Event Program

6:00 Cocktails

6:30 (sharp) Exclusive Unfinished Spaces trailer screening

Followed by a discussion with panelists:

John Stubbs, Vice President for Field Projects, World Monuments Fund; Professor, GSAPP at Columbia University
Luly Duke, President, Fundacion Amistad
Belmont Freeman, FAIA, Former President, Storefront for Art & Architecture
Alysa Nahmias, Co-Director/Producer of Unfinished Spaces
Moderated by Noushin Ehsan, AIA, Co-Chair, AIA New York Global Dialogues Committee

7:30 Cocktails & Silent Auction

Complimentary Cuban tapas and drinks

Sponsored by Brooklyn Brewery and Zafra Cuban Kitchens.

About Unfinished Spaces

“Cuba will count as having the most beautiful academy of arts in the world.” —Fidel Castro (30 June 1961)

Three architects resume their first project—Cuba’s National Art Schools—left unfinished in 1965 when their creative visions came head to head with the political realities of the Revolution.

In 1961, three young, visionary architects were commissioned by Fidel Castro and Che Guevara to create the world's most beautiful art school on the grounds of a former golf course in Havana, Cuba. Construction of their radical designs began immediately and the school's first classes soon followed. But as the dream of the Revolution quickly became a reality, construction was abruptly halted and the architects and their designs were deemed irrelevant in the prevailing political climate. Forty years later the schools are in use, but remain unfinished and decaying. Castro has invited the exiled architects back to finish their unrealized dream. Their story begs the question—how dangerous can architecture be?

Directed by Alysa Nahmias and Ben Murray
2010 / HD / Color / 16:9 (1.78:1) / 90 min / Stereo

Grants and Awards
Jerome Foundation
New York State Council on the Arts
Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Visual Arts
LEF Foundation
Cohen Family Foundation
Elise Jaffe + Jeffrey Brown
Individual Donors
Fiscal Sponsorship: Women Make Movies