Currently browsing: Uncategorized

The University of The Bahamas and the National Art Gallery of The Bahamas have created an open space for group discussion that allows students to benefit from the offering of both spaces.  This relationship allows culture to truly be highlighted.  As much as we talk about culture, we often disconnect our experiences from talk. These lectures are designed to promote thought and unshackle minds blinkered by a dysfunctional system designed to create workers without a sense of self, or an identity that can transcend the 9 to 5 and the 21 by seven of the mundane. 

Kendra Frorup’s ‘Domestic Chickens’ (2007) installation is one of the lesser-known pieces in the National Collection. The 2017-2018 Permanent Exhibition, ‘Revisiting An Eye For The Tropics’, is a departure point for us to look to the way the past has informed the present aesthetic in Bahamian artwork, and also importantly to showcase the works in the National Collection and remind us of what we have ownership and pride over as Bahamians.

Bahamian artist, Margot Bethel, explores ideas of femininity and the roles of women from both past and present day. In “Portal: There’s a WHole in the Bucket”, Bethel transforms a collection of mundane, everyday objects into a sculptural installation proposing the idea of the hole and the whole, simultaneously describing aspects of gender inequality, female stereotypes, and objectivity.

The NAGB prepares for a new welcome with Tyrone Ferguson’s Gates of Transformation

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.

Family Island access to the National Collection is of immense importance to the National Art Gallery of The Bahamas (NAGB). Our country, an archipelago, vast in its length and breadth presents a challenge to facilitating such a critical component of our mission. To answer the call of sharing Bahamian art with every citizen possible, the NAGB developed a travelling exhibition using the works of two iconic Bahamian masters: Max Taylor and Amos Ferguson. 

During the United Nations Small Islands Developing States symposium held at the Meliá Cable Beach, we saw firsthand the importance of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), once referred to as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), but since the end of the first decade of the 21st-Century now called the SDGs.  We also understand the need for our participation in disparate events and groups such as the World Fair, Expo 2020, Creative Nassau, Sustainable Nassau and Sustainable Exuma along with Bimini Blue, Save The Bays and other organizations that seek to move us out of the unsustainable downward spiral we are currently on.  As has been noted by international and local experts, our culture is fragile, and we cannot survive and thrive, nor can we adapt without understanding where we are and where we would like to go from here.  Cultural sustainability, then, relies on environmental sustainability and good policy to promote national longevity.  

We are very much accustomed to seeing our islands in various forms of media, anything that can spread the image of our too-blue-to-be-true water. And it is true, we do have some of the most beautiful water on the planet (along with a number of other countries though, we mustn’t forget), and we are – according to certain NASA astronauts “the most beautiful place from space”. However, despite the natural beauty of our landscape, for almost 200 years we have been packaged up and sold as this pristine image that seems to be as clear-cut as our crystal waters.

Visual art and its experiences are no longer confined to classrooms, studios, or the walls of galleries. Thanks to the digital age and an increasing demand for “interactivity” the arts have considered new ways to pique the public’s interest.  In The Bahamas, we have seen alternative approaches by gallerists, curators, and artists to engage audiences by creating a bridge between the traditional and contemporary through installations and public art experiences. With last year’s opening of The National Art Gallery of The Bahamas’ (NAGB) sculpture garden and the rapid growth of live art events, we exist in an exciting period of creative expression for our country.

The Transforming Spaces Committee is finalizing plans for this year’s 13th Art Tour scheduled for Saturday and Sunday, April 1 and 2, 2017. The weekend tour will include a morning and afternoon tour on Saturday, and a morning tour on Sunday.Transforming Spaces has always experimented with its format, but this year they will be returning to the original format of a dedicated guided Bus Tour transporting patrons to and from the various participating galleries which will include: the D’Aguilar Art Foundation (DAF), Doongalik Studios Art Gallery, Hillside House, the National Art Gallery of The Bahamas (NAGB), New Providence Art & Antiques (NPAA), and PopopStudios International Centre for Visual Arts (ICVA)