| Press
Releases:
September,
2003
September, 2002
February 16, 2000
October 25, 2000
March 7, 2001
October 20, 2001
Company Background
Founder's Bio
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: L. Rosario 847-733-9510
September
16,2003
Evanston, IL
In
commemoration of this year’s Hispanic Heritage Month, El Coqui
Galleries is pleased to announce two major art events:
Puerto Rican Saint Carving:
Art and Religion at The Field Museum
of Natural History 1400 S. Lake Shore Dr., Chicago, Illinois on
October 17th and 18th, and De Papel
y Tela: A Latin and
Caribbean Art Show,
a fabric and print art exhibit at the Noyes Cultural Arts Center
Gallery in Evanston, Illinois on October 1st through October 31st,
2003.
Saint
Carving is one the most recognized authentic art forms from Puerto Rico.
El Coqui Galleries partnered with the prestigious The
Field Museum to present saint carver master, Luis Nieves, Pichilo.
In this lecture and exhibition, Puerto Rican Saint
Carving: Art and Religion,
Pichillo will create colorful, 3-dimensional spiritual scenes
filled with vibrancy and emotion. He’ll
explain the techniques, tools and cultural significance of this fine art
form. The event will take place at The Field Museum
on Friday, October 17th at 11:00a.m. and on Saturday, October
18th at 12:30pm.
El
Coqui Galleries, in conjunction with the City of Evanston Cultural Arts
Division and with the help of The Rotary Club, will present
De Papel y Tela: A
Latin and Caribbean Art Show,
a fabric and print art exhibit as part of the first Latin and
Caribbean Day during Evanston 3rd Annual Arts Week.
The main event will take place on Tuesday, October 14, 2003, 5-9pm.
at the Noyes Cultural Arts Center. Music
will complement the evening. This
fine and innovative art exhibit will go through October 31, 2003 at the
Noyes Gallery located on 927
Noyes St. by the “EL” Station. Artwork
from over eight countries will be featured, including colorful Serigraphs,
Cuban Grabado, Mexican Amate, Panamanian Molas, Haitian Flags and much
more. Chai curated the show.
“Latin
and Caribbean art is booming”, says Loida Rosario, owner of El Coqui
Galleries. “Museums from
coast to coast are rushing to feature the works from famed Hispanic
artists”. In
these events the public will get an appreciation of some of the many rich
and fine arts forms as well as the cultural bonds that inspires them.
For
more information call 847-733-9510, email elcoquigifts@attglobal.net
or visit online at
********
September
12, 2002
For
Immediate Release
Contact:
Loida Rosario, 847-733-9510
Faces
of the Americas – Mask Show Opens on October 4th, 2002
Evanston, Illinois. Faces
of the Americas, an art show featuring masks from Latin America
and the Caribbean will open on Friday, October 4th through
December 21st, at the C.G. Jung Institute of Chicago located on
1567 Maple Avenue in Evanston, Illinois.
The show is open to the public from 10:00a.m.-5:00p.m. Monday
through Friday, and Saturdays 10:00a.m.-2:00p.m.
The artists reception is scheduled for Friday, October 18th,
2002, from 5:00p.m. -7:00pm. Loida
Rosario, owner of El Coqui Galleries, is the curator for the show.
At the show
you’ll travel through the carnivals and festivals of Latin America and
the Caribbean. In this
contemporary yet surreal mask show you’ll see works from Borucan Indians
from Costa Rica, Huichol Indians from Jalisco, Mexico and the Chiriguanos
from Argentina. You will take
an imaginary trip through the Montecristi Festival in the Dominican
Republic, the Carnaval de Oruro in
Bolivia or the famous Carnaval de Ponce, Puerto Rico.
Fernando
Luis Lopez Perez’s works, a master mask-maker, will be featured. He is
an artist who has
both enhanced and challenged mask-making art by letting his spirit and
artistic magic evolve into new versions of mask art that go beyond the
established. "No se puede limitar su imaginacion artistica
cuando no tiene limites", Fernando explains ("You cannot limit
artistic imagination since it has no limits").
The goal of the
show is to open the doors to a world of artists who are striving to keep
centuries- old traditions alive as well as those who have transcended
traditional mask making into a sophisticated art form.
Faces of the Americas
is a festival to your senses and imagination.
For registration and
information please visit http://www.elcoquigifts.com/registerevents.asp
or
February
16, 2000
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 16, 2000
CONTACT: Loida Rosario at (847)
733-9510
First was Salsa, then La Vida
Loca, and now....ElCoqui!
Evanston, IL. Taking advantage
of the rich heritage of the many countries and different villages in Latin America, ElCoquiGifts.com,
a new e-venture, opened today its multicultural web site featuring artesanias
(folk art). Named for the singing tree frog of Puerto Rico, ElCoqui offers
handmade, one-of-a-kind works of art, each one with a fascinating story to tell! For
example,
- Oaxacan
Woodcarving: Fun and exuberant figures of animals, people-animals and angels
made by farmers from the State of Oaxaca, Mexico.
- Tigua
Paintings: Multicolored scenic, hand-carved and painted miniature tables and
decorative dishes from the village of Tigua in Ecuador.
- Vejigantes:
Exotic papier-mâché, gourd and coconut masks and figurines of the Carnival characters of
Puerto Rico.
ElCoquiGifts.com
wants to share the story and beauty of artesanias (folk art) from Latin
America. We use web technology to make available exotic, original and hand-made works of
art from Indian groups, remote villages and artisans that would be hard to find otherwise.
The site will take requests from our customers to find a specific category of native art
from Latin America, and several of our artisans will custom-make an item.
ElCoquiGifts.com
provides a virtual gallery environment for folk artisans to show their works. Kenneth
A. Melendez, a popular mask-maker and musician from Ponce, Puerto Rico is an example. He
exhibited at the Smithsonian Museum, the Festival Mundial de Folklore (World Folklore
Festival) and is well-known in his native town for his picturesque masks and workshops
introducing children to the art of mask-making. And yet, anyone who may have an interest
in masks may not have been able to find his works until today.
"We do not want to change the
way artisans do their work, creating pieces one at thetime and keeping up with their
traditions and artistic inspirations. We are leveraging web technology to offer individual
pieces of art to individual consumers around the world. Furthermore, by reaching
into culturally rich, yet economically poor regions, we are helping the hard working
artists from the country of origin" said Loida Rosario, president and founder of ElCoquiGifts.com.
The market is ready for this
business. There is:
- increased interest in
multiculturalism
- a growing desire for
‘uniqueness’
- demographics: rapid growth of
populations with multicultural backgrounds and increased immigration around the world
Based on these trends, ElCoquiGifts.com
is dedicated to finding and providing unique expressions of the rich cultures among us and
educating the customer about their history.
ElCoquiGifts.com
plans to expand to other Latin American countries and to add additional lines of
folk art and fine art. The site will be translated to Spanish, Japanese and German and
will be part of international web portals. The URL is www.ElCoquiGifts.com.
CONTACT:
Loida Rosario, President
ElCoquiGifts.com Inc.
t (847) 733-9510
f (847) 733-9512
elcoquigifts@ibm.net
October 25, 2000
Top
Discovering cultures through their arts: Voodoo art from
ElCoquiGalleries.com
EVANSTON, IL - ElCoquiGifts.com,
a new Internet venture, announced today the changing of its name to ElCoquiGalleries.com
to better reflect the mission of the business.
Named for the singing frog of Puerto Rico, ElCoqui’s mission is
to promote and share the beauty and richness of Latin and Caribbean cultures through their
arts.
In that spirit, ElCoquiGalleries.com
announced the addition of fine Haitian Voodoo Art - Sequined Flag Art and Blacksmiths
Sculptures. When forbidden to practice Voodoo
by the French, Haitians incorporated images of the Catholic saints into their own, so that
they could continue worshipping their own gods. This
mix of Christian and African rituals, of saints and spirits, combined with a high degree
of artistic skills and resourcefulness, gave birth to Voodoo-inspired art. Collectors and art-lovers around the world are
starting to discover the beauty of Haitian sequined art, which was originally used in
praying. Each cloth is hand-stitched with
more than 20,000 of sequins and glass beads. ElCoquiGalleries.com presents sequined flags and metal sculptures from
top artists such as Yves Telemak, Eviland
Lanne, Roland Rockville, and John Sylvestre.
“At ElCoquiGalleries
we offer one-of-a-kind artwork, with a window to the artist, his or her culture and their country to provide an enriching web
experience,” said Loida Rosario, founder & CEO.
A visit to the site is a voyage through time, places, and artistic expression. New vocabulary and artistic techniques are
explored: Tigua paintings (Ecuador), Tagua
Carvings (Ecuador), Vejigante Masks (Puerto Rico), Damasquinados (Spain),
Barro Negro (Mexico) …unique art forms to be discovered.
ElCoquiGalleries.com plans
to expand to other parts of the world in their quest to uncover rich forms of art from
many cultures, sharing their experiences, while also helping the artisans in their
artistic and economic endeavors.
The URL is http://www.elcoquigalleries.com/ or for easy
spelling type http://www.thelatinarts.com/ .
ElCoquiGifts.com, Inc.
1840 Oak St. S 127
Evanston, IL 60201
Tel. 847-733-9510
Fax 847-733-9512
March 7, 2001
Top
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 7, 2001
CONTACT: Loida Rosario at (847) 733-9510
Sharing the Culture, Sharing the
Arts…and Sharing the Dollars
Evanston, IL
ElCoquiGalleries.com, on-line galleries for Latin and Caribbean art, announced today a new
program donating a percentage of their sales to communities in need from partner
artists. In addition, ElCoquiGalleries.com is
introducing original prints and paintings from Cuba and Puerto Rico in their fine art
exhibit section.
The vision of the company is three-pronged: 1) to share the richness of Latin and Caribbean
cultures through their arts, 2) to foster authentic art expressions, 3) and to support artists and their communities.
The latter objective is formalized today by creating a program that sets aside a
percentage of revenue from all sales to donate to artists and artisans’ communities
in need. Currently, the company plans to work
with church groups in Ecuador, Mexico and Haiti to ensure the highest impact of the
donations to specific communities.
“In working closely
with artists, it has been rewarding to see that they are using their art to significantly
improve the standard of living for themselves and their families, especially in distressed
areas of Latin America”, expressed Loida Rosario, founder of ElCoquiGalleries.com. “We have artisans, like Jose Cotecachi from
Ecuador, who is the only one in this community that has electricity, which he can now
afford.”
ElCoquiGalleries.com also features well-known
international artists. Today, the Company is introducing fine prints and paintings from
artists in Puerto Rico and Cuba. For example, Alfonso Arana, a Puerto Rican
artist who now resides in Paris, has obtained international fame for his art and for
creating a foundation to expose young artists to artistic experiences otherwise not
available to them. The Company is also
introducing fine oil paintings from Carlos Rene Aguilera Tamayo, (Cuban) who has exhibited
in Soho, N.Y., France and across Latin America.
Additional new artists include: Joaquin
Tinta (Ecuador), Orlando Vallejo (Puerto Rico), Isolina Limonta, (Cuba), Claudia Garcia
(Colombia) and others.
As a supplement to the historical and cultural background of the
many unique forms of artwork, ElCoquiGalleries.com is unveiling its first
mini-documentary: Land of Vejigantes. The easily viewable document tells the story and
process of this exotic mask making art rooted in the Carnivals of Puerto Rico. Type A Multimedia Network (www.typea.net), a local
e-learning developer, produced the piece.
Effective immediately every dollar spent in ElCoquiGalleries.com
will be shared with communities in need in Latin America and the Caribbean. For more information about the program call toll
free 1-877-610-4920.
CONTACT INFORMATION:
Loida Rosario, Founder &
CEO
www.ElCoquiGalleries.com
P 847-733-9510, f 847-733-9512
elcoquigifts@attglobal.net
1840 Oak St. S 127
Evanston, IL 60201
ElCoquiGalleries.com is a new venture dedicated to
sharing and promoting the visual arts of Latin America and the Caribbean. ElCoquiGalleries.com sells one-of-a-kind
functional and decorative art from Ecuador, Venezuela, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Haiti, Costa
Rica, Spain, Colombia, and Cuba and continues to expand to other countries.
Type A is one of Chicago¹s most
promising new e-learning developers. In less than two years, Type A has built a portfolio
of over 30 clients, including such well-known firms as General Motors, Sears, and
MarchFIRST, as well as smaller firms, non-profit organizations, and academic institutions.
For more information, please contact info@typea.net,
tel. 312.274.9430.
Contact:
Anna Belyaev, Managing Member
Type A Multimedia Network LLC
434 W. Ontario St. Suite 300
Chicago, IL 60610
312.274.9431, www.typea.net
October 20, 2001
Top
FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 20, 2001
Contact: Loida Rosario,
Tel. 847-733-9510
EL
COQUI GALLERIES HOSTS PERUVIAN ARTISTS AS PART OF FIELD MUSEUM'S LATIN AMERICAN HERITAGE
FESTIVAL
A Latin American
cultural arts collaboration between The Field Museum and Evanston-based El Coqui
Galleries, will bring two Peruvian artists to Chicago to take part in the Field Museum's
Latin American heritage festival, Celebracion 2001. Ceramic artist Zoyla Escobar, a Shipibo Indian
from the remote Amazonian region of Peru, will discuss her home and its people and will
demonstrate her tribe's unique centuries-old process of making ceramics on Saturday,
October 6th at 3 p.m. Textile
artist, Nilda Callanuapa, founder of the Peru Center for Indigenous Textiles, will be the
featured lecturer at the Field Museum on Sunday, October 7th at 11 a.m. Both lectures will be held in the upper level
Marae Gallery. The 4-day festival celebrates
the history and diversity of Latin culture, and begins Thursday, October 4th
and runs through Sunday, October 7th at the Field Museum of Chicago.
ElCoquiGalleries will feature the work of Peruvian textile artist Nilda
Callanuapa and of ceramic artist Zoyla Escobar at its one-line gallery website of Latin
American and Caribbean art. El Coqui
Galleries is designed to educate and to promote arts with a strong cultural heritage,
which led to the business's hosting the two Peruvian artists in conjunction with the
Field Museum and its Celebracion 2001. Nilda Callanuapa is a
third-generation artist who has learned her craft from her mother and her community, and
its preserving the creative process through her Center of Indigenous Textiles located in
the Peruvian village of Chinchero in the ancient Inca capital of Cusco. Zoyla Escobar has been creating fine ceramics for
over thirty years without the use of traditional pottery wheels, but rather by using a
method passed down through generations of Shipibo Indians.
Visitors to Celebracion 2001 may view of works of both
lecturing artists in a special display in Stanley Field Hall during the regular festival
hours or on www.ElCoquiGalleries.com.
FOR ADDITIONAL
INFORMATION:
Loida Rosario,
Founder & CEO
ElCoquiGalleries.com
Tel. 847-733-9510 Fax. 847-733-9512
Email elcoquigifts@attglobal.net
COMPANY
BACKGROUND: Top
History: Start-up
e-commerce venture incorporated in Illinois. Our business grew out of the love and
appreciation for the rich cultures of many lands. Our first site, www.ElCoquiGifts.com,
presents unique gifts and decorations hand made by artisans from Latin America, and shares
highlights of the story behind each piece of art . The name, pronounced
ko-kee, comes from a tiny, singing tree frog endemic to Puerto Rico. In October,
2000 we changed the named of our first site to http://www.elcoquigalleries.com/
to better reflect the mission of the company.
Mission: Our vision
is to become the premier provider of fine, original folk art and accessories from around
the world. Our mission is to enrich lives through learning and sharing of
the many cultures through the arts from around the world, starting with Latin America.
Key Strategies:
- Markets:
Primary: Fine and folk art lovers from the U.S. market. Secondary: Latino consumers
from the Americas.
- Financing:
Self-funded, evaluation of investors in 4Q00 to fund expansion plans.
- Merchandise: High
quality, hand-made folk art from top artisans of each country by leveraging network of
suppliers and by custom-ordering directly from selected artisans. 2Q00, addition of
galleries for well-known Hispanic artists. More planned for the future.
- Expansion:
Additional categories of folk art and two more countries 4Q00. Multilingual version for
the near future.
FOUNDER'S BIO: Top
Loida Rosario is currently the Founder
and Chairperson of ElCoquiGalleries.com, an Internet venture that opened in 2000. Previously,
Loida Rosario was a Global Account
Manager with responsibility for a $30M market of communications
and information services at AT&T. During
her tenure at AT&T, Loida was promoted through positions in Product Management, Market
Management and Sales Management.
She was born and raised in San Juan,
Puerto Rico where she worked with American, Spanish and Mexican companies in the areas of
consumer marketing and insurance. Loida
has an MBA from the University of Illinois with concentrations in Marketing and Finance,
and a minor in International business. She
graduated Magna Cum Laude, Honors College, and was selected Marketing Student of the Year.
Loida is also a leader in the community. She is a member of the Daniel Murphy Scholarship
Foundation Board of Directors, and Co-Chair, Corporate Advisory Board of the National
Society of Hispanic MBAs. She has been
a leader in promoting education among the Hispanic youth.
She co-founded the Summer Enrichment Program sponsored by NSHMBA and has spoken at
several public schools in the Chicago area, at the National Council of La Raza Conference,
and the US Railroad Retirement Board. Loida
was a part-time professor of Strategic Marketing at Northeastern University. Loida is also member of the PTA and a volunteer
AYSO Soccer Coach.
As a founder of ElCoquiGalleries.com
Loida has been featured in TV Shows Tapestry, CBS and Careers, Channel 21. She was a guest speaker at Crain's Chicago Business
Small Business Series, Woman's Business Development Center Conference, and
webgrrls-Chicago.
Loida is married, and lives in Illinois
with her two young children.
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