All posts by diana-lynn sands

The “Blank Canvas” Studio is graced tonight by the great Stan Burnside who joins the NAGB Executive Director, Amanda Coulson, in the studio to talk about his life journey in the arts.

NAGB Assistant Curator, Natalie Willis, sits in for Executive Director, Amanda Coulson, on tonight’s episode of Blank Canvas. This week, Willis speaks with artists who creatively contribute to relief efforts in Grand Bahama. She is joined by Chantal Bethel, a long-time fixture and advocate in the Grand Bahama art community, who has an exhibition and book launch that starts this Thursday at Hillside House.

Tonight’s “Blank Canvas” is all about the Central Bank of The Bahamas’ commitment time the arts.

On this tonight’s Blank Canvas, Amanda is joined in the studio by Bahamian artist, Kendra Frorup, a professor of Art & Design at the University of Tampa. Kendra’s focus is on the global conversation about connections and identity with a special interest in the Caribbean and Africa. She has exhibited her sculptures in the United States and in worldwide venues such as the Caribbean, France, Puerto Rico and Martinique, Ghetto Biennale, Haiti, UNESCO in Andorra, and The National Art Gallery of The Bahamas.

On this week’s show, Deime Ubani comes to speak about her own artistic practice (she currently has work at the Central Bank of The Bahamas’ Open category exhibitors) and also the importance of community and collectives working for the benefit of the people. She shares about different artist groups that she is a part of—including the SALUS Project and the Artist’s Circle—and her next group project “Black Out: Art in The Dark” at the Creative Center on the PopopStudio grounds.

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.

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.