2011 Context Travel St. Hope scholarship winner Kathleen Snook (right)
Five years ago the Context Foundation partnered with Sac High in Sacramento to develop a travel scholarship. The program has been incredibly successful, bringing high-achieving students to Europe and offering them the possibility to learn and experience travel with Context scholars.
To celebrate the 5th anniversary of our program, we have decided to interview the previous winners and see what they are up to! Continue reading
Along with the exciting news surrounding the winners of the third St. Hope travel scholarship, we also had the pleasure this week to receive an update from Elia Rizzo, our second Florence Apprenticeship winner (given in conjunction with the Le Arti Orafe school of Florence). Elia has been hard at work this spring mastering the intricate etching technique and training under Marco Baroni, at his eponymous jewelery studio in the Oltrarno.
Despite having just started studying and practicing the technique of etching, Elia describes his progress as, “very good – without boasting – but one can view my panels, which speak for themselves!” He goes on to say that “etching is a fascinating art form, that requires long periods of practice and lots of patience, but one that is very satisfying, especially if trained under a master etcher, of whom I have the great fortune of studying under.” He also wanted to let the Context community know, “I get and enormous amount of satisfaction from attending my etching course and I continue to consider myself extremely lucky and indebted to Context, which has given me the chance to start this interesting path that is enriching my technical and artistic practice. I also consider it a personal life experience that is very precious.”
Last Tuesday, in Nairobi, the ministers of UNESCO added Flamenco to the list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Flamenco aficionados from Seville to Madrid erupted in joy, including our own docents in Madrid where we, coincidentally, just launched a Flamenco tour.
“Flamenco is a feeling,” says Martin Guerero Gomez, director of the Flamenco cultural preservation foundation Casapatas, with which Context is collaborating on our tour. He waves his hand around the crowded, dark theater where the thrumming of Flamenco dancers is filling the space. “You need places like this—small, crowded places, late at night, with the singers all in black….”
We’re proud to have Casapatas as a partner in this endeavor. In addition to staging some of the best, non-touristy Flamenco performances in Madrid, the organization also runs classes, charity events, and houses a fantastic collection of photographs chronicling the modern history of the artform—many of which were snapped by Martin himself.
“You have to get out and meet the guitar makers, the dress makers, and visit one of the small bars where Flamenco was born in order to truly understand it,” says Sabina de Cavi, an art historian, Context docent, and amateur Flamenco dancer who will primarily be leading the walk. On the eve of the UNESCO announcement she gathered a group of us to “workshop” the walk at La Venencia, a small manzanilla (dry sherry) bar in Huertas where the Friday evening crowd bides its time until midnight when the Flamenco theaters in the neighborhood open their doors.
So, congratulations Spain and congratulations Flamenco on a recognition long overdue.