Joining host, Amanda Coulson, on The Blank Canvas tonight are Tessa Whitehead, curator of the upcoming show at The D’Aguilar Art Foundation, entitled “Diversions” and participating artists Melissa Alcena and Sofia Whitehead.
University of The Bahamas (UB) and the National Art Gallery of The Bahamas (NAGB) have solidified an agreement that will facilitate academic and cultural interchange in arts education, research and collaboration, thereby strengthening the relationship between the two national institutions.
Over a year ago, the National Art Gallery of The Bahamas (NAGB), entered into a formal agreement with the British Council to craft the final iteration of the “Difficult Conversations” series of exhibitions, public conversations and student mentorships, reflecting on the UK’s involvement in the transatlantic slave trade throughout the Caribbean. The NAGB produced, in collaboration with the British Council, “We Suffer to Remain,” a group exhibition that supported the works of John Beadle, Graham Fagen, Sonia Farmer and Anina Major, and a series of public programmes—artists talks, public lectures and film screenings—that spoke in expansive ways about Blackness, ownership, the vestiges, trauma and the legacy of the transatlantic slave trade and the implications of the empire in relation to its colonies.
For the second year, Tilting Axis has facilitated, administered and designed an open call for our Curatorial Fellowship. In a strong partnership with the University of Texas at Austin Art Galleries at Black Studies we issued an open call to find and seek out a curator living and working in the Caribbean who would rise to the occasion to use the resources, collections and moment at hand to advance their practice in a nuanced and sensitive way.
During the first two months of 2017, The National Art Gallery of The Bahamas welcomed its newest staff members, Malika Pryor-Martin and Katrina Cartwright. Since their arrival, they have dived into their roles of Development and Communications Officer and Education Officer respectively, and have seamlessly integrated with the existing NAGB team.
Preparations for the Jamaica Biennial 2017 are moving into high gear next week with the selection of the juried section of the exhibition, which will take place on Monday, January 9 and Tuesday, January 10, 2017. The juried section of the Biennial is open to artists resident in Jamaica and artists living elsewhere but who were born in Jamaica or are of Jamaican parentage. For the juried section of the Jamaica Biennial 2017, the National Gallery has received 176 qualifying entries by 110 artists.
