To Cuba with ideas

From little baseball games do mighty cultural exchanges grow.

Charm City's newfound buddy-buddy relationship with Fidel Castro's Cuba continues next week, as five representatives from Baltimore arts organizations leave Sunday for Havana to share things cultural with their Caribbean counterparts. The group will be attending the First International Culture and Development Congress, being held under the auspices of UNESCO and UNICEF.

Those traveling to Cuba are Steven Baxter, dean of the Peabody Conservatory; Dennis Fiori, director of the Maryland Historical Society; Leslie King-Hammond, dean of graduate studies at the Maryland Institute, College of Art; Ted Rouse, chairman of the board of the American Visionary Arts Museum; and Steve Ziger, chairman of the board of the Contemporary Museum.

"This is definitely bridge-building," said Fiori, who hopes to study the historical ties between Cuba and Baltimore. "That big Domino Sugar sign out there in the harbor, that sugar had to come from someplace. A lot of the sugar for refining came from the West Indies and Cuba."

Pub Date: 6/05/99