Attended by 16 experts from Spain, Italy, Belgium and Austria, the forum will wrap up on December 13, after sharing good practices considering cooperation, in a bid to make the Santa Clara School an international center teaching restoration and heritage.

The forum opened with a welcoming speech by the director and representative of the UNESCO Regional Office in Havana, Anne Lemaistre, who was escorted by ambassador of the EU in Cuba, Isabel Brilhante, and the director of Heritage of the Office of the Historian of the City, Gladys Collazo.

In her speech, Lemaistre extolled late Havana Historian Eusebio Leal, who once embraced the dream that is likely to become a reality with the Transcultura project.

“Here I see here the workers who day after day bring this desire, this goal of Leal’s, into reality, imbued of the primary objective of training, professionalizing and offering employment opportunities to young people, said the UNESCO official.

Speaking to Prensa Latina, Lemaistre expressed that this three-day meeting stands out as a privileged moment.

“We have waited a long time for this meeting to happen, and the construction of a sustainability strategy for the Santa Clara School makes us very happy, as we expect that academic courses in arts and restoration will start in 2025”, indicated Lemaistre.

“There is also a possibility for countries in Europe and the Caribbean to send their students to Havana to learn how to restore, how to treat those Italian marbles preserved here in architecture since colonial times”, she said.

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