From Earnest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea to his less-well-known Islands in the Stream, Bimini stars as an island full of adventure, liquor and raucous living, a man’s island, where fishing and drinking go hand-in- hand. Bimini has changed little since these books were written. Cultural integrity is essential for such a world-class tiny island. It is still a place of booze and boating.
The Museums Association of the Caribbean convenes in the Cayman Islands. Sunken ships, fossilised bones, film screenings, and apps for paintings: what is the common denominator? Museums. Preservation and interpretation of our cultural artefacts offer keys to understanding ourselves as Caribbean subjects, and The Museum Association of The Caribbean (MAC) is an indicator in encouraging these conversations and practices.
Join the NAGB on October 1st from 10am – 1pm for an Arternoon (kids workshop) on making hanging ornaments made from flotsam.
The National Art Gallery of The Bahamas is locally known as the NAGB; however, many people make the mistake—in speech and print—of calling us the “Nassau” Art Gallery. Perhaps this slip is well-deserved: with attention focused on the preservation and management of the historic building that houses the NAGB (Villa Doyle); the National Collection itself of over 350 art pieces, needing continual care and maintenance; and the busy rotation of exhibitions (up to 14 in a single year, not including talks, events, book launches, film screenings, and other programming), there is plenty to keep us busy.
On Saturday, September 10, 2016, the National Art Gallery of the Bahamas opened a one-week pop-up space in Governor’s Harbour, Eleuthera showcasing an exhibition entitled “Max-Amos: A Tale of Two Paradises,” composed of selected works from the National Collection by Bahamian master artists Amos Ferguson (b. 1920 Exuma – d. 2009 Nassau) and Max Taylor (b. 1939, Nassau).
September marks the start of yet another school year and we can already hear the teachers and students mentally trudging their way back into that regimented mindset after this scorcher of a summer. Now to the rescue, the NAGB has more than enough on deck to inspire and jump-start the back-to-school run and fight off fatigue.
We often ask what makes art Bahamian? Is it about living in The Bahamas? Is it about the colour of the sea, the sky, the play of light? Is it the way we capture images of people in their daily lives that is unlike anywhere else, but also similar to other places? Can Bahamian art be transcultural and also Bahamian?
Public art – and its multitude of offshoots: street art, public sculpture, murals, mosaics – has a colourful history with many facets.
The National Art Gallery of The Bahamas was an idea long before it was a reality. Many artworks, therefore, had been purchased and earmarked for the collection before its eventual incarnation in 2003. The Bahamian National Collection, now housed with us in the magnificently restored Villa Doyle, was originally founded on the purchase of 25 Amos Ferguson works.