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“To Throw Rocks” Exhibition Opening at UB

18 November 2019 Network

To Throw Rocks, curated by Matthew Rahming, is an exploration of wider Black masculinities. In unpacking the tropes around Black masculine identities in The Bahamas, through a survey of practices ranging from the 70s to now, this selection puts particular focus on love, sex and sexuality, tenderness, labor and violence. The exhibition features work by Rashad Adderley, John Beadle, Justin Benjamin, Tyesha Brooks, Blake Fox, Amaani Hepburn, Allan Jones and Rashad Leamount, Jodi Minnis, Heino Schmid, Jarette Stubbs and Bradley Wood. In an effort to widen the scope of voices present, artwork from the National Collection, The Collection of the University of the Bahamas and the Brenton Story Collection have been drawn from to round out the conversation in its fullness. These voices come together to acknowledge the powers and privileges (or lack thereof) at play, to face the vulnerability, to bring awareness to responsibility, and to address conflicts around what it means to exist as a man, particularly a black man, in The Bahamas. To Throw Rocks opens on Thursday, November 21st at 5:30pm in the Franklin Wilson Graduate Centre on the University of the Bahamas’ Oaksfield Campus as a part of in conjunction with the 8th annual Critical Caribbean Symposium Series. The exhibition will run until December 2019. For more information, please feel free to contact Matthew Rahming at mr.matthew.rahming@hotmail.com

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Celebrating Bahamian Art: The Elliott Museum Exhibition Wrap Up

14 March 2018 Network

By Malika Pryor-Martin. The Elliott Museum in Stuart, Florida recently showcased an exhibition that included works drawn from the National Collection, D’Aguilar Foundation Collection and the Dawn Davies Collection as well as three local south Florida artists. Some Bahamian artists featured included: Edison G. Rolle, Maxwell Taylor and Eddie Minnis and the pieces selected by curators at the Elliott Museum wooed and wowed Floridian audiences.

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Vision, Materiality, and Creativity: A Pathway to Innovation and Development?

13 March 2018 Network

By Dr Ian Bethell-Bennett, The University of The Bahamas. Can we conceptualise change?  In our lessons, our lives, our schooling, have we been encouraged to examine a problem and to solve it?  Have we been encouraged to dream big and produce along those lines?  Usually, to ideate creatively, to innovate, to shift the cultural thinking or vision, we must think critically.  This thinking makes some people uncomfortable, yet, this essential skill is wiped out in the Bahamian education system.  We are also told that dabbling in art won’t pay the bills, however, to meet the demands of change, we must think creatively.  Google, FaceBook, sustainable renewable cities, Worlds fairs, Disney World, are all creative building structures that use winds, the light and the landmass to cool, power, and illuminate are usually created in studios of creative minds that do not conform to linear thinking or conservative paradigmatic control. 

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From Nassau to Long Beach: Bahamian artists participate in “Relational Undercurrents” exhibition at Museum of Latin American Art.

14 November 2017 Network

By Amanda Coulson.For the last decade, the Caribbean has been slowly garnering more and more international attention: “Infinite Island: Contemporary Caribbean Art,” (2007; Brooklyn Museum, NY), “Wrestling with the Image: Caribbean Interventions” (2011; Art Museum of the Americas, Washington, D.C.), and “Caribbean Crossroads of the World,” (2012, The Studio Museum, Museo del Barrio and The Queens Museum, NY) have brought work from the region into the spotlight through broad, collective shows with varying degrees of success.

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The Domestic Not-So-Tourist: Marina Reyes Franco visits The Bahamas as recipient of the CPPC Travel Award

25 October 2017 Network

By Natalie Willis. The aftermath of this historic hurricane season has thrown the inter-relations of countries in the Caribbean, and the attitudes around it all, into much clearer focus. The growing regional engagement over the years hasn’t just involved development or relief efforts, but we have also seen a rise in intra-Caribbean art and cultural research and projects – which is very exciting indeed and adds some levity to this difficult period we are all going through together. Balancing both of these realities – of arts development and relief efforts – in her mind, is curator Marina Reyes Franco from Puerto Rico, who is currently travelling 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)

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The Art of Survival: Rebuilding for the Future

21 September 2017 Network

By Malika N Pryor. When I moved to The Bahamas in 2013, I knew that it was possible to encounter one of them. Like the unspeakable name of a villain in a famous children’s book turned film series, I talked about the storms that originated on the shores of West Africa in a low voice, as if I’d awaken them if spoken at a regular volume. Most Nassau residents I encountered were largely unbothered, and I was amazed at how casual most were when it came to the conversation of hurricanes. Then, in 2015 Joaquin hit the southern islands and I realised how incredibly close they could be. I ached for those who had lost nearly everything and for their family members who watched from their screens in New Providence.

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Internationalising The Bahamas and its Orange Economy: Creating industries for the 21st Century

20 September 2017 Network

By Dr Ian Bethell Bennett.  According to the governor of the Central Bank of The Bahamas, John A. Rolle: “The Concept of Orange Economy been around for 20 years. All sectors whose goods and services are based on [Intellectual Property], Architecture, Art… [this is the] [e]volving space of creativity. . . 4.3 trillion dollars [are spent in it] 2/12 times military expenditure”… London, New York, Miami, all bring in millions a year from the Creative Industries.  This is where the growth is in the economy; it is not in the imports that drain the cash from the national coffers.  Shakespeare in Paradise is a tremendous example of the local Orange Economy.  As the world advances into a service-oriented economy, where more people enjoy entertainment outside of their homes, or entertainment that they can access through the World Wide Web, we also stand to gain access to untapped markets.  However, we, as the people of The Bahamas, have to be there.  Currently, we are not. 

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The Culture of Space: Places for Art

28 August 2017 Network

By : Dr Ian Bethell-Bennett

The post office stands at the top of Parliament Street on East Hill street, a monument to 1970s development. It stands now condemned. The Churchill building stands condemned, much like the Rodney Bain Building on the verge of Parliament Street Hill on the way to the post office.  Condemned buildings populate the city of Nassau.  The shift has been rapid; from a thriving colonial backwater settled by administrators and Loyalists to a post-colonial shadow of colonial rule, to a derelict city of decay. This shift has been enormous. 

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