Highlight: Pictures from Transforming Spaces

Transforming Spaces 2012 was a smashing success! The team at the NAGB is still trying to recover from the tours, energy and art. In today's post we share some great photographs taken at the beginning of the tour at the NAGB.

Co-Founder of ARC Magazine, Holly Bynoe.

The Middle Passage by Jeffrey Meris.

If you want to see more photographs, make sure to visit the following links!

Popopstudios: Transforming Spaces

Bahamian Art and Culture: Thursday, March 29th 2012

John Cox: FIBRE 2012 (Facebook Link)

If you have any questions or concerns regarding todays post and our pictures, please contact aknowles@nagb.org.bs!

Upcoming Events and Workshops

 

Join The National Art Gallery of The Bahamas in an educational celebration of Junkanoo on Saturday, April 21st, 2012.

The NAGB’s Educational Department has created a complete family day where guests can: Participate in the following hands-on activity, create and paste your own Junkanoo piece.

Please RSVP by 4:00 PM Friday, April 16th, 2012.

Date: Saturday, April 21th, 2012
Time: 10:00am – 3:00pm

Prices are as follows:
$25 Individual / $20 NAGB Members
$10 for children under 12
$40 Family Ticket (2 adults, 2 kids; or 1 adult, 3 kids)
For further information please call 328-5800/1.

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NAGB FILM SERIES: A Beat Forever: Junkanoo
Produced by: Isabella Astengo
Date: 8:00 pm, Thursday, April 26th, 2012

The film documents, 6 Characters, 6 Bahamians, 6 Junkanoers that takes the viewer on an incredible travel inside Junkanoo. The film follows the characters throughout a full year, discovering their inside passion, which begins with the conceptual idea to the performance on Bay Street. Darren Bastian, Jackson Burnside III, Arlene Nash Ferguson and Shona Wood, from One Family Warriors group; Howard Bethel and Chris Justilien from Colours talks about their passion, their life with and for Junkanoo.

"When I hear the music, the transformation take place, it starts with my head, then goes to my heart, then the cloths come off and then I become a fanatic, A Real Junkanoo Fanatic”, Darren Bastian, One Family’s Chairman Magnus.

The Education Department is excited to screen the film, “A Beat Forever: Junkanoo” because of the contents it offers the viewer. For the first time, the viewer can receive a ‘back stage pass” and go behind the scenes in the Junkanoo shacks, Junkanoo groups meetings, practices, and personal interviews with the individuals that make this event possible. The film also has interviews with Jackson Burnside III who is the star of the current exhibition at the gallery. The viewer will walk away with a complete understanding and appreciation of the Bahamian culture expression, Junkanoo.

March Trivia

Mixed Media will host its March Trivia today.

Rules:

• The first individual to get all of these questions right will win an NAGB mug.
• The following 10 individuals will receive a digital NAGB bookmark. 
• The NAGB bookmarks change appearance and edition every month. The first individual to collect 12 different bookmark editions, will receive a very BIG prize.
•  So far, 4 bookmark editions have been released, how many do you have?

March's quiz is done in honor of Transforming Spaces 2012. All of the answers can be found either on Mixed Media, the official NAGB website, Transforming Spaces website and during the Transforming Spaces tours.

To submit your answers, please email aknowles@nagb.org.bs with your responses, your name, and an email or phone contact. This trivia opportunity expires at 5pm Wednesday, March 28th 2012.  Good luck!

Trivia Questions:

1. What are the names of the 2 artists showing work at The National Art Gallery of The Bahamas for Transforming Spaces?
2. What is the Transforming Spaces URL?
3. What are the names of the 2 establishments that sold Transforming Spaces tickets. 
4. Name 6 galleries that are taking place in the Transforming Spaces tour this year.
5. Name 3 tour guides that participated in Transforming Spaces 2012?
6. Name 2 original founders of Transforming Spaces.
7. What are the names of 2 artists showing work in Pink'un Gallery?
8. What time does the Transforming Spaces tour start?
9. What are 3 colours that they used for the Transforming Spaces bus tickets?
10. Name the artist who started the "Nassau, What Happened?" poem.

Goodluck! The trivia this year is pretty tough!

Talking Islands: Conversations with Holly Bynoe and Nadia Huggins

Talking Islands: Conversations with Holly Bynoe and Nadia Huggins
Monday, March 26th, 2012 6:30PM.
Holly Bynoe and Nadia Huggins, co-founders of ARC Magazine, will speak at the NAGB at 6:30pm, Monday, March 26, 2012 on the importance of inter-Caribbean dialogue and exchange within the arts and culture communities.

ARC Magazine is a non-profit publication that was launched in January of 2011 and attempts to fill a certain void by offering a critical platform for visual artists to present their work while fostering and developing critical dialogues and opportunities for crucial points of exchange. It is an online social space of interaction with a developed methodology of sharing information about contemporary practices, exhibitions, partnerships, and opportunities that are occurring in the Caribbean region and throughout its Diaspora.

NAGB and Educulture Collaboration

The National Art Gallery of The Bahamas, in collaboration with Educulture Junkanoo Museum, now offers School Tours and Hands On Workshops.

Between March 19th and April 27th, The National Art Gallery of The Bahamas will offer a discounted rate on a NAGB Tour along with offering students a hands on Junkanoo pasting workshop with Educulture Junkanoo Museum in a package deal.

Packages include a NAGB 1 hour tour of the exhibition and Educulture Junkanoo Museum 1 hour hands on pasting workshop for a NAGB reduced tour fee of $30.00 per group and Educulture reduced fee of $5.00 per student. Tours may be scheduled Tuesday during the hours of 10:00am –4:00pm, Wednesday and Thursday during the hours of 12:30pm –3:00pm.

Book your school tours by calling The National Art Gallery of The Bahamas at 328-5800/1.

NAGB Art Library Highlight: Art That Pays: The Emerging Artist's Guide to Making a Living

Slaughter, Adèle, and Jeff Kober. Art That Pays: The Emerging Artist's Guide to Making a Living. Los Angeles, Calif: National Network for Artist Placement, 2004. Print. 

So many artists stand on a creative precipice within their lives that many outside of the art world are unaware of. This precipice is embodied by one question: How can I shift from simply making art to making a living?

Within the National Art Gallery of The Bahamas’ (NAGB) Art Library sits an invaluable resource for any artist that offers fresh, commonsense answers to that very question; Art That pays: The Emerging Artist’s Guide to Making a Living by Adelle Slaughter and Jeff Kober.

Whether an actor, dancer, musician, visual artist or a writer, a straightforward and unpretentious tone is established as the authors immediately present the basic realities of an artist’s life. The emerging artist overlooks more often than not important issues such as housing, insurance, budgeting and copyrighting. For the writer, the disadvantages between writing for a large and a smaller press are discussed. For the graphic designer, the ideal dimensions for your portfolio are listed along side those for a photographer or an illustrator. Tips on approaching art galleries are laid out for the fine artist’s perusal and if that does not interest, insightful and at times amusing quotes from persons within the many creative industries can offer guidance and encouragement.

Slaughter and Kober have gathered invaluable interviews from persons within an array of creative professions and present comprehensive approaches to a topic many artists are hesitant to grapple with, finances. Senior curator Josine Starrels offers this commentary on earning money:

"If I ran an art school and if I were king, I would not allow anybody to graduate with an MFA or PhD or any of those other wonderful letters without having a secondary skill with which they can earn money" (Slaughter and Kober 159).

However you choose to face the reality of paying bills and defying the starving artist stereotype, Art That Pays can help. There is something for even the most seasoned artist to learn.

Maybe the reader only needs validation that he/she made the right decision to pursue their passion. Perhaps the reader needs that extra push to find that “B Job” that can supplement their art, Art That Pays can help. This book never promises to have all of the answers but the answers that it provides simply make sense. How far do you want your art to reach? One artist is adamant that your art must “Be seen by someone at whatever level you can show it" (Slaughter and Kober 159). How do you measure your success? One artist describes this phenomenon as “Creating an opportunity that allows me to live up to my fullest potential" (Slaughter and Kober 159).

Are you ready to do more that just make art? If you want to know how to make a living with your art or learn something new about squeezing even more out of your creative career choice, then this book is a must-read. Borrow it today at the NAGB’s Art Library.

-NP

Works Cited

Slaughter, Adèle, and Jeff Kober. Art That Pays: The Emerging Artist's Guide to Making a Living. Los Angeles, Calif: National Network for Artist Placement, 2004. Print.

Junkanoo Dance and Music Workshop

The National Art Gallery of The Bahamas is going to “dance to the Junkanoo”, “shake to the Junkanoo” and “jump to the Junkanoo”. Everybody join NAGB in a dance and music workshop. Learn either Junkanoo choreography or the musical instruments that make it all happen.

Date: Saturday, April 14th, 2012
Time: 10:00am – 1:00pm
Please RSVP by 4:00 PM Friday, March 31st, 2012.

Workshop Fees:
Non-members: $30
Members: $25

For further information please call 328-5800/1.

Feature from the Exhibition: Hot Summer Night

Hot Summer Night

Jackson Burnside III, John Beadle, Stan Burnside

1992

Acrylic on canvas

37" x 15"

Collection of The D’Aguilar Art Foundation

The dynamism of the florescent colors, the three-dimensionality of the African designs, and the essence of island life are an experience in Hot Summer Night. This piece, being a successful collaboration with three artists, is a feat in itself, where it reads as a cohesive piece created by one person.

In this composition, the depiction of a passionate African masked drummer expands across the entire canvas with smaller scenarios of clapboard houses. The scale alone takes you in and allows you to become apart of the celebration; the viewer can feel the intense heat as the various colors bounce off of each other and the drummer’s barebacked body. The repetition of the drummers hand give the rhythm of the goat skin drum and automatically formulates a sound in ones ear while the staccato beats of the colors’ highs and lows resonate with you. The sharp black outline of Junkanoo costumes of the past and the use of traditional African patterns allow one to make connections to the artists’ heritage, both African & Bahamian.

Jackson Burnside’s distinctive technique of taping off, which creates layers and optical illusions, is very recognizable in this piece, along side his architectural interests with the houses, and gives the setting a community environment. The line work is reflective of Stan Burnside and considering the teacher to student relationship with John Beadle; this technique is relative to both artists. Each deliberate choice of color, line, space and use of layering show the complexity of the trios collaboration. Having worked together for many other pieces during this period tells of the success of this ‘Jammin’ process.

-AW

Visit the NAGB today and see  Burnside, Beadle, Burnside's Hot Summer Night for yourself. The piece is currently on display for the "As We Knew Him" exhibition.