Minnesotans Welcomed in Uruguay by Partners Volunteers

Last month marked the arrival in Uruguay of the University of Minnesota's annual "May Term" Art Department trip. Emerging artists from Minnesota spent the month meeting with renowned Uruguayan artists across a range of disciplines and media.

It also marked the first visit of Minnesota-Uruguay Partners member Tara Gupta to Montevideo, who was invited by the United States embassy to speak at an event on youth leadership. Tara was Minnesota's delegate to the annual Partners convention in Colombia in 2011, where she was invited to speak on her nonprofit work as an Edina High School student with Seva Football, a group she founded to engage and advance young girls through sports. 

The Minnesotans were welcomed warmly and with much generosity by the Uruguay-Minnesota chapter of Partners throughout their stay. The chapter's regular meeting, which included the art students and Tara, is pictured below.

Museum Branding Workshops Draw Top Art Community Leaders Together

Lyndel King, a past board director of Minnesota-Uruguay Partners and the curator of the Weisman Art Museum in Minneapolis, returned last week from a Partners trip to Uruguay to share best practices in museum branding.

Lyndel and her co-leader for the seminars, Yamamoto Moss ad agency head Shelly Regan, worked with scores of art community professionals in Uruguay over 10 days under a Partners of the Americas travel grant.

They were hosted with extraordinary warmth and generosity by Marta Aronja, the highly regarded Uruguayan architect who is a board director of our counterpart chapter in Montevideo, along with many others in Uruguay's outstanding arts and culture community.

Welcome back Lyndel and thank you all!

Friends and members say farewell to Marcos Villanueva

Friends and members gathered at the beautiful home of Sarah Trembley in Bloomington on Sunday to say heartfelt good-byes to Marcos Villanueva on the eve of his return to Uruguay after more than a decade in Minnesota.

Marcos, a board director of Minnesota-Uruguay Partners, has advanced our organization in many ways. A generous host to visitors and wonderful guide to our state, it's been Marcos smiling over the parrilla, our asador at countless events masterfully grilling grass-fed beef for scores of hungry guests. His contributions to the group are simply too many to list here.

Marcos is returning to Uruguay with plans to advance his career there after working in accounting and financial services in the United States. We know he'll stay involved with the chapter in Montevideo, and we look forward to keeping in touch with him.

Buen viaje Marcos, hasta luego!

  

Weisman Art Museum Director Off to Uruguay

Lyndel King, a long-time member and past board director of Minnesota-Uruguay Partners, is off to Uruguay this month working on a Partners travel grant to conduct seminars with professionals around the country on museum branding. Lyndel is the director and curator of the Weisman Art Museum in Minneapolis, the first art museum designed by Frank Gehry, which underwent a multi-million-dollar expansion under Lyndel's leadership last year.  She's joined in her Partners project in Uruguay by another Minnesotan, Shelly Regan, the president of Yamamoto, the renowned international advertising agency.

Uruguay nabs another investment-grade rating

Good news. Fitch Ratings on Thursday granted Uruguay a coveted investment-grade rating. This generally lowers a country's borrowing costs and can put more money back into the hands of its citizens. Congratulations Uruguay!

Job openings for internationalists...

Happy new year, friends and members! Looking for a new job in 2013?

Partners of the Americas in Washington tells us that they are hiring a program development officer. See the job listing here.

Closer to home, our friends at the Minnesota International Center are looking for development expertise, as well. See their job posting here.

Announcing the new schedule for Spanish classes

Our friends at the Global Citizens Network have shared a link to their new schedule for 2013 Spanish classes. You can study with a native Uruguayan if you sign up for the Thursday sessions, it appears. What fun!

Leticia Stabrino

Spanish

Leticia obtained her teaching degree in Uruguay, her country of origin, and moved to the United States in 2005. She worked as a teacher in Montevideo for 7 years and held various jobs in education in Minnesota. She worked as the Latino Liaison at North St. Paul schools and she’s currently working at an alternative high school in Minneapolis. She has been involved with the Resource Center since 2005 where she volunteered, taught and was a board member. At present she’s leading the Intercambios on Saturdays.

Press coverage of Mayor Fader's triip to Uruguay

MONTEVIDEO — Jose Mujica has six bullet wounds and the memory of 14 years in prison to tell the story of his path to public office.
Ana Olivera spent 11 years in exile overseas before she was able to return home and run for office.
Mujica, the president of Uruguay, and Olivera, the mayor of its capital city, were among the Uruguayan office holders who rolled out the red carpet for Debra Lee Fader, mayor of Montevideo, Minn.... Read more!

Thank you for attending the annual member meeting!

Holly Brand (L) and Olivia Trembley selling raffle tickets

Members and friends of Minnesota-Uruguay Partners came from far and wide December 10 (despite the second big snowstorm in the last three years of annual meetings) to celebrate a highly productive year for our group.

Many thanks to our gracious hosts, Diane Katsiaficas of the University of Minnesota art department, along with board directors Sarah Trembley, Kati Mae Duesler and Mark Knierim, for arranging the beautiful venue, delicious food, and so many other event details.

Clockwise L-R: Bruce McManus, Sue von Bank, Diane Levendusky, Diane Katsiaficas,Lyndel King, Julie Ketterling, Bright Dornblaser

There were three excellent presentations: Diane Levendusky and Bruce McManus discussed advances with the prison reform project, Lynn Baskfield, who hosted our first equine therapy visitor, talked about best practices in her field; and Sarah Trembley offered a recap of highly active art committee exchanges this year.

Gerard Lagos shared the good news that Minnesota-Uruguay Partners has been presented with a $3,000 grant from IBM, funding that will help us carry out important work next year.

The membership elected four new board directors: Julie Ketterling, Connie Roehrich, Tom Olson and Mandy Mattke.

Clockwise L-R: Lynn Baskfield, Bill Gorman, Tom Boeser, Briana Boeser,
Rob Scarlett, David Kremer

Minnesotan Declared 'Distinguished Visitor' by Montevideo Mayor

On December 10, 2012, the mayor of the capital city of the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, Ana Olivera, declared Debra Lee Fader, the mayor of Montevideo, Minnesota (pop. 5,331), a distinguished visitor.

The historic meeting, sparked by Uruguay's outstanding consul general in Chicago, Dr. Nury Bauzan, who has made numerous visits to Minnesota, marks the first time in nearly 40 years that the mayors of the sister cities have met in person.

Minnesota-Uruguay Partners helped underwrite Mayor Fader's visit to Uruguay, through a travel grant awarded by Partners of the Americas' culture and education program in Washington.

Nahir Lois, a board director of Partners of the Americas, was quoted in this piece by the EFE news agency, which was reprinted widely in the Spanish-speaking press beyond Uruguay (Mexico, Chile, Spain etc). The widest-circulation newspaper in Uruguay, El Pais, also ran a lengthy piece about the visit, featuring an interview with the mayor. And El Observador also ran a nice article about the visit.