposal
In the fair that already promises to be a success for the people of Camagüey, various institutions located in the area and about 20 economic actors of the territory participated. The Creative Cultural Circuit was activated for the first time, occupying the entire street, which has among its objectives training to strengthen businesses in the territory in which they are located.
The presentation is part of the results of an international cooperation project called Creative Industries, a contribution to heritage management and socioeconomic development from the main public spaces, managed by the Office of the Historian of the Camagüey city under the name of Arte Plaza .
In the same way, the project is aimed at caring for groups in vulnerable situations, women with certain problems and the elderly, with an emphasis on job creation through entrepreneurship.
In this first edition, the Arte Plaza Trade Fair was dedicated to World Entrepreneur Day. It will take place every month in this central commercial artery and each one will respond to a different event. The next ones will be to honor Mother’s Day and Father’s Day.
Attractive offers
In a tour of the different stalls, several proposals captivated me. The first was the Daluz Worshop Study, which showed its decorative plates, coasters and bottles crushed by time, in which great works of Camagüeyan architecture are reborn, in a kind of glass and metal mixed with magic, to give life to exquisite art forms and light.
These are the works of two brothers from Camagüey: David and Dasmián Sánchez Prieto, who unite their love for architecture and a taste for glass. A little boy seems to follow in the footsteps of his father and his uncle in the world of glassblowing, since he has already achieved his first creations and cuts in glass.
The other very popular stall at the fair was the project for empowered women, Manus Aureus, which is already 12 years old, although it was created as a community project in 2015.
According to Graciela Guerra, a weaver fairy who shows her beautiful rugs, “they practice sewing, weaving, embroidery, patching, painting, papier maché, jewelry, using different techniques and materials. Now we are inserted in the Arte Plaza project, of the Office of the Historian of Camagüey city, where we can visualize our works more”.
A closing to the rhythm of rumba
The performance of the Rumbatá Group in Gallo Square brought the fair to an end, which was also set by the project of living statues of the Luz Theater group, with beautiful images created from the recycling of materials.
The lack of electricity could not turn off the light of so many works, which went out to the former Merchants’ Street with ingenious and beautiful proposals, to give us a different Saturday.
Translated by: Aileen Álvarez García
