Costa Rican artists are gearing up to exhibit their work in Chile in August as part of an event organized by the Foreign Trade Promotion Office (PROCOMER) and the Culture Ministry to promote Tico culture abroad.

The exhibit, called “The Possibilities of Expression: Representations of Costa Rican Art,” is scheduled to run from Aug. 23 to Oct. 7 at the Contemporary Art Museum in Santiago. Works from the 19 th, 20 th and 21 st century by artists including Adrián Arguedas, Federico Herrero and Joaquín Rodríguez are among those that will be on display.

The event is part of a seminar on investment opportunities in Costa Rica, which is scheduled for Aug. 20-24 in Santiago to create new markets for Costa Rican exporters and promote Chilean investment here.

The seminar will also include an exhibit of Costa Rican products available for export such as prepared foods, chemicals, pharmaceuticals and software.

Foreign Trade Minister Marco Vinicio Ruiz, Culture Minister María Elena Carballo, PROCOMER general manager Martín Zúñiga and Costa Rican Art Museum director Gabriela Sáenz plan to travel to Chile to attend the event.

In 2006, Costa Rica exported $14.8 million worth of goods to Chile including medicines, food preparations, aluminum sheets and textiles and imported $217.2 million worth of goods from that country including copper wire, plastic sheets, apples and wine.