Blank Canvas: November 8th, 2017, Marina Reyes Franco

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).

Her research focuses on the impact of post-military regimes, tourism and colonialism on art from the region and how they alter cultural production. Through her travels she is working toward research that crosses the linguistic barriers we have in the Caribbean, trying to bridge that divide between the Anglophone, Dutch, Francophone and Hispanophone Caribbean.

Her trip to Nassau was also instigated by the NAGB’s current Permanent Exhibition show “Re-Visiting an Eye for the Tropics,” which uses Bahamian art historian Dr. Krista Thompson’s seminal work as it’s jumping off point. Reyes Franco speaks to how reading this critical book changed her way of looking at how the Caribbean has been packaged and sold and was instrumental in developing her curatorial process.

Join the discussion on the “Blank Canvas,” every Wednesday evening at 6:30 p.m. on Guardian Radio 96.9 FM.