After their many experiences mounting inter-national sculpture symposiums in their hometown of Portimao on Portugal's Algarve coast, Cuneo-Sularte, the local cultural association, decided to do something different for 2008--an intimate little art and music festival at the country studio and gallery of their president, Arlindo Arez.

Arlindo is the Portuguese representative of the International Monumental Sculpture Association (AIESM) with 500 members on five continents. He has also participated in a dozen or more sculpture symposiums all over the world, from Thailand to Mexico, and including Germany, Switzerland and Serbia, among other places. "Fair enough," says Arlindo, "I've participated in a lot of art events, and I've helped mount a few, but I wasn't expecting quite so much work to put together a rustic version here in our own village of Mexilhoeira Grande. Neither was I expecting the tremendous satisfaction from bringing quality art and music to our friends and neighbors."

The Cuneo Sularte people rounded up a bit of sponsorship, some friends who were maestros in different disciplines--including Maureen Booth in printmaking, Paulo Quaresma in stone sculpture, and Álvaro Teixeira Lopes in piano, among others--and put together a program of workshops and entertainment which is turning a lot of heads these days in the south of Portugal. "They said it couldn't be done," says Arlindo. "They said nobody would drive up into the hills to see contemporary art and listen to classical music, but it turns out they were wrong. And I am delighted!