Art in Havana

Fun souvenir art for tourists is available at this one-stop art and crafts market, housed in a converted warehouse on the edge of Old Havana.

This house museum, spread over 3 floors with a pleasant garden, is home to the art collection of Venezuelan artist Carmen Montilla (1944-2004) – both her own works and those donated by fellow artists.

The Fábrica de Arte Cubano is a creative powerhouse of art, photography, music and dance. All the hot stuff is inside this converted peanut oil factory with food and drinks to fuel the night. Uber popular.

In a year-long creative project, the Jaimanitas neighbourhood has been carpeted in colourful ceramic tiles by artist Jose Fuster. Look for painted plants, birds, animals and political figures amid this extraordinary artistic project. The pièce de résistance is the artist’s own house – a fairytale adventure in brilliant colours.

One of Havana’s longest established art galleries showcasing Cuban avant-garde art and international artists.

This lively month-long celebration of Cuban and Latin American art takes over Havana’s streets, plazas and galleries.

For the visitor, it offers a unique insight into contemporary art and culture in Cuba, and it’s an exciting time to be in the capital with a myriad of parties, openings, and concerts.

Highlights in previous years have included vast installation work that reflects on and critiques Cuba’s 1959 Revolution. Visiting international artists also take part.

A respected Old Havana gallery inside a converted paper factory, exhibiting must-see exhibitions of Cuban contemporary art.

Havana brims with artistic talent, and while several artists have studios in Old Havana, most of the more well-known and emerging artists have studios squirrelled away all over the city.

Sussette Martínez Montero (sussem@gmail.com), a long-time Havana art curator, has extensive contacts in the Cuban arts world and access to studios others cannot reach. She offers fully customisable half-day, full-day and up to four-day insider art tours that take visitors to the private studios of Cuba’s top painters, photographers, sculptors and installation artists.

A Havana highlight, they offer the chance to meet the artists at work, and learn about their methods, inspirations and techniques.

Havana’s Museo de Artes Decorativas is housed in a palatial mansion, built in the 1920s in Regency style, overflowing with 33,000 antiques from Tiffany glassware to Italian marble. The treasures belonged to Countess Maria Luisa Gomez Mena, sister to famous sugar king, Jose Gomez-Mena Vila, who lived here after it was built.

Cuba’s most impressive museum, housed in two separate buildings almost next to each other, showcases the best of Cuban art (in one building) from the 1600s to the modern day, and international artists over 5 art-filled floors of a second building.

An emerging district of street art, galleries and festivals in Southern Old Havana. Look out for cool street art, Galería Taller Gorría, and new bars and cafés.