PAMAR Appoints Jan Hanvik as Executive Director

PAMAR - Pan American Art Research Inc. - announces the return of Jan Hanvik as Executive Director. Pianist Polly Ferman, Uruguayan-born founder and former Executive Director, remains as Artistic Director. PAMAR also launches a relationship with Crossing Bridges LLC, formed by Hanvik and Dominican Fabiola Goris to foment creative tourism among the Americas and Iberia. PAMAR's mission is to promote & preserve the rich cultural heritage of Latin America, and to create awareness and appreciation of Latin American music, dance, and visual arts, by showcasing art representative of or influenced by Latin America. PAMAR does this through: Latin American Cultural Week every November in New York City; the Washington Heights/Inwood Project, promoting events in community venues in northern Manhattan; and the program A Musical Journey through Latin America in NYC public schools.

Crossing Bridges focuses on networking artist residencies, including new ones in indigenous regions, in the Americas and Iberia; tailoring creative tourism packages for arts aficionados visiting those regions; and working with university "study abroad" programs for cultural tours. The hybrid, symbiotic model aims to limit dependency of the social impact (not-for-profit) arm on traditional models of not-for-profit management. Details on websites www.pamar.org and www.crossingbridges.nyc launching May, 2017.

Jan Hanvik was Executive Director of PAMAR 1986-2002. From 2008-2016 he was Executive Director of Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural and Educational Center, Manhattan. Accomplishments include $750K in Lower Manhattan Development Corporation grants for a Master Plan and Architectural Design; Best Business in Service to Community by the City Council's Black, Latino, & Asian Caucus; $26M capital funding; The Cultural Community Resources Guide; $150K from Regional Economic Development Council for Lower East Side Arts Jobs Training Program. 2002-2008 he was Executive Director of Columbia County Council on the Arts. Two accomplishments were the Hudson Valley Arts Education Roundtable, and Art in a Landscape, the Sculpture and Nature Tour, linking art parks. He was twice a Fulbright Scholar, El Salvador 1990-91, and Uruguay/Argentina 1999, 2001. He holds an M.A. from New York University's Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, and a B.F.A. Dance from City College. He has been site visitor/panelist for NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, National Endowment for the Arts, NYS Council on the Arts, NYSCA Regional Economic Development Council, and Chicago Cultural Center. He is on the Arts Task Force of Northern Manhattan Agenda.

Polly Ferman, Founder and Artistic Director of PAMAR, was heralded by the Japan Times as Musical Ambassador of the Americas. She has been soloist with innumerable symphonies and in recitals in the great halls of the U.S., Europe, Latin America, and Asia. She founded NYC's only ongoing tango festival, Shall We Tango. www.shallwetango.com. She created, directs and performs with GlamourTango, a multimedia music and dance show celebrating Women in Tango. She is featured in a 2005 PBS documentary Tango, the Spirit of Argentina and the Brazilian movie A Viuva da Rua Siria. Her recordings constitute one of the world's most extensive collections of Latin American solo piano repertoire.