THE SAAC FINE ARTS CHILE EXPERIENCE

By Gianelle Winer

From March 19 to the 23rd, SAAC Fine Arts took place in the welcoming city of Santiago, Chile. This festival brings together students from South America (Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Chile, Peru, and Ecuador) and celebrates art, film, theater, and music. The city of Santiago is known for its mix of modernity and tradition. As students arrived, they were immediately embraced by the warmth of the culture through the opening ceremony, tasty food, and the beautiful mountain view of Santiago, which made it an unforgettable experience. One of the event's highlights was trying traditional Chilean foods. Students were treated on the second day to try empanadas de queso, crispy fried dough filled with cheese. As with sopapillas, the crispy dough is dipped in pebre (a condiment). These dishes let students experience Chile's rich flavors, helping everyone connect with the local culture. 

Picture of empanadas (Empanadas de Queso, 2024)

Picture of Sopapillas (Ramos, 2012)

The opening ceremony of Saac was another special occasion that set the tone for the event. There was an opening performance of Cueca, the national dance of Chile. Dancers in traditional attire performed this folk dance with clapping and swirling movements. 

(El Origen de La Cueca: Un Baile Lleno de Historia Y Tradición, 2024)

Throughout the week, students engaged in artistic workshops and exhibitions, exploring different forms of visual and performing arts and improving the skills they traveled for. This allowed them to understand Chile’s culture better and the differences in day-to-day life and education. This week in Santiago was about art building cross-culture bridges and fostering lifelong friendships. 

The students would come for either drama, where they would partner with a school to perform a play; music, where they would combine orchestras; film, where students would make a short film; and art, where they made paper mache sculptures and tiles. Roosevelt combined drama teams with Nido to act out the play, “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings,” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and the FDR teacher Alvaro San Roman modified it for it to be portrayed by kids. The film team from our school consisted of one person from each school, forming a team of 8 people. Here are a few pictures:

Picture of The FDR - NIDO Play

Picture of the art team making their paper -Mache sculptures

The music students take advantage of the nice weather for rehearsal!

Students would know when their classes were and when they had broken because, upon their arrival, they were all provided with a lanyard with a schedule for all three days. This is what it looked like:

Unfortunately, since the film group went to the mountains to film, there weren’t any pictures of them during their filming process. These hardworking workshops and rehearsals were worth the work and nicely concluded on the third and final day: the closing ceremony and festivals! Here, all of the films were shown, the plays were acted out, and there was a concert. After this, there was a break where students could check out the gallery upstairs, which had all of the sculptures by the art students. There was also a ‘lounge party’ before returning to the theater, where the “Spirit of Saac” award winners were given. Only two were given out of the 100+ students, and one happened to be an FDR student, Pablo Alvarez! He is a sophomore who worked on the film team and had over nine nominations from different students. This was undoubtedly a nice way to tie the bow on the whole experience, leaving a positive mark on all attendees.