New Art and Art History scholarship established


MIAMI (Jan. 14, 2009) – Two students from Florida International University majoring in art or art history will benefit from a newly established scholarship named after one of Cuba’s most talented contemporary painters.

The Cundo Bermudez Scholarship Fund, made possible by a $16,000 gift by the Kiwanis Club of Little Havana Foundation and the Cuban American Endowment, will provide two juniors accepted into FIU’s Department of Art and Art History with $4,000 each for two years.

The scholarship would cover a student’s tuition for a year, assuming the student qualifies for in-state rates.

“Florida International University has welcomed Cundo’s work for many years,” said Teresa Callava, director of Sales & Marketing for the Kiwanis Club of Little Havana Foundation.  “We hope that Cundo’s love of art, and his great relationship with FIU, will live on through this scholarship.”

Born in Havana, Cuba in 1914, Cundo Bermudez left behind a collection of art that hangs throughout the world when he died of a heart attack in his Miami home in Oct. 2008.

In 1926, Bermudez was admitted at the Institute of Havana, and in 1930 enrolled at the renowned Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes, where he studied painting for two years. In 1934, he entered the University of Havana to study law and social sciences, graduating in 1941.

After leaving Cuba in 1967, he spent three decades in Puerto Rico before coming to Miami in 1996. Throughout his life, one element remained constant: his love for his homeland. 

“I continue painting, because painting is a celebration of life,” he told El Nuevo Herald shortly before his death. “And of course I paint Cuba, because Cuba has never left me.”

In 2005, he was awarded an honorary doctorate of the arts from FIU.

His artwork hangs in such varied places as Havana, San Juan, Puerto Rico, at the Organization of American States in Washington, D.C. and in the Bacardi Building and the Arsht Center for the Performing Arts in Miami.

Students eligible for the Cundo Bermudez Scholarship must be juniors fully enrolled in Art or Art History and keep the minimum of a 2.5 grade point average. The selection process will begin in the spring semester.

Media Contact: Jean-Paul Renaud at 305-348-2716 or jprenaud@fiu.edu.

 -FIU-

About FIU:

Florida International University was founded in 1965 and is Miami’s only public research university. With a student body of more than 38,000, FIU graduates more Hispanics than any other university in the country. Its 17 colleges and schools offer more than 200 bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral programs in fields such as engineering, international relations and law. FIU has been classified by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching as a “High Research Activity University.” In 2006 FIU was authorized to establish a medical school, which will welcome its first class in 2009. FIU’s College of Law recently received accreditation in the fastest time allowed by the American Bar Association.

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