This post originally appeared on the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s blog. That blog has since been deleted, but the original context is viewable on the Internet Archive Wayback Machine.

For our first full day in Havana, we wanted to get over to the Centro Wifredo Lam as early as possible to see how installation was going and meet in-person the artists we’ve primarily been dealing with via email. The Center is located just a few blocks from our hotel, on the Plaza de la Cathedral. We arrived to the sound of furious hammering and the hustling atmosphere that occurs two days out from an exhibition opening.There was a bit of confusion actually getting into the center, as our collective Spanish is horrible and the museum workers at admission did not speak any English. After a few minutes of trying our best to communicate, we heard a booming voice come from behind us, “You are from the Mattress Factory? I am Diago! Welcome!”

Juan Roberto Diago is one of the artists in the Queloides exhibition, but he prefers to go simply as Diago. Barbara and Michael had met him before on a previous visit to Cuba, but it was a first meeting for the rest of us. He was the perfect initial tour guide to the galleries of the Wifredo Lam Center, whose 3 floors of gallery space are sprawling in 360 degrees around an open-air courtyard that doubles as a sculpture garden. Diago energetically led us from room to room where canvases were being stretched, works were being installed, and empty rooms were beginning to resemble a fantastic art exhibition.

Needing to get back to his work of preparing his installation, Diago handed us off to Jorge Antonio Fernandez Torres, the Director of the Centro Wifredo Lam. Jorge gave us a behind the scenes tour of the facility, including the administrative offices, and then we chatted for a while around a conference table surrounded by black and white images of the Center’s namesake.

After exploring the galleries a bit more, we decided to let the artists and staff of the Centro Wifredo Lam get back to work. The show is going to be great and I’m very excited to see the Center full of people on Friday evening at the opening.

We took the rest of the afternoon to explore Havana on foot. Some highlights were the National Capitol, Chinatown, a locomotive graveyard containing dozens of rusted out steam engines (most were from Pennsylvania!), some interesting street art, and a walk along the Malecon, a boardwalk-style path that wanders along the north coast of the city.