By Megan Agnew

Michelle Wojcik knows what it is to be an island. As the owner of Galeria Cubana, the only gallery in New England to deal exclusively in contemporary Cuban art, Wojcik spends her days and nights managing every particular of her business, from hanging artwork to changing light bulbs.

"It's just completely usurped my life over the last two years," said Wojcik, of her retail venture. But hers is hardly a grousing tone. "I had never actually thought, Oh, work could be fun!"

The Lowell native has long been fascinated by Cuba. While studying for her master's degree in applied anthropology at American University, Wojcik got involved in a project with the Instituto Superior de Relaciones Internacionales in Miramar. She deepened her ties to the island nation while an assistant director to the Cuba Project at the World Policy Institute in New York from 2001 to 2004, spending a summer in Havana in 2002. (To read the article in full, click link below).