Health and safety have always been a priority at the NAGB. As an active community member, we are deeply connected to the wellbeing of everyone that we encounter. As a result, the NAGB is closely monitoring the Coronavirus (COVID-19) situation in The Bahamas. The great news is that your favourite museum is still open and entirely FREE for the time being. We are also taking preventative measures designed to maintain the safety of our staff and visitors.
Governor’s Harbour, Eleuthera is the first stop for the newest iteration of the NAGB’s Inter-Island Travelling Exhibition, “From Time: Water Has A Perfect Memory”. This exhibition functions in some ways as a time capsule, using historical knowledge and visual interpretations to engage with the country’s past and present and envision a more hopeful future. With colonial works from the 1800s, to the post-independence contemporary practice of the last few decades, “From Time” opens up conversations on slavery and colonialism to examine how that era’s gross accumulation of wealth and the booming industrial era it generated, served as the catalyst for the climate injustice we are now witnessing.
On tonight’s Blank Canvas, the Executive Director, Amanda Coulson, is joined by representatives of the Bahamas Junkanoo Art & Music Festival.
Angelique McKay is the Founder and Artistic Director and she shares her artistic vision for the Bahamas Junkanoo Art & Music Festival. It must be noted that she is also the CEO and Founder of the Cacique Award-winning Junkanoo Commandos.
Boasting sixteen years as the premier art festival in The Bahamas, Transforming Spaces (TS) returns this spring to offer art enthusiasts, collectors and visitors alike another unique experience totally immersed in the contemporary Bahamian art scene.
Last week the TS Committee announced plans for its highly anticipated annual event scheduled for Saturday and Sunday, March 28 – 29th, 2020. Although the event’s highlight is the art bus tour weekend, this year will include a series of events hosted by participating galleries leading up to the weekend–from curated walking tours, private and public openings, to artist talks, all culminating with an exciting closing event.
Reviews of the permanent collection of the National Art Gallery of The Bahamas (NAGB) should always demand an examination of the works and aesthetics of two of the country’s outstanding and prolific indigenous artists, Amos Ferguson (1920-2009) and Maxwell Taylor, better known as “Max”. Ferguson has a particular call on prominence in this regard because it was the Bahamas Government’s purchase of twenty-five of his paintings in 1991 that launched the National Collection.
On this week’s “Blank Canvas” we’ll be talking about art therapy and how that can heal us in the difficult days after Hurricane Dorian. As part of the NAGB”s “We Gatchu: Sanctuary After the Storm” initiative, the NAGB Education team, with art therapist Susan Moir Mackay, facilitated “Create Space.” These specialised art sessions are 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.
In an effort to assist our brothers and sisters who have been affected by this devastating hurricane, the NAGB—together with Women United and Equality Bahamas—is accepting non-perishable items to distribute to those in need in Abaco and Grand Bahama. Tropix will assist with shipping and pass onto Head-Knowles for coordinating.
NAGB is proud to partner with Bahamian filmmaker Travolta Cooper and “The Cinemas” for the upcoming season for the NAGB Film Series. Cooper is a filmmaker with documentaries, a digital series, and an upcoming feature narrative film all at work; he is also the producer of the show “The Cinemas,” which is dedicated to the rise of Caribbean Cinema and under which banner he will be curating film with the NAGB.
It’s time to take this fertile cultural soil and cultivate something beautiful for the National Exhibition 9 (NE9), “The Fruit and the Seed”.
On Saturday, January 20th, 2018, thirteen students from public, private and home schools attended the NAGB’s free portfolio workshop. Formulated for students in senior high school or in their freshman year at The University of The Bahamas, who are looking to transition into a tertiary art programme at an international school in 2018/2019, this workshop is one of two that will be held by the NAGB in 2018. It is hoped that this experience will give students the tools to successfully apply to an art programme of their choice.