Festival Internacional de Arte Naif Bayamo

Cuban naif and primitivist painting has documented roots reaching back to the 1940s, and Bayamo's Casa de Cultura 20 de Octubre has hosted recurring exhibitions in this style, including retrospectives of painters such as Cenia Escalona Borja and sculptor Felipe Guillen. A festival specifically branded Festival Internacional de Arte Naif and based in Bayamo, distinct from these exhibitions and the regional Grupo Bayate naif art initiative, could not be independently confirmed with its own founding date or international programme.

Naif or primitivist painting, the self-taught, academically untrained artistic style pioneered internationally by figures such as Henri Rousseau and Grandma Moses, has a documented history in Cuba reaching back to the 1940s, and Bayamo specifically has hosted recurring exhibitions of naif and primitivist work at its Casa de Cultura 20 de Octubre, including a substantial retrospective of painter Cenia Escalona Borja's work under the title Alma Sonadora and a personal exhibition by primitivist sculptor Felipe Guillen showcasing more than three decades of his output in wood.