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From the Collection: “Solomon” (2000) by Stan Burnside

21 October 2019 Articles

By Natalie Willis. King Solomon, the biblical king of Israel, is revered in Christianity, Judaism, Islam and Rastafarianism alike. A wealthy and wise man (the latter of which people the world over feel are missing in leadership), he was known for his sense of justice and morality, and perhaps most famously known for settling a dispute between two women who fought over the guardianship of a child. We’ve most often seen this son of David, the successor to the throne, depicted as a wizened old man with a beard, looking every inch the grandfather. Why then, do we seem to get such contrasting reactions to Stan Burnside’s “Solomon” (2000) in our space? People claim to love the large scale work or despise it. We’ve had to move it from external spaces on loan because it was seen as “too much” or disconcerting – which feels rather unsettling for our dear Gallery + Collections Assistant, Matthew Rahming, whose likeness is often compared to that of Burnside’s king. 

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Blank Canvas: October 16th, 2019, Create Space reair

17 October 2019 Podcasts

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.

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Blank Canvas: October 9th, 2019, Lynn Parotti

16 October 2019 Podcasts

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.

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Adaptability & Draughts(woman)ship: Kachelle Knowles Builds a Practice of Representation That Takes Action

14 October 2019 Articles

By Natalie Willis. We are not used to seeing ourselves outside of the lens of tourism as Bahamians. This is troublesome for a newly-independent nation not yet 50 years old, and with 200 years of tourism weighing in above our heads. The decolonial work of imaging ourselves as Bahamians (particularly as Black Bahamians) is slow-going but gaining more visibility. The representation for many of our Black non-Bahamian people of this nation is in a more dire state. These observations and lines of questioning are brought to the forefront in Kachelle Knowles’ delicate and tenderly draughted portraits of the Black Bahamian man in her body of work for “Bahamian Man Since Time,” which recently closed in the NAGB’s Project Space. In the aftermath of Hurricane Dorian and its painful shifts and turns – and in the museum’s efforts to respond appropriately to hurricane efforts, we wanted to share some words on the exhibition as it became the site of a donation centre for Equality Bahamas and Lend-A-Hand Bahamas. These works were the backdrop to so many of your efforts to assist and to be supported.

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Create Space: Art as Therapy

8 October 2019 Highlights

By Zearier E. Munroe. Exploring art materials with therapeutic thinking. Dorian was the most unnatural of natural disasters to batter this country. The hardest hit islands of Abaco and Grand Bahama will be recovering for years, but they won’t have to do it alone. In the days and weeks following the storm, the power of community and the outpouring of financial, emotional and spiritual support for those affected has been the very epitome of “Bahamas Strong.” And, in this moment of physical and emotional turmoil, the value of a safe space cannot be calculated. Understanding this, the education team at The National Art Gallery of The Bahamas (NAGB) partnered with the incomparable Art Psychotherapist, Susan Moir Mackay, a former resident of Grand Bahama for twenty years. The result of this partnership was Create Space under NAGB’s We Gatchu!: Sanctuary After The Storm initiative. The aim of Create Space was to designate and design areas where participants could explore art materials in a therapeutic way. We prioritised the creation of this space within the shelters, while we reaffirmed the availability of the NAGB property as a haven for all who are in need. As it has long been the mission of the NAGB to use the sanctuary of its halls to uplift and inspire through art. 

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Open Call for “Refuge”: The NAGB stages a call for artwork as we recover, rebuild and restore the nation’s spirit.  

7 October 2019 Opportunities

By Holly Bynoe

September 1, 2019…the day that the sky opened up and tried to swallow a country.

– Bernard Ferguson. Hurricane Dorian Was a Climate Injustice. New Yorker, September 2019

The National Art Gallery of The Bahamas acknowledges the dawning of a new chapter in our country’s history after the passage of Hurricane Dorian. Collectively we have made a decision to suspend our planned exhibition for the end of the year and rather, extend an open call to our creative community to start a larger conversation on the personal and collective impacts after the passage of the storm. This new era has led us to explore the mission of the NAGB even further and what it means to be a socially responsible institution in the age of climate crisis. We are a population on ground zero of this transformation, and as we work to regroup, reconcile and rebuild–now and into the future–the NAGB commits to providing safe space for all who rise within the nation’s borders to heal, to be seen and heard through creating.  

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Hope Is All Around Us

30 September 2019 Highlights

Bahamian and Caribbean artists from all genres are coming together to uplift The Bahamas through hurricane relief efforts post-Dorian.

By Kevanté A.C. Cash, NAGB Correspondent. It seems as though visual artist and muralist Angelika Wallace-Whitfield may have been foreshadowing with her Ninth National Exhibition (NE9) public art project: “Hope Is A Weapon.” During these trying times, the words that the artist penned to elaborate on the work finds us at a convenient moment and feels all too real. Much like the pressing issue placed on the backs of our nation’s leaders, Bahamians who have not been severely affected by the storm and the global world who is watching.

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Blank Canvas: September 25th, 2019, Create Space

26 September 2019 Podcasts

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.

Learn more