When NPR interviewed Pantin regarding South Florida’s ArteAméricas art fair, he took the opportunity to announce that beginning this year the event plans to invite more Spanish galleries to exhibit and join in the celebration.

Uniting art and history is one of the Foundation’s goals, and the ArteAméricas fair is the perfect platform for recalling and explaining the significance of Spain and Latin America’s artistic and cultural contributions to U.S. history, Pantin said.

During the interview, Pantin pointed out that 2013 marks the 500^thanniversary of Juan Ponce de Leon’s arrival in Florida, and that 2015 is the 450^th anniversary of the founding of St. Augustine, the oldest city in the United States.

With those dates on the horizon, ArteAméricas will start to increase the presence of Spanish art at its fair to help highlight Spain’s cultural contribution during the 300 years in which Florida lived under the Spanish flag, from 1513 to 1821.