Gallery Events
Art Lecture with ALISSANDRA CUMMINS
From: Thursday, August 05, 2010 6:30 PM
To: Thursday, August 05, 2010 9:00 PM
Organizer National Art Gallery of The Bahamas
Place National Art Gallery of The Bahamas
This month’s distinguished guest speaker, Alissandra Cummins, is an internationally acclaimed authority on Caribbean heritage, museum development and art. She is Director of the Barbados Museum and Historical Society and Chair of the National Art Gallery Committee of Barbados. Ms. Cummins is also the President of the International Council of Museums (ICOM), the UNESCO body with responsibility for museums, and has served UNESCO in various other high-level capacities, including as President of the International Advisory Committee of UNESCO’s Memory of the World Programme and (2007 2009) and as Chairperson of the Financial and Administrative Commission of its Executive Board.
Alissandra Cummins’ research and curatorial work, at the Barbados Museum and Historical Society and internationally, has focused on the iniquities and inequities of slavery in the West Indies. Her work as an international curator was expanded with her appointment as a member of the Advisory Committee and Guest Curator of the Atlantic Slave Trade Gallery of the National Museums and Galleries on the Merseyside in Liverpool. She has published widely on museums and on art, including the book Art in Barbados: What Kind of Mirror Image (1999), which she co-authored with Allison Thompson and Nick Whittle.
As Chairperson of the National Art Gallery Committee of Barbados since its establishment in 1989, Alissandra Cummins has led in defining new policies and programmes with respect to the exhibition, acquisition and interpretation of Barbados’ visual arts, in the development of an active conservation and documentation programme to ensure the professional management of the Barbados National Collection, and in developing strategic partnerships at the national, regional and international levels geared towards the redefining and repositioning of Caribbean curatorship.
In Ms. Cummins’ lecture, she plans to speak on Caribbean curatorship and the role of National Galleries in this field. We invite all Members and the general public to attend. Admission is free.