On tonight’s “Blank Canvas,” Amanda welcomes back the original host, John Cox (Creative Art Director at Baha Mar) and his colleague at The Current, Natascha Vasquez (Creative Arts Programme Manager) to speak about the arts programme being developed at the new resort on Cable Beach.
On tomorrow night’s “Blank Canvas,” Amanda is joined in the studio by members of “Da Spot 242,” the comedy improv troupe including Garsekani Nash (far left), Erin Greene (middle), Candy Rigby (second from right) and Gianno Wallace (far right).
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.”
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.
The MMSAC is looking or two artists to conceive a mural on public and NAGB walls along with MMSAC campers. Not only will you make amazing art, you will facilitate an amazing experience for young Bahamians. The theme is ‘Tellin’ We Story: Narrating National Identity”. For more information, contact Community Outreach Officer and Camp Coordinator Abby Smith here.
Cultural heritage, shockingly, is actually not unique to or owned by a people unless it is inscribed as such. So, as a nation, we think we are the sole practitioners of Junkanoo the way we perform it on Boxing Day morning and New Year’s Day morning, however, this unique cultural relationship does not endow us, The Bahamas or the Bahamian people with the right to use Junkanoo as we wish. We do not own the practice nor do we benefit from it, despite the fact that whenever we are invited as a country to an arts or culture festival we tend to drag an entire Junkanoo group with us. The nation and the state have been historically irresponsible when it comes to officially claiming and so protecting our cultural heritage.
A sense of gloom surrounds Nassau from Above through Blue Curry’s use of black-and-white collage-styled imagery, paired with the words “Doesn’t it all look so peaceful… from up here.” We are slapped with sarcasm as these words overlay an image of Nassau seen from above through an airplane window.
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.
Lavar Munroe’s “The Migrant” is an illustrative portrayal of a spindle-legged, knock-kneed nomad carrying his home on his back. In many ways, the tale this digital print tells of the ubiquitous image of the immigrant is reminiscent of the Phil Stubbs classic song, ‘Cry of the Potcake.” The xenophobia and self-hate we deal with as a nation is quite easily summated in the lyrics of the catchy tune, “they don’t love me, they only know me when they need me,” and Munroe’s look at the struggle of the emigrant bolsters this when we think of our history as forced immigrants. For instance, can we image our Bahamas without teachers, nurses and doctors from elsewhere in the region working alongside those we consider to be ‘born’ Bahamians?
On Thursday June 8th, 7pm, Helen Klonaris will launch her debut short story collection If I Had the Wings with a reading at the National Art Gallery of the Bahamas, on West Hill Street, Nassau, Bahamas.