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NORTON -- Over the next two months, visitors to the Beard and Weil galleries at Wheaton College will catch an eyeful of Latin American art. But the exhibit, "Correspondences: Contemporary Art from the Coleccion Patricia Phelps de Cisneros," may also challenge some standard perceptions of what Latin American art is all about.

Wheaton art professor and gallery curator Ann Murray said many of the 34 works on exhibit are "geometric abstractions."

"It will be visually lively," said Murray, among the staff at Wheaton who have been working on the exhibit.

Cisneros is a 1969 Wheaton alumna who has long-supported Latin American art and whose Fundacion Cisneros includes international educational programs involving Latin American culture and history.

The title of the exhibition refers to the links, or correspondences, between the contemporary works in the exhibition and the works of certain modern and contemporary artists, including Alejandro Otero, Helio Oiticica, Ana Mendieta and Ernesto Neto. Styles include Madi and Arte Concreto-Invencion from Argentina, Venezuelan Kineticism, Brazilian Concretism as well as geometric abstraction.

The first-time collaboration between Wheaton and CPPC doesn't stop at the exhibition. Faculty and staff have been involved in installation of the works, the math department has developed puzzles and activities for younger visitors to the exhibit, and the college plans to introduce an art education program in local elementary schools, Murray said.

Students from the college's Hispanic studies, art history and studio arts worked with CPPC curators and educators and Wheaton faculty to write the entries, or short essays, for the exhibit catalogue. The essays were based on research conducted by Wheaton students who participated in a 2007 internship program in the offices of CPPC.

Students also created a special teachers' guide to accompany a CPPC education program called Piensa en Arte, offered in conjunction with the exhibitions of work from the collection.

"It's not just supposed to be comprehensible to adults," Murray said of the CPPC's education effort.

If you go ...

WHAT: “Correspondences: Contemporary Art from the Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros,” 34 works from many important Latin American artists of the last half-century.

WHERE: Beard and Weil galleries, Wheaton College, 26 East Main St., Norton

WHEN: Feb. 4 - April 10. Galleries are open Monday through Saturday, 12:30 to 4:30 p.m. Closed for spring break, March 7-16. To access the gallery, enter at the rear of the Watson Fine Arts building and go up a flight.

MORE INFO: For directions to the gallery and more information about the exhibit, go to wheatoncollege.edu. For more information about the Coleccion Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, the primary visual arts program of the Caracas-based Fundacion Cisneros, go to www.coleccioncisneros.org.