Frank Smith and Alison Hughes talk to Cris Gabarrón, the chairman of the Gabarrón Foundation, which this year celebrated its 20th anniversary and which is dedicated to "creating awareness through the arts." Since it was first instituted in 1992, the Gabarrón Foundation has not stopped expanding, both in Spain and abroad. Here is Spain it has centers in Salamanca, Valladolid, Murcia, and Medina del Campo and, on the other side of the Atlantic, in New York City at the Carriage House Center for the Arts, on 38th Street and Lexington Ave. Each location constitutes a landmark, an historic building. Cris is the son of Spanish painter and sculptor Cristóbal Gabarrón, and each center has exhibition space for a permanent collection of the Spanish artist, as well as galleries for on-going exhibitions by contemporary artists. The Gabarrón Foundation also sponsors its own International Awards in Visual Arts, Performing Arts, Science and Research, Literature, Sport, Economics, Thought & Humanities, Restoration and Conservation, Lifetime Achievement--in the style of Spain's Prince of Asturias Prize. And its award winners include leading figures in their fields, of the stature of the late Mexican author Carlos Fuentes, the late Spanish author Francisco Ayala, Peruvian author Mario Vargas Llosa, Slovenian philosopher and cultural critic Slavoj Zizek, German artist Markus Lüpertz, American artist Richard Serra, Spanish cyclist Miguel Indurain, Spanish tennis player Arantxa Sánchez Vicario, Greek actress Irene Papas, and many others. The Foundation's English-language webiste address is: www.gabarronfoundation.org
