A partnership between the NAGB and Guardian Radio, NAGB’s Blank Canvas promises lively discussion on emerging and experimental art, the artistic process and contemporary visual culture in The Bahamas, the wider Caribbean, and on the international stage. Host Amard Rolle speaks with guests ranging from contemporary artists, curators and writers, to collectors, patrons, and scholars from The Bahamas and overseas.
Listen to Blank Canvas on 96.9FM or at Guardian Talk Radio online.
Latest Episodes
On this week’s episode of The Blank Canvas, our host Maddie leads an inspiring discussion with Dr. Ian Bethel Bennett, the Interim Executive Director of NAGB, Dr. Nicolette Bethel, an anthropologist, essayist, poet, playwright, and theatre producer/director, and Dr. Stephen Aranha, a legal historian.
On Blank Canvas, guest host Katrina Cartwright (the NAGB’s Education and Outreach Manager) discusses the Bahamian Orange Economy, it’s connection to the Historical Jumbey Village, and the importance of the creative industries to the Bahamian identity and growth with Interim Executive Director Dr. Ian Bethell Bennet, Pat Rahming, and Arien Rolle.
On Blank Canvas, host Amard Rolle (the NAGB’s Executive Assistant) is joined by recently Vice President of the Museums Association of Caribbean (MAC) Nyasha Warren; and Dean of Liberal and Fine Arts at the University of The Bahamas, Dr. Douglas Barkey, as they discuss the upcoming MAC Conference, which will be held in Nassau, March 1-5, 2023.
On tonight’s Blank Canvas, host Amard Rolle (the NAGB’s Executive Assistant) is joined by MAC Treasurer, Susan Garcia & Board Member, Katarina Jacobson along with Bahamian Conference Hosts, Ulrich Voges of Central Bank Art Gallery and Katrina Cartwright of the NAGB to talk about the upcoming MAC 2023 Conference being held in The Bahamas.
Blank Canvas: February 1st, 2023 featuring Artist, Antonius Roberts and Curator, Dr. Krista Thompson
On tonight’s Blank Canvas, host Amard Rolle (the NAGB’s Executive Assistant) is joined by Antonius Roberts and Dr Krista Thompson, in anticipation of the opening of his retrospective exhibition this Thursday.
On today’s Blank Canvas, the show on which we discuss visual culture and creative community, your guest host Katrina Cartwright, NAGB Education and Outreach Manager is joined by TERN (Jodi Minnis, Gallery Manager), The Current at Bahamar (Averia Wright, Curator and John Cox, Creative Director) and mixed media artist Kachelle Knowles.
On today’s Blank Canvas, the show on which we discuss visual culture and creative community, your host Amard Rolle is visited by NAGB colleagues Amaani Hepburn, Curatorial Assistant and Zearier Munroe-Wilkinson, Community Outreach Officer, to discuss the new Inter-Island Traveling Exhibition (ITE), “Thirty: Island Perspectives” and its accompanying programming.
On today’s Blank Canvas, the show on which we discuss visual culture and creative community, your host Katrina Cartwright, iis joined by members of the TERN team–Amanda Coulson, Founding Director and Jodi Minnis, Gallery Manager—and artist Melissa Alcena, who is a Bahamian documentarian and fine art photographer.
On today’s Blank Canvas, the show on which we discuss visual culture and creative community, your host Katrina Cartwright, interviews John Cox (Creative Director) and Averia Wright (Curator) from The Current at Bahamar team, Richardo Barrett (NAGB Exhibition and Collections Care Associate), and artists DeDe Brown and Kachelle Knowles as they discuss the opening of ECCHO, The Current’s new museum and studio space, which will officially open to the public Thursday, October 20th.
On today’s Blank Canvas, the show on which we discuss visual culture and creative community, your Guest host Katrina Cartwright is joined in the studio by “Mercy” artists Sonia Farmer and Yasmin Glinton Poitier and curator John Cox, as they delve into this complex and thought-provoking theme and share tidbits on the show which opens October 6th, 2022.
On today’s Blank Canvas, the show on which we discuss visual culture and creative community, your host Amard Rolle share a fantastic discussion with artists Amaani Hepburn and Matthew Rahming about their contributions to “FIVE” at Tern Gallery, current trends in the Bahamian art world and upcoming shows.
On today’s Blank Canvas, the show on which we discuss visual culture and creative community, your host Diana Sands interviews BahaMian Trae, a world-class entertainer, rapper and actor around his current and upcoming projects while shedding light on the importance of including Bahamian culture in the creative community.
On this week’s “Blank Canvas”, the show in which we discuss visual culture and creative community, your hosts Diana Sands and Dr Douglas Barkey have an engaging discussion with trailblazing sculpture artist Kendra Frorup and visionary curator Averia Wright. Kendra makes history with the debut of her extraordinary exhibition, The Whimsical Collector.
On this week’s “NAGB’s Blank Canvas”, your host Amanda Coulson meets with two more artists from the current exhibition “Evolution of the Arc” at the NAGB. Elkino Dames is a painter living and working in North Andros and Sofia Whitehead is a photographer living on a boat and working throughout the archipelago.
On tonight’s “NAGB’s Blank Canvas” we meet four artists in two different exhibitions now showing in New Providence, yet the conversation seamless ties all the work together in a larger narrative around culture, its erasure and how we can address that in our practises as cultural workers, gallerists, museum professionals and artists.
On “NAGB’s Blank Canvas,” your guest host Katrina Cartwright, NAGB Education and Outreach Manager, is joined in the studio by Ulrich Voges, Curator at the Central Bank of The Bahamas and Ruthjeana Johnson, a young, upcoming artist who was one of the winners of Central Bank’s Open Category prize in 2020.
On “NAGB’s Blank Canvas,” your guest host Katrina Cartwright, NAGB Education and Outreach Manager is joined in the studio by colleague Education Officer Blake Fox who speaks to the launch of the museum’s new “Get Set For Fall” programme, the current Mixed Media Art Summer Camp exhibition and his participation in the upcoming MAC Conference 2021.
On this week’s “NAGB’s Blank Canvas,” we meet Tim Daniels, the founder and organiser of Soundwaves, a music event that has expanded into mini-cultural festivals and Fine artists Dede Brown, Jalan Harris, Dylan Miles, Justin Moultrie and Janeen Walker will be there to exhibit their work and to support the survivors through their art.
On this week’s Blank Canvas it’s about all things summer camp! Guest host Katrina Cartwright, NAGB Education and Outreach Manager, is joined by colleagues Zearier Munroe-Wilkinson, Community Outreach Officer, and Blake Fox, Education Officer, as they share insights on the museum’s upcoming Mixed Media Art Summer Camp, “Jammin’ Visuals”.
On tonight’s “NAGB’s Blank Canvas” we welcome Bahamian artist Kishan Munroe. Munroe has been most recently seen all around the island of New Providence working on project “Legend Steel”, which is the restoration of famous public sculptures, often found on public roundabouts, made by Bahamian Cultural icon Stephen G.E. Burrows.
Tonight, Bahamian artist Jeffrey Meris, will be on the “Blank Canvas” to speak about his journey from the Junkanoo shack to Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia for his Bachelors’ and from Columbia University in New York for his Master’s to recently completing the prestigious residency NXTHVN in New Haven.
The NAGB is currently closed due to COVID-19, but when the museum reopens please visit us to view the stunning “Refuge” show. Your regular host Amanda Coulson invites artistic duo, the sisters Kristin and Dede Brown, into the Blank Canvas studio to discuss their moving piece, “In the Faces of Tragedy” which is one of the showstoppers at the NAGB’s post-Hurricane Dorian exhibition.
On tonight’s Blank Canvas guest host Katrina Cartwright, NAGB Education and Outreach Manager, is joined by NAGB colleagues Natalie Willis, Assistant Curator and Blake Fox, Education Assistant. Both Willis and Fox have recently returned from North Eleuthera where, they worked with Zearier Munroe, Community Outreach Officer, to take the newest iteration of the NAGB’s Inter-Island Travelling Exhibition (ITE), “From Time: Water Has A Perfect Memory” and its accompanying programming.
On a very special Blank Canvas, your regular host Amanda Coulson (NAGB’s Executive Director, centre) gathered together all of the Grand Bahamian artists participating in the exhibition “Refuge,” currently on view at the NAGB, to give them the opportunity to speak about their work and their continued challenges post-Dorian. For listeners to understand just how complicated life still is for our creatives in the areas most badly hit, it took us about 5 weeks to organise this show!
On tonight’s Blank Canvas we learn all about this year’s “Transforming Spaces” now in its 16th year! This annual cross-island bus tour will include six spaces this year — the new Project ICE (Incubator for Creative Expression by Antonius Roberts (far left) in collaboration with Central Bank of The Bahamas (second from left: CBoB Curator, Ulrich Voges); The Current at Baha Mar, presenting artist Jodi Minnis (third from left with Natascha Vasquez-Pyfrom from The Current); the NAGB (middle: Richardo Barrett, Associate Curator and your host Amanda Coulson); the D’Aguilar Art Foundation (far right, DAF curator Tessa Whitehead), Doongalik and University of The Bahamas (UB).
On tonight’s Blank Canvas, guest host Katrina Cartwright, NAGB Education and Outreach Manager, is joined by artist Jevon Thompson and NAGB team members Romel Shearer (Project Assistant) and Zearier Munroe (Community Outreach Officer). They discuss their experiences at the museum and their participation in the NAGB’s mural programme.
On tonight’s Blank Canvas, the Executive Director, Amanda Coulson, is joined by representatives of the Bahamas Junkanoo Art & Music Festival.
Angelique McKay is the Founder and Artistic Director and she shares her artistic vision for the Bahamas Junkanoo Art & Music Festival. It must be noted that she is also the CEO and Founder of the Cacique Award-winning Junkanoo Commandos.
On tonight’s Blank Canvas, your regular host Amanda Coulson (left) catches up with Bahamian documentarian Tamika Galanis (right), who is one of the artists participating in the current exhibition “Refuge,” currently on show at the NAGB. Tamika catches us up on her artistic journey and where the archives have led her in her current research project.
On the first Blank Canvas of 2020, we host Abaconian artist, Leanne Russell, in the studio to talk about her artwork in the NAGB’s latest exhibition, “Refuge.” An open call to Bahamian artists to create works processing the events during and after Hurricane Dorian, Russell created images with archival images of the Great Abaco Hurricane of 1932 overlaid with her own documentary photos from the 2019 tragedy.
This week’s “Blank Canvas” is all about big ups to the NAGB’s awesome team! Freshly back from the installation of the latest iteration of the Inter-Island Travelling Exhibition (ITE) in Long Island, you’ll hear from (left to right) Blake Fox (NAGB’s Education Assistant); to the right regulator host Amanda Coulson (NAGB Executive Director); Amaani Hepburn (artist and regular NAGB assistant); Richardo Barrett (NAGB Associate Curator); and Zearier Munroe (NAGB Community Outreach Officer), about the challenges and rewards of taking part of the National Collection to the Family Islands.
NAGB Assistant Curator, Natalie Willis, sits in for Executive Director, Amanda Coulson, on tonight’s episode of Blank Canvas. This week, Willis speaks with artists who creatively contribute to relief efforts in Grand Bahama. She is joined by Chantal Bethel, a long-time fixture and advocate in the Grand Bahama art community, who has an exhibition and book launch that starts this Thursday at Hillside House.
On this tonight’s Blank Canvas, Amanda is joined in the studio by Bahamian artist, Kendra Frorup, a professor of Art & Design at the University of Tampa. Kendra’s focus is on the global conversation about connections and identity with a special interest in the Caribbean and Africa. She has exhibited her sculptures in the United States and in worldwide venues such as the Caribbean, France, Puerto Rico and Martinique, Ghetto Biennale, Haiti, UNESCO in Andorra, and The National Art Gallery of The Bahamas.
On this week’s show, Deime Ubani comes to speak about her own artistic practice (she currently has work at the Central Bank of The Bahamas’ Open category exhibitors) and also the importance of community and collectives working for the benefit of the people. She shares about different artist groups that she is a part of—including the SALUS Project and the Artist’s Circle—and her next group project “Black Out: Art in The Dark” at the Creative Center on the PopopStudio grounds.
On this week’s “Blank Canvas” we will reair the September 25th show featuring art therapist, Susan Moir Mackey. As part of the NAGB”s “We Gatchu: Sanctuary After the Storm” initiative, the NAGB Education team partnered with Mackey to deliver the “Create Space” initiative. These specialised art sessions were designed to release emotions or find quietness. Working with art materials after a crisis can be an excellent tool for restoring a sense of safety, connection and rebuilding agency and grounding for individuals and communities.
Lynn Parotti, a Bahamian artist, now based in London, is Amanda’s guest on “Blank Canvas” this evening. Parotti’s ancestral family, of Italian marble workers, settled in The Bahamas at the turn of the century and she was brought up close to the land and sea, which is often the subject of her deceptive artworks.
On this week’s “Blank Canvas” we’ll be talking about art therapy and how that can heal us in the difficult days after Hurricane Dorian. As part of the NAGB”s “We Gatchu: Sanctuary After the Storm” initiative, the NAGB Education team, with art therapist Susan Moir Mackay, facilitated “Create Space.” These specialised art sessions are designed to release emotions or find quietness. Working with art materials after a crisis can be an excellent tool for restoring a sense of safety, connection and rebuilding agency and grounding for individuals and communities.
On tonight’s “Blank Canvas” we invite the Smith family to speak about THE BRENTON STORY. Brenton Smith, was 17-years old in 2009, when he was shot dead by the police while walking on Village Road, apparently mistaken for another youth who had committed a robbery. His family: grandmother Shirley, father Hector and brother Bernard, are committed to maintaining the memory of a bright young man who was first and foremost innocent, as well as loyal, peaceful, loving, kind, and many other attributes.
Two emerging talents join Amanda Coulson (NAGB Executive Director) in the Blank Canvas studio tonight!
Dyah Nielson (left), who was born and raised in The Bahamas and returned home after having completed her Bachelor of Fine Arts at York University in Toronto in 2018, speaks about her journey as an artist and her current exhibition, “Love & Fear.”
By Katrina Cartwright. On the evening of Thursday, August 1st, 2019 the National Art Gallery of The Bahamas welcomed over 250 individuals to the exhibition opening reception and awards ceremony for its annual Mixed Media Art Summer Camp (MMASC). Attendees were comprised of MMASC campers and camp counsellors, their families and friends, NAGB supporters and staff who all came out to support our young budding creatives who spent 2-4 weeks during the month of July working hard to create one-of-kind artworks that spoke to the camp’s theme “Parading through the Caribbean.” Although the weather was determined to put a damper on the celebration of a major accomplishment for the campers, it could not quell their excitement and joy and the pride of their supporters. Patient parents and friends squeezed into the hot and humid confines of the NAGB’s upper veranda and clapped loudly when awards were distributed and short performances by campers and counsellors were done.
On tonight’s “Blank Canvas,” we shine a spotlight on “Women’s Wednesdays,” an initiative initiated by Equality Bahamas and is supported by the NAGB. The event has been hosted once per month on our campus for nearly two years. “Women’s Wednesdays” was founded as a response to community members’ requests for a space to access resources, experts, and practitioners, share knowledge, and engage in conversation with one another.
On tonight’s Blank Canvas, guest host Katrina Cartwright, NAGB Education and Outreach Manager, is joined by a few of the “crew” from the museum’s Mixed Media Art Summer Camp (MMASC). (L to R) Zearier Munroe, NAGB Community Outreach Officer and MMASC camp counsellors Errol Munroe and Tamia Roberts, share their experiences and thoughts on this year’s summer camp and discuss the upcoming camp exhibition opening and awards ceremony.
On tonight’s Blank Canvas, your regular host Amanda Coulson (NAGB’s Executive Director) interviews three artists from the recently formed “WE Collective,” an artists’ group that spans various nations in the Caribbean. Joining Amanda (from left to right) are Amaani Hepburn, Xan Xi, and Thomas Hairston who will—along with Eddi Zemaye (who was unable to join us)—be sharing their paintings, charcoal drawing, photographs and collage work with our local audiences at their group show, opening on Thursday 18th July, at Doongalik Studios, entitled “Self: Portrait.”
On tonight’s Blank Canvas it’s all about the NAGB’s Mixed Media Art Summer Camp (MMASC)! Guest host Katrina Cartwright, NAGB Education and Outreach Manager, is joined by (left to right) Jarrette Stubbs, MMASC instructor; Blake Fox, NAGB Education Assistant; and Ulrich Voges, Curator at The Central Bank of The Bahamas.
On this week’s Blank Canvas we host international guests visiting from the Vizcaya Museum and Gardens, located in Miami in the Coconut Grove area. As many here know, this area was settled long ago—at the turn of the 20th century—by Bahamians and the museum has traced records that show Bahamians working as both masons, domestic staff and gardeners. The question of the impact of Bahamian culture and migration on Vizcaya’s design, construction and life on the estate is intriguing.
On tonight’s Blank Canvas our host Amanda Coulson (NAGB Executive Director) is in the studio with (right to left) John Cox, Creative Art Director; Angelika Wallace-Whitfield, Curatorial Manager; and Natascha Vazquez, Programming Manager from The Current Gallery and Art Center at Bahamar. They discuss upcoming events at The Current and the overall vision of the operation to actively promote Bahamian art to both a local and international audience.
Tonight’s Blank Canvas is all about partnerships and the positive, far reaching impact collaborations can have on communities. Guest host Katrina Cartwright, NAGB Education and Outreach Manager, is joined by two representatives from Popeyes, Brand Manager Vashti Simmons and Marketing Manager AnnMarie Romer, for the first segment and for the latter segments, Matthew Rahming, Curatorial Assistant at the NAGB.
On today’s Blank Canvas, guest host Dr. Craig Smith is joined by UB english professor and poet Dr. Amatoritsero Ede, acclaimed Trinidadian poet Shivanee Ramlochan and Bahamian artist and poet Sonia Farmer. They discuss the upcoming third annual Blue Flamingo Literary Festival (BFLF) in partnership with the NAGB, which will be held at The University of The Bahamas March 21-23, 2019.
The NAGB’s Blank Canvas invites three guests into the studio—all of whom have artwork exhibited in this year’s National Exhibition, “NE9: The Fruit & the Seed”—to discuss different ideas about boundaries and public spaces and how those can be organised in such a way as to be detrimental to our continued positive growth as a society.
Blank Canvas: February 20th, 2019, Bahamas Junkanoo Art and Music Festival and “The Coloured Museum”
On tonight’s Blank Canvas guest host Katrina Cartwright, NAGB Education and Outreach Manager, is joined by two dynamic groups who are working to bring Bahamian creativity to the forefront in exciting and distinct ways.
On tonight’s Blank Canvas we focus on two events taking place over the next few days in New Providence.
First we hear from DC Pratt (second from right), the son of Bahamian artist Chan Pratt, who was a colleague of the great Eddie Minnis and painted with a similar eye for our island. Chan died at a young age and, in his desire for his father’s legacy to live on, DC created the Chan Pratt Foundation, which supports young Bahamian artists in their career path by funding a scholarship to the University of The Bahamas. The annual fundraising event, the “Chan Pratt Inspiration,” takes place at Sapodilla on West Bay Street tomorrow night from 7-10 p.m.
On Blank Canvas this week we continue a discussion around the ninth National Exhibition, “NE9: The Fruit & The Seed,” with three artists in the studio. April Bey (far right), Melissa Alcena (second from right) and Tiffany Smith (second from left) have all produced very different work—from Bey’s multimedia hand-stitched canvases, to Alcena’s portrait photographs, to Smiths’ installation—but it is all connected to ideas of identity and belonging.
On this week’s edition of NAGB’s Blank Canvas, we celebrate some of the artists in the Ninth National Exhibition (NE9). The national exhibition is held every two years and is put together from an open call for works to Bahamian artists—living nationally and internationally—or artists living and working in The Bahamas.
On tonight’s Blank Canvas, guest host NAGB Education Officer Katrina Cartwright is joined by NAGB Community Outreach Officer Abby Smith and NAGB Curatorial Intern Matthew Rahming, who share some insights into their recent professional development endeavors–Abby at History Miami in Miami, Florida and Matthew at the NAGB.
Tonight on the Blank Canvas, host Amanda Coulson, Executive Director at the NAGB, welcomes well known artist Max Taylor to the studio to discuss the upcoming exhibition “Imprint” that will be opening at Doongalik Studios on Friday, November 30th, 6 p.m.-9 p.m. Taylor has teamed up with artists Sue Katz and Kendra Frorup for what will make an interesting exhibition as they each bring their own style of printmaking to the mix.
On this week’s Blank Canvas, host Amanda Coulson is joined by artists Jodi Minnis and Angelika Wallace-Whitfield who speak to their participation in the upcoming exhibition “FOUR” at the Island House. “FOUR” is a collaboration between four young Bahamian artists, all women, who are making images of women, questioning their status in contemporary Bahamian society and mining their own growth.
On tonight’s Blank Canvas we look at museum programming from a different perspective–through the eyes of a curator. Guest host NAGB Education Officer Katrina Cartwright is joined by NAGB Assistant Curators Natalie Willis and Richardo Barrett, both of whom have worked closely with the museum’s education department on various initiatives and activities including the Inter-island Traveling Exhibition, mural programme, workshops and tours.
On “Blank Canvas,” we are celebrating women and also a series of events at Hillside House this week. On Friday evening at 6 p.m., Hillside House on Cumberland Street will host the opening of “Yin,” an exhibition by Grand Bahamian artists Chantal Bethel, Claudette Dean, Paul Boyd-Farrington, Del Foxton and Laurie Tuchel—with live music by Shelley-Carey Moxey—which speaks to the feminine and female energy. With paintings and a variety of mixed media work, this strong and inspirational group of women will speak to the re-framing of the female in the 21st century.
On tonight’s Blank Canvas NAGB Executive Director Amanda Coulson welcomes Bahamian filmmaker Travolta Cooper into the studio. They discuss the NAGB’s partnership with Cooper and “The Cinemas” for the museum’s fall Film Series, which began with “Rosemary’s Baby” in October and will continue with the critically acclaimed film “Get Out” on Thursday of this week.
Tonight on Blank Canvas, it is all about educators! Guest host NAGB Education Officer Katrina Cartwright is joined by Janice Hall, art teacher at T.G. Glover Primary and Jarette Stubbs, art education major at the University of The Bahamas. They discuss the impact several of the NAGB’s education and outreach initiatives have had on them professionally and highlight the importance of educators having access to the kinds of resources provided by national institutions like the NAGB.
On today’s Blank Canvas we pay homage to the “POTCAKE”, the latest show in the NAGB’s project space (or PS Room) and one of our Bahamian cultural icons. NAGB curators conceived an Open Call in order to both cast a wider net to meet new artists and to bring attention to our ubiquitous Royal Bahamian breed.
Bringing a bit of flair and vivacity into the Blank Canvas studio this week is vocalist and Cultural Officer at the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture Sonovia (Novie) Pierre, who, along with Katrina Cartwright, NAGB Education Officer and Abby Smith, NAGB Community Outreach Officer, joins Amanda Coulson in the Blank Canvas studio to speak about the upcoming exhibition and awards ceremony and performance for the E. Clement Bethel National Arts Festival.
Gracing us in the studio this week (you’ll get the pun in a minute..) is the artist Dwight Laadan Ferguson, who joins Amanda Coulson in the Blank Canvas studio to speak about his exhibition at Doongalik Studios entitled, “Hope and Grace.” This show was inspired by an abandoned plot of land by his house where sunflowers were growing… something that connects in a larger way to his life and practise.
Tonight on Blank Canvas, guest host Michael Edwards, Associate Professor at UB and member of the Expo2020 UB team, is filling in for our regular host Amanda Coulson. He is joined by other group members: Moriah Lightbourne (Visual Art), Ashley McClain (English), Ide Thompson (English and History) and Dr. Ian Bethell-Bennett, Associate Professor, English and Cultural Studies.
Tonight on Blank Canvas, guest host Communications-Development Officer Malika Pryor-Martin interviews with the team from ALIV about the work they are doing to bring history and The Bahamas to life via the Discover App, an augmented reality app designed for locals and visitors alike to design their very own tour or cultural experience. The map, which will soon be available in the Mixed Media Store at the NAGB, is a 2D adventure that utilizes voice, image and even video to tell the story of wonderful institutions and landmarks, like the NAGB, as well as provide a sense of what you’ll find if you venture inside.
On tonight’s Blank Canvas, guest host Malika Pryor-Martin, Communications and Development Officer for the NAGB is joined by Katrina Cartwright, NAGB Education Officer, Abby Smith, NAGB Community Outreach Officer and Reagan Farrington, UB art student and summer camp counsellor, to discuss the aftermath of the museum’s amazing Mixed Media Art Summer Camp (MMASC).
Blank Canvas this week focuses on the roving Caribbean art conference “Tilting Axis,” co-founded by current NAGB Chief Curator, Holly Bynoe (far left) and Annalee Davis, founding director of Fresh Milk, Barbados. Tilting Axis brings together artists, curators and other arts professionals from the region and diasporas to network, speak about best practices, open forums and break out sessions to troubleshoot topics ranging from curatorial practices to creative ecologies, all to better connect our region and professionalise our teams. Bynoe speaks to the meeting’s creation in 2014, and its continued development and iterations over the last four years in its various locations: Barbados, São Paulo, Miami, the Cayman Islands and most recently in the Dominican Republic.
On tonight’s show we examine two projects that aim to tell the Bahamian story from a different perspective.
First we meet portrait photographer Scharad Lightbourne who is launching “I AM WE.”, a campaign comprised of creative portraits of diverse Bahamian people, based on their background culture and life experiences.
Photography is in focus on tonight’s Blank Canvas, where we meet two young Bahamian photographers with recent exhibitions and a book publication.
Delton Barrett has his first solo show opening up at the D’Aguilar Art Foundation. Entitled “Nurture,” his portraits and conceptual works in this series try to answer questions that explore whether we are the products of nature or nurture. Delton shares how he became interested in photography as a medium and how he taught himself the techniques he uses in his craft today. Follow him on Instagram at delton_b.
On tonight’s Blank Canvas, our host Amanda Coulson, NAGB Director, welcomes Dr. Eddie Chambers into the studio.
Eddie Chambers, the son of Jamaican immigrants, was born in Wolverhampton, England. He gained his PhD from Goldsmiths College, University of London in 1998, for his study of press and other responses to the work of a new generation of Black artists in Britain, which were active during the 1980s.
With just three weeks left to prepare for this year’s Mixed Media Art Summer Camp (MMASC), the NAGB team is kicking into high gear to get everything ready for the 100 campers who will be engaging in six weeks of fun creativity between June 25th and August 3rd. The NAGB Mixed Media Art Summer Camp, revamped in 2015, serves as an access point for all kids, ages 5 to 17, to art and its history.
On tonight’s Blank Canvas, guest host Malika Pryor-Martin, Communications and Development Officer for the NAGB is joined by Katrina Cartwright, NAGB Education Officer, to discuss the amazing new theme for the museum’s Mixed Media Art Summer Camp, “Back to da Island.” Academic arts practices and techniques will be blended with and inspired by creative experiences and expressions that are uniquely Bahamian. They’ll include strawcraft, shellcraft, storytelling and even incorporate indigenous performing arts like Rake n’ Scrape and Junkanoo.
There is plenty of powerful female energy in the Blank Canvas studio tonight and children and creativity are the evening’s focus. Joining host Amanda Coulson are artist Jalan Harris (left); Krystynia Lee D’Arville, VP of Sales Marketing and Organisational Development at Furniture Plus (second from right) and Nicky Saddleton, Brand Strategist and Consultant (far right).
Amanda Coulson, NAGB Director, welcomes Bahamian legend Netica Symonette into the Blank Canvas studio, along with artist and curator Angelika Wallace-Whitfield. Angelika has recently taken up the post of Curator at Central Bank of The Bahamas and her first exhibition is a solo show with “Miss Nettie.” Miss Nettie, better know for her career as a hotelier and author, is an intuitive artist whose practice travels off the canvas and onto the walls, bedspreads, garbage cans and other household items at her Cable Beach hotel. The site itself is a “Gesamtkunstwerk,” a piece of loving sculpture that evolves every day.
On tonight’s “Blank Canvas,” NAGB Director Amanda Coulson meets with Mark Aronson, Chief Conservator at the Yale Centre for British Art, a position he has held since July 2007. Art conservation is something The Bahamas sorely needs, yet we have no professionally accredited conservators in the nation to care for any of our paintings, sculpture or other art works. Mr. Aronson is in The Bahamas to view the National Collection and to train local staff on how best to care for the works on a day-to-day basis.
On tonight’s “Blank Canvas,” Amanda Coulson (NAGB Director, far right) hears from the Bahamian artists who were asked to respond to the video and sound installation, “The Slaves’ Lament” by Scottish artist, Graham Fagen, which is currently showing at the NAGB in the exhibition entitled “We Suffer to Remain.”
We are shining the spotlight on Freeport native, artist and educator, Steffon Grant, on “Blank Canvas” this evening.
He joins host Amanda Coulson, NAGB Director, to discuss his artistic practice and share insights on his first solo exhibition “By the Way”, which is currently on view at the Melia Hotel on Cable Beach. Grant attended St. George’s High School in Freeport then moved to New Providence to attend the then-College of The Bahamas (now University of The Bahamas). He studied Mathematics and only came to art later in his college career.
By Katrina Cartwright. The National Art Gallery of The Bahamas (NAGB) is excited to announce the opening of early registration for its Mixed Media Art Summer Camp (MMASC). Now in its fourth year, the camp was started in response to the need for an arts focused camp after the FINCO Summer Art Workshop was discontinued. MMASC has been popular since its inception and has impacted the lives of over 300 students since 2014. The camp takes place between June 25th and August 3rd and is divided into two, three week sessions.
On Blank Canvas this week, we continue to highlight the exhibition currently showing at NAGB entitled “We Suffer To Remain,” which examines Scotland’s involvement in the Transatlantic Slave Trade—through an artwork by Scottish artist Graham Fagen—and its legacy, as explored in the works by Bahamian artists John Beadle, Sonia Farmer and Anina Major.
The Current at Baha Mar is back in the Blank Canvas studio!
Kevin Taylor (filmmaker, far left), Jordanna Kelly (Studio and Gallery Manager, second from right) and Keith Thompson (Studio and Gallery Coordinator, far right) speak with Amanda Coulson (Director, NAGB) about the experience of taking The Current art gallery from Baha Mar to the VOLTA NY art fair in New York City.
On tonight’s, “Blank Canvas,” your regular host Amanda Coulson, Director of the NAGB speaks to visiting artist Graham Fagen, a Scottish artist living and working in Glasgow, Scotland. His art practice encompasses video, performance, sculpture, sound and text. His work reflects on how contemporary identity and its associated myths and fictions, can be expressed and understood and his portraits of real, imagined, historical and contemporary characters explore the idea of identity and performance in portraiture.
On this week’s “Blank Canvas” we are hosting an array of folks representing our local art scene, who are all working on the 14th edition of “Transforming Spaces,” the annual art bus tour, taking place on Saturday and Sunday, March 17 and 18. Four galleries are represented this year: D’Aguilar Art Foundation (DAF), Doongalik Studios, Hillside House, and for the very first time, The Current at Baha Mar.
International guests are coming all the way to The Bahamas to appear on “NAGB’s Blank Canvas” … and to check out our art scene.
This week we welcome long-time self-described “art lover” Steve Shane. While owning artworks that surely number in the hundreds, Shane considers himself more an art historian and does not like to be referred to as a “collector.”
Joining host Amanda Coulson on this week’s “Blank Canvas,” are students from the University of The Bahamas (UB) who are reviving the “Tamarind Journal.” The “Tamarind Journal” was started several years ago by professors at The College of The Bahamas but unfortunately, did not continue. Co-editors Suhayla Hepburn, Tanicia Pratt and Ide Amari Thompson – who are also members of the “Tingum Collective,” a group of young poets out of UB – have bravely taken on the challenge of relaunching this journal that provides a platform for writers to share their work with a wider audience.
It’s all about being “Tru-Tru” on this week’s “Blank Canvas.” In the studio with Amanda are (left) Suzanne Pattusch, the Executive Vice President of the Bahamas Hotel and Tourism Association (BHTA) and (right) Angelique McKay, Founder and CEO of the Junkanoo Commandoes, talking about the upcoming “Tru-Tru Bahamian Festival” that takes place at John Watlings Distillery on Delancy Street, Saturday and Sunday, February 3rd and 4th, 2018.
On this evening’s “ Blank Canvas,” your host Amanda Coulson (NAGB Director) is joined by Tamika Galanis, a documentarian and multimedia visual artist. A Bahamian native, Tamika’s work examines the complexities of living in a place shrouded in tourism’s ideal during the age of climate concerns. Emphasizing the importance of Bahamian cultural identity for cultural preservation, Tamika documents aspects of Bahamian life not curated for tourist consumption, to intervene in the historical archive.
The Blank Canvas is extremely excited to welcome Mr. Bill Strickland to The Bahamas and into the studio. Bill is a community leader, author, and the President and CEO of the non-profit Manchester Bidwell Corporation based in Pittsburgh. The company’s subsidiaries, the Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild and Bidwell Training Center, work with disadvantaged and at-risk youth through involvement with the arts and provide job training for adults, respectively.
Today on Blank Canvas, NAGB Communications and Development Officer Malika Pryor-Martin fills in for our regular host Amanda Coulson. She is joined by artists Jace McKinney and Steven Schmid, who are two of 33 artists whose work is showcased in the upcoming exhibition “Medium: Practices and Routes of Spirituality and Mysticism,” which is opening on Thursday, December 14th at 6pm.
Today on “Blank Canvas,” host Amanda Coulson is joined by returning guests Michael Edwards, UB Art Faculty and co-host of “Blueprint for Change” and Dr. Ian Bethell-Bennett, Associate Professor at the University of The Bahamas, who expound on Expo 2020 Dubai and the opportunities afforded young Bahamians through this initiative.
It’s an all-female cast in the “Blank Canvas” studio this week. Joining your regular host, NAGB Director Amanda Coulson, are Lauren Holowesko, Director of The Island House boutique hotel on the West End of New Providence (left), and Natascha Vasquez (right), the Creative Arts Programming Manager at The Current, studio and gallery at Bahamar. Natascha is also a painter who is having her first solo show at home in The Bahamas at The Island House this Friday, December 1st.
On this week’s “Blank Canvas,” we have the opportunity to learn more about the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and their activities in The Bahamas and the region through Gevon Moss, their local Civil Society Liaison and Resource Planner. Aside from their general activities, he’ll speak to their recent annual meeting in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, from November 8-9, examining sustainable development in the region.
On tonight’s “Blank Canvas,” joining host Amanda Coulson are Allan Jones, an emerging creative and photographer whose exhibition, A Gull’s Eye View, is on view until November 19th at the University of The Bahamas (UB); Suhayla Hepburn, a UB English Major, who will be participating in a Poetry Night as part of the End of Year Show collaboration; Keisha Oliver, UB Assistant Professor, who has been coordinating and promoting the Pro Gallery; and Matthew Rahming, a UB Art Major who has been assisting with installations at the Pro Gallery.
Joining us on this week’s “Blank Canvas” is curator Marina Reyes Franco from Puerto Rico, who is currently traveling around different nations in the region as this year’s recipient of the 2017 Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros (CPPC) Travel Award for Central America and the Caribbean, a joint effort between the CPPC Travel Award and Independent Curators International (ICI).
On tonight’s “Blank Canvas,” we re-visit with young Bahamian photographer, Melissa Alcena. Alcena has already made a strong impression on the local art scene, with her involvement in the recent exhibition at the D’Aguilar Art Foundation in the group show “Diversions,” which is on view until November 7th. She now embarks on, “Some (re)assembly required,” her first solo exhibition in The Bahamas at the NAGB’s Project Space, where visitors can get a deeper understanding of her photography practise.
Returning to “Blank Canvas” are two young Bahamian artists who, until now, have been known as ceramicists. Averia Wright, completed her BFA in Ceramics at the University of Tampa, returned home to work at the NAGB for 4 years as an Assistant Curator, and is now completing her masters (MFA) in “Expanded Practice” at Ohio University. Spurgeonique Morley received a BA in Art Education from UB and was one of the first year of graduates under the newly-formed university. As a practicing artist she has presented at the NAGB, in Transforming Spaces and at Hillside House, among other locations.
Tonight’s “Blank Canvas” sees Bahamian artist, Dede Brown (left), in conversation with Dominican-American artist, Joiri Minaya (right), her collaborator on the next NAGB exhibition, “Double Dutch: Re : Encounter.” The NAGB’s Double Dutch series was conceived as a way to bridge our regional divides, by bringing artists from the region and diaspora together to produce provocative bodies of work through collaboration and exchange.
On this week’s Blank Canvas, we expand into the wider creative community by speaking with a group of young poets from the University of The Bahamas (UB). The “Tingum Collective” is a group born from a creative writing class at UB under Assistant Professor Tiffany Austin (third from left), who visits us in the studio with her group to speak about the power of the spoken word.
On this week’s “Blank Canvas,” Amanda is visited in the studio by Bahamian artist Lavar Munroe.
Born and raised in Grant’s Town, Munroe has been moving from strength-to-strength on the global stage and is well-known in international art circles, having participated in the prestigious Venice Biennale, as well as having had museum and gallery shows. He studied at SCAD (Savannah College of Art and Design) and completed a Masters at Washington University in St. Louis in 2013. Since then he has had a studio practice based largely in the United States.
On today’s Blank Canvas, guest host Malika Pryor-Martin, Communications & Development Officer at the NAGB, is joined by fellow colleague and Education Officer Katrina Cartwright and artist Jodi Minnis. They discuss the NAGB’s Mixed Media Summer Art Camp (MMSAC), the value of art in education and what the NAGB is doing to broaden access to art and encourage art appreciation in The Bahamas.
By Malika M Pryor. The air was filled with anticipation, impatient little legs swinging from the laps of their parents, who were awaiting the brief remarks and activity ahead. Younger siblings toddled through the centre aisle while teens, hovering in the back rows, eyed the assortment of fruits and cakes little more than an arm’s length away. The scene described would seem more fitting for a wedding but, in fact, it was the opening reception for the NAGB’s Mixed Media Summer Art Camp’s (MMSAC) 2017 Exhibition, A Journey Through Time: Telling Our Story. Taking centre stage in the cube-shaped gallery within a gallery, or Project Space (The PS), campers’ art transformed the room into a fantastic burst of colour, light and joy on Tuesday, August 1st.
On Wednesday evening’s “Blank Canvas,” as part of the NAGB’s continuing series of “Double Dutch,” your host Amanda Coulson (NAGB Director, middle) is visited in the studio by Bahamian artist Edrin Symonette (right) and Jamaican artist Leasho Johnson (left), who speak to their individual artistic practices and their collaborative exhibition, opening on Friday night at 7 p.m. “Of Skin and Sand.”
On this week’s “Blank Canvas,” NAGB Director Amanda Coulson speaks to participating artists in the ongoing photographic opus, “The Bahamian Project” (www.bahamianproject.com), the next leg of which opens on Thursday night at the Central Bank Art Gallery with the participation of 21 photographers, including Guilden M. Gilbert, Jr. (far right) who joins us in the studio tonight, along with the project’s founder/creative director Duke Wells (far left) and founder/project manager Ana-Lisa Wells (middle right).
By Malika. N Pryor-Martin. The National Art Gallery of The Bahamas’ (NAGB) Mixed Media Summer Art Camp (MMSAC), is a program designed with creativity, discovery, and fun in mind – every day. A blend of art exploration and classic camp activity, the MMSAC serves as a space where young people are learning without even knowing it. From the very youngest to the most senior participant, the goal of the camp is to encourage our campers to express the full range of their creative ideas.
Tonight’s “Blank Canvas” highlights the UB Graduate show, which is being held tomorrow night, June 22nd, at Hillside House on Cumberland Street between 6 pm to 8 pm.
Our guests are Keisha Oliver (left) Programme Coordinator for the Arts at UB; Matthew Rahming (middle right) a second year art student at UB; and Moriah Lightbourn (far right), one of the first graduates of the Art programme from the University of The Bahamas.
Joining Amanda in the studio tonight is one of The Bahamas’ foremost artists: Mr. Tyrone Ferguson. An expert in metalwork, Tyrone speaks to his discovery of his talent as a blacksmith and the young age of 14, his training and his calling. The NAGB is extremely proud to announce that the Board has sanctioned the commissioning of a monumental set of gates for the poverty on West Hill Street; the Gates Commission is currently underway and will be unveiled at the end of June.
On today’s episode of the Blank Canvas host, Amanda Coulson, is joined in the studio by NAGB Chief Curator, Holly Bynoe and practicing artist Jeffrey Meris to speak about their involvement in Übersee: Cuba and The Bahamas, Contemporary Art from the Caribbean, curated by Bynoe and Cuban independent curator, Tonel. The show is on view at Halle 14 through August 6th in Leipzig, Germany.
This week’s “Blank Canvas” hosts part of the Bahamian contingent of delegates who attended the pan-Caribbean conference for art professionals, “Tilting Axis,” hosted this year at the National Gallery of the Cayman Islands. “Tilting Axis” is a roving conference, conceived by the NAGB’s own Chief Curator, Holly Bynoe (while she was still the publisher of ARC Magazine), and Annalee Davis, Director of the Fresh Milk Art Platform in Barbados.
With less than two months left, the Education Department at The National Art Gallery of The Bahamas has accelerated preparations for the Mixed Media Summer Art Camp (MMSAC). Now in its third year, the camp was started in response to the need for an arts-focused camp after the FINCO Summer Art Workshop was discontinued. MMSAC has been popular since its inception and has impacted the lives of 220 students since 2014. The camp is divided into two, three-week sessions that take place between June 19 and July 7 and July 11 and 28, 2017.
This week’s “Blank Canvas” takes a look at fashion in The Bahamas, with studio guests including cultural producer Owen Bethel (left) and Bahamian designer Renaldo Geumm (right). Both are in the studio to talk about the upcoming event, “Islands of the World Fashion Showcase,” (ITWS) which is now in its seventh edition and will take place in the lush tropical outdoor setting of Graycliff’s Humidor Piazza on Saturday, 20th May 2017.
Let your aspiring painter embrace their inner Brent Malone at the NAGB’s Mixed Media Summer Art Camp this June and July. They will explore the world of the expressionists and impressionists, paint from observation and sample the wonderfully expressive qualities of abstract through the lens of Bahamian history.
Regular host Amanda Coulson is back from a hiatus to discuss the exhibition “Love, Loss, Life,” a retrospective of the artist Thierry Lamare who is her guest in the studio. The show gathers together artworks from over a 20 year period and allows the visitor to follow the arc of his progression, from seascapes to architecture, from watercolours on paper to his use of both canvas and wooden supports.
Curator and practicing artist John Cox stands in for our regular host Amanda Coulson and discusses with his father George V. Cox ideas around the upcoming experimental project “The Unseen Structure,” which will be on view in the ballroom of the National Art Gallery of The Bahamas from April 27 through July 2.
On this week’s Blank Canvas, we welcome our stand-in host Dr. Craig Smith, Chair of School of English at the University of The Bahamas (UB), who is spearheading the first annual UB Spring Book Fair and Literary Festival set to take place over three days starting Thursday, March 30 through Saturday, April 1st.
The Blank Canvas welcomes US Embassy Nassau’s Public Affairs Officer, Penny Rechkemmer and the winners of the MLJ Jr photo contest and Transforming Spaces founder, Jay Koment, DAF curator, Rashad Adderley, and NAGB assistant curators Natalie Willis and Richardo Willis speaking about this year’s event.
Leaving the visual arts aside for a week, the “Blank Canvas” turns to musical arts and focuses on the festival “Eleuthera All That Jazz.” The Founder and Chairwoman, Patricia Leigh-Wood, comes on the show to speak about how the event was founded and its goal: to expose more Bahamian children to world-class music and to give them the opportunity to learn about different instruments. Also joining us is musician and “Jazz Cat” Adrian D’Aguilar, who has participated in all the editions of the festival for the last six years.
This year’s National Exhibition (NE8) has extended beyond the walls of the NAGB to include another art space: Hillside House on Cumberland Street. Three of the artists from the NE8 OFFsite join the “Blank Canvas” to speak about their interventions, all of which deal with the issue of being a woman in general and in The Bahamas, specifically, post-referendum. This week we welcome, Cynthia Rahming, Natalie Willis and Alicia Wallace.
Continuing with focussing on participating artists in the latest National Exhibition, NE8, which is on show at the NAGB until April 16th, “Blank Canvas” host Amanda Coulson meets with three local practitioners, Dede Brown, Jordanna Kelly and Sue Katz-Lightbourn whose work starts with a personal idea but reflects a greater global concern.
On this week’s “Blank Canvas,” we meet Ryan Turnquest, a man drawn back to his art practise to mourn and memorialise the passing of his brother. After obtaining an Associate’s Degree in Art from the College of The Bahamas, Turnquest entered Savannah College of Art and Design in 2007 where he studied Industrial Design but left his studies early to return home to support his children and family in their business.
Continuing to focus on artists participating in this year’s NE8 (Eighth National Exhibition), NAGB’s Director, Amanda Coulson, is joined this week by artists Margot Bethel and Leanne Russell, both of whose work uses diverse materials, creating immersive or interactive pieces, both of which discuss gender roles or perceptions of gender in our society.
This evening we have a special Blank Canvas episode out of Kingston, Jamaica!! Taping in the musically historic Creative Sounds Studio on Mountain View Road (also notable as being located next to the Artist-in-Residency programme New Local Space/NLS operated by Deborah Anzinger, whose been a guest on the show!), BC host Amanda Coulson, meets with the Director of The National Art Gallery of Jamaica (NGJ), Veerle Poupeye (far left) and Trinidadian artist/curator/writer Christopher Cozier.
Taking over from our regular host, Dr. Ian Bethell-Bennett will be filling on the “Blank Canvas” to interview Charlotte Henay (left) and Dr. Angelique V. Nixon (right), who both have work in the current National Exhibition (N8), which this year includes not only visual artists but also writers and poets.
Continuing our series of shows highlighting Bahamian artists living abroad that are participating in the Eighth National Exhibition (NE8), on this week’s “Blank Canvas” show Amanda gets to listen to the stories of Steven Schmid (far left) and Giovanna Swaby (second from right), who both recently graduated with a BFA in Film, Video and Integrated Media from Emily Carr University in Vancouver, British Columbia, and Tamika Galanis, who recently graduated with a Master of Fine Arts in Documentary and Experimental Arts from Duke University.
This Wednesday’s “Blank Canvas” sees the beginning of a series of shows focussing on the participating artists in the new National Exhibition NE8, opening this Thursday evening at 6:30 p.m. at Villa Doyle (NAGB) and Hillside House on Saturday evening at 6 p.m. The Eighth National Exhibition is an exhibition featuring the works of over 60 artists, facilitators, and poets, who were asked to create work that addressed their current thoughts and discourse as citizens of The Bahamas and the world
Meet artists, Dylan Rapillard and Dede Brown, on this week’s Blank Canvas. Having just returned from a 5-month stint in Switzerland, the former Popopstudios residents join Amanda in the 96.9 studio to speak about their time in Switzerland, returning to The Bahamas, and what kind of perspective the time away has brought to their work.
On this week’s Blank Canvas, host Amanda Coulson speaks to three experts on how to engage children in the arts: Lekeisha Bostwick, Secretary to the E. Clement Bethel National Arts Festival (under the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture), and the NAGB’s most-frequent visitors 13 and under : Rashad and Valente Styles, aged 10 and 13 respectively.
The NAGB Mixed Media Summer Art Camp first session started with a bang with a diverse group of young campers, staff, and volunteers eager to learn about this year’s themes which focused on major art movements such as Abstract Expressionism, Cubism, and Impressionism. We wanted to display the importance of these movements and the impact that they have had on the Bahamian art scene, artists, and their practices.
Visit
The National Art Gallery of The Bahamas occupies the historic Villa Doyle, a colonial-era home from 1860, at the corner of West Hill and West Hill Streets, Nassau, N.P., The Bahamas.
Explore
Introduce yourself to the colourful visual culture of The Bahamas at one of the largest collections of Bahamian art in the world.
Learn
The NAGB also has an extensive public program schedule, community and regional projects and partnerships, arts education workshops and a free public art library.
Connect
With a sizable art collection and regular exhibitions, the museum provides art and artists from around the country with a definitive place of refuge.