The National Art Gallery welcomes the public to its summer events

The National Art Gallery Mixed Media Art Summer Camp kicks off its first session bright and early on Monday morning. Looking forward to a jam-packed three weeks, the NAGB team will be exposing campers ages five to 15 to at least three different art forms over the course of each three-week session. For those who missed the chance to register for the first session, space is still available for the second session, which runs July 13 to 31. Contact Abby Smith or Corinne Lampkin at 328-5800 for more information.

Next Thursday at the National Art Gallery of The Bahamas sculptor Andret John presents a talk on his contribution to the Sir Nicholas Nuttall Coral Reef Sculpture Garden. Initiated by artist Willicey Tynes and backed by The Bahamas Reef Environment Education Foundation (BREEF), the underwater park features artificial reef structures and snorkel trails. Along the way, sightseers can take in oversized sculptures, linking visual art with marine conservation. According to BREEF, the garden expands the foundation’s mission to address threats to The Bahamas’ coral reef systems. All members of the public are invited to attend the talk, which starts at 7 p.m. on Thursday, June 25.

The NAGB also announces the start of its programming series for its newest exhibition, Celebrating 40 Years of the Central Bank: A Pillar of Arts Commitment. On July 14, a panel discussion on the bank’s mission to serve as both a reservoir of wealth and culture will be held at the NAGB. Panelists will discuss the reasons behind the bank’s commitment to highlight the importance of fine art and develop the country’s visual art community. The history of the development of the bank’s art competitions and its growing collection will also be addressed. All members of the public are invited to attend free of charge. To find out more, contact Corinne Lampkin at 328-5800.

All Bahamians can benefit from Central Bank’s dedication to fine art next month, as the bank covers the cost of admission for locals to visit the National Art Gallery. Normally free every Sunday for residents, locals will be able to visit the NAGB every day of the week without charge throughout the month of July. In the spirit of Bahamian independence Central Bank has pledged to cover the cost of each guest’s visit – usually $7 for adults and $5 for students 12 and over – from July 1 to 31.

At the NAGB, visitors will have the opportunity to take in samples from the bank’s collection, including artwork collected during the tenure of T. Baswell Donaldson, the bank’s first governor. Informative wall text giving historical context to the works and the bank’s annual competitions initiated by Sir William Allen and Antonius Roberts provides guests with an opportunity to find out more about the country’s main wealth reservoir.

“The Central Bank is honored to cover the public’s admission to NAGB for the month of July, to view the exhibits at the gallery, especially the exhibit celebrating 40 years of central banking in The Bahamas and our commitment to the arts. We view the bank’s more than 400 works of art as an important component of The Bahamas’ cultural capital; and the bank’s commitment to and involvement in the development and support of local art and artists continues to be a part of a deeper national commitment to Bahamian excellence,” said Central Bank Governor Wendy Craigg.

Finally, in collaboration with Events by Alexandra and Guanima Press Limited, the NAGB will present a series of culinary experiences at the gallery. The first experience is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, July 30; titled “Through the Kitchen Door: A culinary perspective of Bahamian history and culture”, the evening will feature a talk by Patricia Glinton-Meicholas and food tasting provided by Alexandra Maillis-Lynch. Attendees are asked to make a donation of $15 each on the evening, and all are welcome.

To find out more about upcoming NAGB events and talks, contact the gallery at 328-5800.

One international chef meets a plethora of local flavor

In coordination with the Ministry of Tourism and the U.S. Embassy, Violets are Blue partnered with Chicago-based chef Judson Todd Allen on an island-hopping food and cultural visit.

Known as the “architect of flavor”, Chef Allen hoped to get an insider’s perspective on life in The Bahamas as well as food-related opportunities in a country in need of becoming more self-sufficient where food production is concerned.

His visit began with a guided food tour of Downtown Nassau led by Alannah Rodgers, founder and chief culinary tour guide of Tru Bahamian Food Tours. Incorporating bites of social and cultural history with savory and sweet samples from Bahamian Cookin’ Restaurant and Bar, Graycliff Beer Garden and Chocolatier, Van Breugel’s Bistro and Bar, Athena Café, Pure Caribbean Specialty Store and Tortuga Rum Cake Company, the tour provided a comprehensive overview of the country’s sociopolitical development as well as its diverse culinary palate.

Making good use of his time, Allen traveled across New Providence to the western district, where he explored The National Piggery on Gladstone Road, known for producing high quality, local pork. The chef also made a stop at local producers Goodfellow Farms and Field to Fork where he and representatives of the Embassy and Violets are Blue met with chefs and farmers responsible for offering locally-grown produce and exposing would-be backyard farmers to the variety of fruits and vegetables they could grow at home.

Going off the beaten path, Allen made his way to Eleuthera, where he learned of the island’s famed pineapples. Sustainable fishing industries were also part of the lesson; visiting a lionfish derby was one of the getaway’s highlights. The chef also got a chance to meet up with a local fisherman to find out more about the local sustainable stone crab industry.

Armed with an idea of the country’s suppliers, produce exchange and food artisans, the chef moved on to tackle one of the trip’s main objectives. Partnering with local culinary superstar Chef Simeon Hall, the duo worked with local schools to offer healthy meal programs and highlight a range of deliciously good-for-you and affordable lunches. Tying this into another of the trip’s purposes – the chefs used their time together to push for public education on wellness, eating and healthy meal choices. Hosting a cookout at a Hay Street basketball court, Allen and Hall served up grilled vegetables, lionfish sliders and smiles all around in the Grant’s Town community.

His visit culminated with a cook-off at Hillside House, where the two chefs “battled” to produce the best dishes with all locally-sourced food, gathered during the course of the week.

With the Ministry of Tourism’s designation of October as Culinary Month, Allen and Hall look forward to the American chef’s return. In the meantime, Violets are Blue will be keeping the flame burning under its growing health food program for local schools.

Carnival and the evolution of culture

Art speaks about where a country is as well as where it was. It is exciting to see how a country’s art scene grows, develops and organically changes. The visual arts in the country have really undergone a transformation over the last 20 years. The field has developed internationally, but here it has developed in terms of the people who have become a part of it and the numbers of artists who are expressing themselves publicly, as well as the textures, vivacity, topics and nuances. We are who we are, and that will never change. What we do is often hide who we are because we think it is expedient to do so. However, who we are is revealed eventually.

Bahamas Junkanoo Carnival

The recent carnival festivities went off without any apparent hitches, except its being supported almost exclusively by a local market. What was fabulous was the art show organized by Antonius Roberts. It showed that carnival could be more than just about gyrating and twerking bodies on a road. Of course, carnival breeds this show of skin and sensuality. But that is what the Caribbean is known for, according to Mark Padilla in Caribbean Pleasure Industry. It is known for this, and this image will always create cultural conflict in a highly moralistically-policed nation, but so will Junkanoo. However, while the real money sunk into Carnival has yet to be revealed and the earnings have yet to be totaled, if they are ever… the artistic scene was incredible. Roberts’ Hillside House was packed to the rafters with art from all generations and walks of life. It was simply a feast for the eye. It also showed how much Bahamian art and art created in The Bahamas has changed. It has mushroomed and encompasses so many varied vehicles of expression as well as bodies who are talking through art. John Beadle’s piece at the entrance to the courtyard was simply brilliantly expressive of Carnival but also uniquely Bahamian and terrifically beautiful. Art transcends all the bickering about the place of Carnival.  We may not be ready for this cultural change, but its machinery in other countries has proved so successful in generating dollars, that it will be hard for us to keep it at bay, given the government’s sole interest in making money.       

As culture shifts and artistic expression develops, when we try to control and to manufacture a culture, we actually work against the flow. In a nation at sea level, surrounded by water, we should know that swimming against the current is foolhardy, however, most people cannot swim. Thankfully even that is changing, although we still pay scarce attention to swimming and often choose to represent it as an elitist sport, we would benefit greatly by embracing it.

As the art scene has grown and developed, so too have our ways of expressing ourselves outside of that. We have suddenly embraced the concept of Carnival, and many people are happy and excited by this, but that does not mean it is authentically Bahamian. We staged what most would say was a truly terrific event, but that does not mean we must embrace it the same way we embrace Junkanoo, nor that it will replace Junkanoo. Junkanoo is also not the only manifestation of Bahamian culture that lives. It is simply reductive when we argue that Junkanoo is Bahamian culture, and if you do not support Junkanoo, you are not Bahamian. One can be Bahamian and support Goombay Summer, which is apparently no longer government sanctioned or backed, those resources have been transferred to Carnival. Why not decry that? Junkanoo, however, will remain a transforming Bahamian art form. It does not, however, delimit our artistic, cultural or personal expression. Our culture is resilient, as our emergence from slavery and colonialism can attest.

Cultural evolutions

The value of cultural resilience is beyond dispute, but we must remember that we have chosen to highlight what we want to see and to downplay all that we do not wish to see. It does not mean, though, that the downplayed or “invisible” does not exist. Government can sanction and back whatever it wishes to, but it does not control the development of culture nor art. In fact, culture develops in spite of restrictions. Artforms like graffiti often surface in direct contestation to government and official policy. Graffiti is usually an art of resistance that speaks of culture, it articulates youth angst and anger and criticizes unjust policies. It challenges poverty and gives poor people a voice, it also speaks on behalf of middle class youth who feel misunderstood and ignored. Language does the same thing and captures a reality that will change from one year to the next. We cannot contain culture nor can we constrain art. I think the NAGB’s exhibition, Celebrating 40 Years of the Central Bank, which opened on June 2, shows this development and attests to the change that we live.

Further, as much as people resist cultural change, it happens. We now embrace the Fish Fry, but how many people saw that as a terrible development when it grew out of what was once abandoned land after Bahamas Customs’ headquarters became too unsafe to occupy? That space has become a living, breathing expression of Bahamianness, and it is a space that tourists enjoy, but it is not a tourist space.  Marina Village is a tourist space that locals enjoy, but it did not develop organically as Fish Fry did. Art and culture happen; they are not often manufactured. However, the manufactured product does sometimes threaten and ultimately replace the organic form, and we forget our organic cultural expression. This is similar to our distrust of burial societies in the postcolonial Bahamas, which grew out of an anti-African, anti-black thread present in colonialism. This can be rectified by embracing the black in us, along with everything else. Why do so many artistic depictions express this angst about our color and ethnicity if it does not exist? 

Our art and culture scene is alive and vibrant, it is not challenged nor polluted by outsiders, as many people argue. Yes, Carnival will change our culture. Yes, it will change the way we live. And yes, it will push Bahamians to transform themselves. But that is the same as the government selloff of any available piece of land to foreign corporations. As the geography of home changes, so too does the way we live on the land.

While we tarry in our cultural defensiveness, art continues to be produced, culture continues to change, and the world we live in becomes irreparably altered by rescaping and rezoning. This, however, does not say that we should all run out and buy I Love Carnival T-shirts. Our culture has already changed; we just need to catch up. Carnival is as damaging as we allow it to be, but the art show orchestrated by Antonius Roberts as a companion to Carnival captured a vibrant artistic life that is, simply put, fabulous.  We are moving onto new heights, let’s begin to soar and see how much higher we will go, rather than remain pinned to a reality that has already ceased to exist but which lives in our fantasies.  

The team behind the scenes

With two new exhibitions fast approaching, the team at The National Art Gallery of The Bahamas is thrilled to welcome 50/50, the first show of the Double Dutch Project, and Celebrating 40 Years of The Central Bank: A Pillar of Arts Commitment, which both open on Tuesday, June 2.

            The Double Dutch project is an ongoing commitment to exhibit the works of two artists – one from The Bahamas and the other from another nation in the region – in a two-person show at the NAGB. In this instance, Bahamian Blue Curry, and Bermudian James Cooper have agreed to unite for the first iteration of Double Dutch. The goal of Double Dutch is to bring local and regional artists — who may be divided by distance or language but share common histories — together by encouraging them to work with a group of ideas that hone in on personal, political and social trends specific to the West Indies.

            Celebrating 40 Years of The Central Bank will highlight the role Central Bank of The Bahamas has played in developing the country’s visual arts community since its founding. The exhibition will showcase over 80 works by 72 artists featured in Central Bank’s extensive art collection.

            If the gallery’s last opening night – held December 11, 2014 to welcome in the Seventh National Exhibition (NE7) – is any indication, there is likely to be a buzzing atmosphere and full house of guests. Working hard behind the scenes to promise a stunning show, the NAGB is giving an insider’s peek at curatorship and the planning, constructing and designing that go into a gallery’s polished finish.

            The planning stages of large gallery shows usually begin months, if not years, in advance – with researching of university proportions. Some shows, like NE7, put out calls for proposals for work in line with the exhibition’s theme. Others involve borrowing existing works from collectors and/or selecting fitting works from the gallery’s collection. In either case, research is a necessary component of most gallery exhibitions in order to explain their relevance in contemporary society.

Record-keeping is another vital curatorial skill. Show curators are charged with compiling lists of potential artworks along with their owners; receiving the pieces; recording their dimensions, damages and respective values; taking owners’ details and storing the works responsibly until installation. It may also be at the receiving stage that each work is photographed professionally for the exhibition catalogue.

            De-installation is often the next step that kicks off the two to three weeks between exhibitions. The prettiest facet of taking down an existing show is making contact with owners of artwork and returning their respective pieces or storing them appropriately. Much of the labor-intensive process involves toolkits, puttying holes, scraping walls and heavy lifting until the gallery space is cleared.

            The gap between shows is reminiscent of a carefully choreographed dance with many moving parts. While de-installation is taking place, details like wall colors and logo designs may be finalized. The placement of works – a critical point in the process – involves hours of purposefully staring at walls. Preparators determine spacing between artworks, appropriate hanging height and the size and number of pieces to be shown on each wall. Grouping works into rooms by sub-theme or scene is also common practice, and explaining the analytical process behind this organization to gallery visitors is another of the curator’s many responsibilities.

            When curatorial essays and explanatory wall text are completed and their respective decals ordered, walls are painted and work placement has been finalized, the installation begins. The curatorial team hangs or places works and wall text of the show’s curatorial essay and explanatory blurbs. Digital media equipment is put in place and tested, lighting is triple checked and the show’s functioning and flow are purveyed before its grand unveiling.

            To keep up to date on the NAGB’s upcoming shows and life inside the gallery on a day-to-day basis, visit its Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/TheNAGB.