All posts tagged: Sustainability

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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Cultivating the Local: In the wake of change

10 October 2017 Articles

By Dr Ian Bethell Bennett This is our time, the occasion for thinking and being different, not bound by an antiquated, out-dated design and building model, or for that matter a tourism model that focuses almost exclusively on resort style entertainment at the expense of locally-fashioned rustic flavoured spots that draw in tourists with their uniqueness. 

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In the wake of storms:  Moving forward as a nation displaced

2 October 2017 Articles

By Dr Ian Bethell-Bennett.Dominica, The British Virgin Islands, Barbuda, Puerto Rico, The Bahamas, in particular, Ragged Island and some other southern places, are beautiful and far-flung, exotic and form parts of people’s dreams of paradise.  They are paradises on earth and they have been devastated.  They have, like many parts of the Commonwealth world, experienced unprecedented natural disasters and suffering in the short space of a few weeks. They are stunning spaces of natural beauty and amazing depth of feeling and life. 

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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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World Oceans Day Mural: Protecting our seas and supporting public artworks

4 July 2017 Highlights

By Natalie Willis.A national institution of art coming together with one of the biggest hotel corporations doesn’t sound like your usual pairing – but public artwork has no prejudices, no bounds, and as such, the most unlikely collaborations can often be the most fruitful. The NAGB, along with Sandals Royal Bahamian and the Sandals Foundation have teamed up to bring forth a lighthearted public project with a serious message. For World Oceans Day, established visual artists in the community were commissioned to produce a vibrant wall mural with the idea of drawing attention to the need to not just protect our waters, but to truly care for them as they are such a strong part of what makes our country the place it is – in geography, in culture and especially in our history.

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Indigeneity and Art: Defining Our Values

31 October 2016 Articles

As the lushness of the island disappears in the wake of Hurricane Matthew, it is important to note the significance of imaging who we are and where we live.  As Bahamians, we inhabit a geographic space that has beauty beyond words along with limitless possibility, and we must embrace our reality and step outside of the constructed, constricted reality being imposed on us. 

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The Eye of the Storm: Preservation and destruction

26 October 2016 Articles

Winslow Homer’s ‘Hurricane’ captures howling winds of the storm in The Bahamas, however, the image, though teaming with meaning and feeling, does not capture the magnitude of today’s super storms. These so-called superstorms bring with them devastation and trauma of epic proportions. The visual produced in Homer’s painting remains haunting and provides an interesting couple for the Gulfstream painting, and After the Hurricane, Bahamas as it shows a man shipwrecked on a desolate island.

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‘A Sustainable Nassau?’ Working Towards the Possible

28 August 2016 Network

Ian Bethel-Bennett writes for the Nassau Guardian:  The results of months of planning and international cooperation between Austrian students and College of the Bahamas students, along with investment from the International Development Bank (IDB), the plans by the Sustainable Nassau Urban Lab were launched on Friday 29th July, 2016, at The National Art Gallery of The Bahamas.

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A Sustainable Future For Exuma: Learning to live within our means, and with each other as global citizens

9 August 2016 Articles

By 2050 the world sea levels are expected to rise a staggering amount, leaving low-lying areas like our archipelago nation to question our future existence and the way we live on this planet, not to mention the millions of people who could be displaced by this gradual flooding. Global environmental pressures are reaching a steady climax, and we are faced with having to change the ways we live to secure a more sustainable future, not just environmentally, but economically as well.

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Cultural Tourism on Exuma: A Gem for Few, a Gem for All

7 August 2016 Articles

Exuma-blue waters, white sandy beaches and ruins overlooking magnificent views: Exuma has become the new place to vacation in The Bahamas, but Georgetown has had that honour since the 20th Century: it was the chic place to be. Offering a beach on the Tropic of Cancer that can compete with any in the world, Exuma is now the home of an all-inclusive Sandals resort that replaced the former four-star Four Seasons Emerald Bay that was beleaguered by labour problems and closed when it was unable to function at its customary high standards of excellence. Chat and Chill along with many small businesses offer entertainment and great food. 

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