Daniel Vadraga, Head of the Career Department, explained in an interview with Prensa Latina. for industrial design.
After opening an exhibition with the final works of students from the second to fourth year, the young academic explained that doing design in Cuba is a huge challenge and that mastering the teaching and adapting it to the current scenario is one of the purposes of the school.
We must gain more in cultural identity, he added, because our references are still European and North American.
He referred to exchange projects with other universities in the world, and highlighted the reception of these meetings. We have agreements with several universities in Europe and the United States, on many occasions our professors go, and on other occasions students come with their teachers and stay. Surprised.
They are surprised, he said, because when they come they expect to see something less accurate and they are amazed at the skills the students have developed and the software they run and achieve results on the same level as what is being done elsewhere with more facilities.
The issue of sustainability, for example, in Europe today is fundamental, but from Cuba it has always been a precursor to working with limited resources and local materials.
Founded in 1984, the Higher Institute of Desenio (ISDi) is still growing and the country lacks jobs taught there, both industrial and visual. There is a real need, Fedraga stressed, and the university’s mission is to continue training designers.
Although the Academy is currently in a complex construction situation at its usual headquarters in Centro Habana, ISDi professors and directors are looking for solutions to bring students of different courses together, in the face of imminent disintegration.
We had to look for alternatives so that our students would have the necessary connection and exchange that nurtures them. Fadraga stressed that those other courses should be linked and know what is going on within the academic entity.
He said that this exhibition is actually one of the initiatives that we will implement periodically every three or four months to achieve this connection we need.
In a long-term vision, the institution is also immersed in the Transcultura project, with training courses for people from the Caribbean through the Center for Design Studies, attached to ISdi, allowing us to connect with international companies and entities.
Integration in the Caribbean and promoting cooperation and exchanges between people is the goal of this UNESCO-sponsored initiative that reaches 17 regions of the Caribbean: Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Cuba, Dominica, Granada, Dominican Republic, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Montserrat, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago.
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