Last modified: Tuesday, June 17, 2008 2:54 AM EDT Artist Donna MacLure's "Room for Two" will be one of the paintings exhibited in Peru during the cultural exchange program. MacLure will also be traveling to Peru. (Submitted photo) Attleboro, Peru city an artsy match BY GEORGE W. RHODES SUN CHRONICLE STAFF ATTLEBORO - Mayor Kevin Dumas and seven area artists will be part of a contingent of 10 scheduled to leave for Peru Wednesday as part of a sister-city and cultural exchange program. Attleboro resident and Peru native Lucrecia Sosa organized and will lead the trip to exchange ideas on art and to bring together two places she loves, her homeland and her new land. "One of my goals has been to connect my country with the United States through Attleboro because I found great friends here," Sosa said. "I love Attleboro." Artists making the trip are to spend almost two weeks in Peru exhibiting their work in two museums and discussing it with Peruvian artists and students. One whole day will be devoted to events aimed at creating a sister-city bond between Attleboro and the city of Pueblo Libre, which is near Lima, the national capital. "It's going to be a cultural adventure," said Sosa, who has lived in Attleboro for 12 years. Sosa works as the coordinator of volunteers for the Attleboro Arts Museum, however, the trip is not a museum-sponsored event. Formally known as the Art Ambassador Cultural Exchange Program, it was organized by Sosa with the help of the Foreign Cultural Office in Peru, the U.S. Embassy, the Fulbright Foundation in Peru, the University Catolica and Peruvian artist Yvonne Garreaud. Garreaud displayed some of her work at the Attleboro Arts Museum in 2007. The trip is financed privately by the participants. But if it's successful, future exchanges could be paid for by grants from the Fulbright Foundation, Sosa said. The art will be exhibited in museums in Lima and Cuzco. Seminars are scheduled with students at Pontisicia Universidad Catolica in Lima, she said. Karole Nicholson of Cumberland, R.I., is one of the artists making the trip. Nicholson, who works at the Community VNA in Attleboro, said she aims to garner insight into how art can bring people together. "I hope to gain a greater understanding of how art can be a unifier as far as cultures are concerned," she said. Meanwhile, Dumas and his counterpart, Mayor Rafael Santos Normand of Pueblo Libre, intend to sign a sister-city agreement that will open the door to future exchanges. Peruvian artists are to come to Attleboro next year. Artists making the trip are Kerrie Bellisario, Michael Evans and Sarah Mott of Attleboro; Belinda Gabryl and Colleen Vandeventer of North Attleboro, Donna MacLure of Wrentham and Nicholson. Bellisario, an associate professor of art at Lesley University, has arranged similar exchanges with Japan and Portugal, Sosa said.