President Barack Obama has been under fire by politicians following his recent announcement that he will be traveling to Cuba in March - the first American president to do so in nearly 90 years. Obama says the trip is to help further his efforts to restore diplomatic relations with the country.
We spoke to one Bluffton art professor who recently visited Cuba for a documentary on local artists, whose work questions government policies. The professor says he thinks opening up the economy with America will not only help businesses there, but also help the arts.
"They have a good education system. They have a good health care system. It's just the political end of it that is a bit oppressive, and as long as that is still there, they are going to keep making, they'll be dissident artists, writers, they'll still exist until that oppression ends, and hopefully it will through opening up," Philip Sugden, assistant fine arts professor at Bluffton University, said.
He says all the people he spoke with on his trip were excited about opening up their economy with the United States.
