Festival Aims to Expose Different Side of Tibet

The Tibet Arts and Culture Festival takes place in Somerville Friday night, and Exa Méndez, one of the festival's organizers, hopes it will expose a different side of that country.

"Every time we hear about the Tibet issue it's about politics or human rights abuses … very dense subjects," she said.

"The idea [for the festival] is for people to see different parts of Tibetan culture," she said.

The festival, which takes place at The Center for Arts at the Armory, will feature contemporary music, painting, photography, food, poetry and more: parts of Tibetan culture "people don't get to see," Méndez said.

The musicians and singers are graduates of the Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts in India. The institute was set up to keep Tibetan culture alive.

The festival celebrates contemporary Tibetan culture, Méndez said, "not just traditional religious paintings."

She said the Boston area is home to about 500 or 600 Tibetan people, which isn't a lot. The festival will allow people to "explore a different side of arts and Tibet expressions," she said.

It starts at 6 p.m.