JOSÉ TRINIDAD CABAÑAS OFFICIAL INSTITUTE

Olanchito, Yoro

PROFESSOR:
Licda. Maria Magdalena

SUBJECT:
Artistic appreciation

PRESENTED BY:
Franklin Noe Mejía Reyes

COURSE AND SECTION:

I of Baccalaureate in Sciences and Humanities Accelerated “U”

ISSUE:
National School of Fine Arts

PLACE AND DATE:

Olanchito, Yoro October 15, 2018
 INTRODUCTION
This report seeks to disclose when the National School of Fine Arts was founded
and its history, taking into account that the country had a series of educational
programs in the arts that had not lasted more than five years. Most were private.
This institution celebrates the trajectory that over 75 years has allowed it to be the
only public institution in the country in charge of the training of Honduran plastic
artists.

For its part, the Art and Culture Center of the National Autonomous University of
Honduras (CAC-UNAH) has worked since its inception with the ENBA in a strategic
collaboration alliance. As a contribution to the commemoration events, this
university cultural center began the year with the conference ENBA: 75 years of life
and art, by historian Joel Barahona.
 GOALS
1. Learn about the historical overview and founding of the National School of
Fine Arts of Honduras.

2. Analyze which artists graduated from the National School of Fine Arts.

3. Investigate the crisis facing the School, and what its possible solutions are.

4. Identify the needs and positive results faced by the National School of Fine
Arts of Honduras.
 NATIONAL SCHOOL OF FINE ARTS

The ENBA (National School of Fine Arts) was founded in 1940 by the President of
the Republic Doctor and General Don Tiburcio Carias Andino, President of the
Republic of Honduras in the period: 1933-1949, who granted the artists Arturo
López Rodezno, Max Euceda, Samuel Salgado and Salvador Posadas, since a
year before through a government mandate for the creation of a School of Arts;
These characters had proposed the creation of such a school in agreement with
the president. The same year they were located in the ENBA arts building in front
of “La Libertad” Park in Comayagüela, DC

GRADUATE ARTISTS FROM THE ENBA

Among the most relevant students of the first years of the National School of Fine
Arts are: The painter Miguel Ángel Ruiz Matute who was one of those chosen to go
to Mexico and work in 1956 with the teacher Diego Rivera, in the murals of the
University City in the Federal District of the capital of the United Mexican States.
The international painter Miguel Ángel Ruiz Matute currently resides in Great
Britain. The Painter Moisés Becerra, a native of Dulce Nombre de Copán; The
Painter Dante Lazzaroni Andino originally from Río Lindo, Cortés, the local painter
Joaquín Urquía originally from the city of Santa Rosa de Copan; Among the young
ladies studying painting and other arts, there were: Isabel Membreño, Margarita
Velásquez. As teachers, the prodigious Teresa Victoria Fortín Franco taught
classes; Master Raúl Fiallos, who was also one of the group of founding artists of
the School in question. We cannot forget the teacher Pablo Zelaya Sierra,
considered the father of Honduran painting and who would also further his studies
at the School of Arts of the Kingdom of Spain. Another versatile and highly
renowned artist was Pompeyo del Valle, who has written so many illustrative and
folklore books in our country. Of the other teachers, the international Confucio
Montes de Oca and Carlos Zuñiga Figueroa are also remembered. Another of the
most recognized artists of this prestigious School is Professor Francis Castellanos
de Ayala from Santa Rosa; who taught Plastic Arts classes at the Álvaro Contreras
Departmental Institute

The film director Sami Kafati was awarded in 1982, by the National School of Fine
Arts, with the Itzamná National Art Prize awarded by this Art School, for being the
pioneer in Honduras, in cinematography with his work "Mi Amigo Angel".

At the National School of Fine Arts (ENBA) the students received classes in
drawing, painting, sculpture, some models that were painted were mostly from
Europe; and, captured by the students on their canvases hanging on easels.

CRISIS

“If the situation does not change, the most that Fine Arts has left is three years,”
teacher Rafael Gerardo Cáceres, deputy director of the academic institution,
promptly declared.

The School, created in 1940 in the building that still houses it, was derived from
two previous efforts: The Academy of Fine Arts and Drawing Applied to the
Industrial Arts of 1890 and the National Academy of Drawing, “Chiaroscuro al
Natural” under the direction by maestro Carlos Zúñiga Figueroa from 1934.

The premises of the old council of Comayagüela, opened its doors on February 1,
1940, converted into the cradle of the plastic arts.

“Since then it has not had the correct conditions for an arts school, but over the
years it has been adapted to meet the needs,” Cáceres added.

“There are some instruments that we have used for more than thirty years, we are
a poor school and that is how we have learned to manage things, the workshops
need to be equipped, there is a lack of materials and a real investment in the
school” declared Dino Fanconi, director. of the ENBA.

FINE ARTS
Despite its serious deficiencies, in recent years the ENBA authorities have
dedicated themselves to promoting the institution, which is the only one of its kind
in the country.

The works have taken to the streets and the students have been able to have
contact with the general population, who recognizes the enormous talent that is
polished in the classrooms and workshops of this center.

An interesting phenomenon has been recorded and that is that Honduran youth
have aroused enormous interest in the arts.

Those interested in entering far exceed the usual numbers, they come from all over
the country to take the admission exam and there are those who do it more than
once with the hope of being admitted.

“The number of students who want to enter has forced us to raise the requirements
of the admission exam, the fact that more young people want to dedicate
themselves to the arts should not be a problem but in Honduras it apparently is,”
said Rafael Gerardo Cáceres .

Currently, 260 students are enrolled and the workshops are 100 percent
overcrowded, complicating the teaching task.

“Being here is a wonderful experience, it requires a lot of vocation because things

are complicated for us, the government seems to only want serial maquiladoras
and not creators in any field, much less in art. It does not have the courage to
destroy the School but they have been letting it die for a long time,” said Scarlett
Romero, a third-year student at ENBA.

NEEDS
It is urgent to change the School's premises, since the current headquarters has
stopped meeting the basic needs to be able to offer adequate learning.

“The government continues to pay, through the Ministry of Education, the teachers'
salaries but we do not receive any support for the purchase of materials,” said
Fanconi.

He explained that “to achieve the necessary equipment update, approximately 1.2
million lempiras are required.”

Those who study art in Honduras know what sacrifice is, with the parents'
association largely being the one that carries out activities to obtain some
materials, as well as solidarity between the students, who are mostly low-income.

“Another big problem we have are the materials that, according to the decree of the
National Congress, are almost entirely considered luxury items and their
acquisition is very difficult for us,” highlighted the director.

Several requests have been presented to the Legislative Chamber to give special
treatment to the School but the request remains unaddressed, ENBA authorities
explained.

Until now, the only thing that has been achieved is with friendly governments with
scholarships for outstanding students who have been able to continue their studies
in Taiwan, Canada, the United States, Spain and Venezuela.

NEWS OF THE NATIONAL SCHOOL OF FINE ARTS

The National School of Fine Arts (E. N. b. A.) subsists with a small support from
institutions and the government, although its greatest contribution to continue
existing is based on student enrollment.

Started on the anniversary of the 50 years of the School, from 1990 to 2007, the
National School of Fine Arts together with the Cultural Center of Spain in
Tegucigalpa and the Ministry of Culture, Arts and Sports, convened every
November 15 the Anthology of the Plastic and Visual Arts of Honduras2 to
encourage and document annual creativity, as well as enhance the social
projection of the ENBA Likewise, each year tribute was paid to a master of
Honduran plastic arts.

In 2009, enrollment was 260 students and was declining; by 2015, the National
School of Fine Arts only had 236 students, despite the scholarships and aid
granted.
 CONCLUSIONS

1. Art has been part of societies since the beginning of time as a means of
expression which has different dimensions and transformations depending
on the artist and the time in which it is developed.

2. The artist is the one who creates a new way of interpreting and experiencing
it, which is why each individual handles their different skills in painting,
sculpture, music, etc. in a different way.

3. The different mutations of art or the currents that change over the years take
us to the place where we find ourselves, where technology has invaded
every corner and serves as a visual, auditory and perceptual medium within
any artistic field.

4. That is why when making decisions to develop the project, one must think
that any type of artistic expression is continually undergoing transformations
due to all those factors that influence it in one way or another.
 ANNEXES
EDUCATION

RAFAEL GERARDO CÁCERES

DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF THE ACADEMIC INSTITUTION