Havana, Cuba.- The San Alejandro Academy of Fine Arts, in this capital, is celebrating the 205th anniversary of its foundation on Thursday with a cultural gala in which students from the National Art Schools will participate.

An exhibition of paintings, engraving, and sculpture, among other disciplines, by the students of the two-hundred-year-old school will also be inaugurated in its gallery.

The Academy is the oldest fine arts school in Latin America and the second oldest educational institution in Cuba, only preceded by the University of Havana.

Founded in 1818 at the St. Augustine Convent in Old Havana, the San Alejandro academy occupied several buildings in this capital throughout the years until it was definitively established at a building in Marianao neighborhood in 1962.

After the triumph of the Revolution, in 1959, the study plans were expanded with new contents in arts and humanities that turned the institution into a teaching model and a national methodological center.