The City of Nassau
will be represented at the Jingdezhen 12th China International
Ceramic Fair which takes place from October 18-22, 2015. Jingdezhen was designated
a UNESCO Creative City of Crafts and Folk Arts in 2014, and the City has hosted
this huge fair annually since 2004 catering to more than 2,000 international
artisans. The City of Nassau was also designated a UNESCO Creative City of
Crafts and Folk Arts in 2014, and as a member of this prestigious UNESCO Creative
Cities Network (UCCN), it has accepted the invitation to participate.
The Nassau booth
will be hosted by Alistair Stevenson, a Bahamian ceramic arts student from Long
Island in The Bahamas who is presently studying at the Jingdezhen Ceramic
Institute in JiangXi Province on a Chinese Government scholarship. An Associate
of Arts graduate of the College of The Bahamas, Stevenson studied under the
tutelage of Joann Behagg, and was awarded a Popop Studios Artist-in-Residence
Prize in 2011. He was also the first recipient of the Denis Knight Award for
excellence in Ceramic Studies at the 2012 All Ceramics Exhibition (ACE) founded
by Jessica Colebrooke of Jessica’s Tileworks. Before travelling to China,
Alistair worked at the D’Aguilar Art Foundation as its Curator. Stevenson
stated: “One of my goals is to take the skills and knowledge acquired during
studies here in China, and combine them with previous knowledge of Ceramic Art
to use as a vehicle to manifest aspects of Bahamian culture with both
philosophical and anthropological concepts, and this Fair is an excellent
opportunity to do so.”
President of
Creative Nassau, Pam Burnside, stated: “It was a pleasure to be invited to
participate in this Fair from our sister city in China – this is what the
Creative Cities Network is all about – an exchange of culture and creativity.
This will be our first international exhibition as a part of the UCCN, and
since Alistair was presently on site he could make the necessary preparations
for the Nassau booth and be the host. Along with his ceramic artwork, the booth
will be decorated with Bahamian flavor to give patrons a taste of The Bahamas.”
In addition to
Alistair’s work, which will consist of pieces he has been working on in China,
there will be two bowls by Master Bahamian Artist Max Taylor produced in the
traditional Chelsea Pottery style, as well as pieces from Joann Behagg, taken
from her recent “All Dead, All Gone” Exhibition which examined the dangers
facing The Bahamas’ fishing resources as a result of overfishing and pollution
of our waters.
Interested persons
can view last year’s fair at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yB_PlRnNV1M
and photos of this year’s Fair will be posted on the Creative Nassau website
and facebook page.
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