On “NAGB’s Blank Canvas,” your guest host Katrina Cartwright, NAGB Education and Outreach Manager is joined in the studio by colleague Education Officer Blake Fox who speaks to the launch of the museum’s new “Get Set For Fall” programme, the current Mixed Media Art Summer Camp exhibition and his participation in the upcoming MAC Conference 2021.
Whether we were watching and waiting for the storm to hit directly, or watching and waiting for it to pass from the safety of our own sofas, Christina Wong’s “Everybody and Dey Grammy #hurricanedorian” (2019) struck a cord (and plucked on heartstrings) for all of us. From the hashtag to the sentiment of everybody collectively waiting with bated breath, we felt Hurricane Dorian as a nation — not in a nationalist sense, but rather as people living in, from and tied to this landscape, “born Bahamian” or otherwise.
As life on islands finds a new normal, we see the importance of connectivity and awareness. Much has been revealed by Dorian’s passage, from the lack of bill payment by some agencies for private companies’ services to aid storm victims, to the need for closer links between people with communities. The beauty of art is that it can capture so many emotions and open up valuable conversations about how and where we live. Naomi Klein in her work The Battle for Paradise (2019), illustrates the gap between words used to rebuild in Puerto Rico in the wake of Maria and Irma and the reality of dispossession and displacement.
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.
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.
Welcome to the first official post of Mixed Media, the official blog of the National Art Gallery of The Bahamas!