Cuba's Art Scene Is Flourishing

07:58

January 24, 2013

An artist shows his finished work at the Experimental Graphic Arts Studio in Old Havana. Poet Pablo Neruda convinced Che Guevara to open this workshop in the 60s to save the dying art form. Today it’s home to Cuba’s top print makers. (Andrea Shea/WBUR)

Cuba has fascinated Americans for decades, but the socialist island has been off limits for 50 years because of a U.S. trade embargo.

Things are changing, though. On Monday, the Cuban government last week ended a pair of long-reviled travel restrictions, making it easier for Cubans to leave their country. And in 2011, President Obama authorized tightly regulated people-to-people cultural tours, allowing more Americans to travel to Cuba.

WBUR’s Andrea Shea recently went on one of these trips, with a Boston gallery owner’s “trade mission” to open U.S.-Cuba relations through art.

See Andrea's photos and the rest of her series on Cuba

This segment aired on January 24, 2013.