OCT 2018 - JAN 2019
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BAC NEWSLETTER The Official Newsletter of the Barbados Arts Council
Above:"Christmas Morning" by Debra Durant
HAPPY NEW YEAR! Opening the New Year with a New Exhibition 2019 is off to a great start at the BAC's Art Gallery in the Pelican Craft Centre! Running until January 27th, the current exhibition is a feast for the eyes, showcasing a wide variety of work by local artists including oils, acrylics, watercolours and photography. The subject matter is diverse and evokes a myriad of emotions ranging from warm, fuzzy nostalgia as evidenced by the two pieces featured on this page, to the peaceful calm of a walk along a lonely country road, to the carefree abandon and excitement of our Crop Over Festival, to the childlike curiosity of a monkey in a tree watching the world go by. We will whet your appetite with a sampling of the works on show on the following pages, as we invite you to visit the Gallery and experience it all up close and personal, in living colour! Enjoy!
Above:"Old Time Days" by Glenroy Jordan
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OCT 2018 = JAN 2019
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New Year, New Exhibition...
"Tree-Top View" by Susan Alleyne-Ford
"Boats at Oistins" by Angela Barnett
Above and below,,,oil paintings by Barbara Pickering
"Fields of St. George" by Cathy Alkins
The Barbados Arts Council Gallery is open Monday to Friday from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm, and on Saturdays from 10:00 am to 1:00 pm. The Gallery has been, and continues to be, a nurturing ground for new and emerging local artists who get the opportunity to show their artwork alongside experienced veterans, and gain valuable experience at the BAC Gallery when they might not yet gain access to other commercial galleries on the island.
OCT 2018 - JAN 2019
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New Year, New Exhibition... This year, the BAC Art Gallery encourages you to make it your premier source for local art works. We sell original paintings, photographs and prints, and we have recently added Barbados souvenirs to our stock. Conveniently located in the Pelican Craft Centre on the Harbour Road, the gallery is in close proximity to historic Bridgetown and its Garrison, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
"Coys Pond" by Debra Durant
"Bathsheba" by Allan Ashby "Three Houses Spring" by Markley Clarke
"Sandy Beach" by Allan Ashby
"Sugar Cane Workers" by Glenroy Jordan
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Top left: "By the Roadside" by Juliette Clarke Top right::"Little Fishermen" by Virgil Broodhagen Left: "Deep Blue Sea Octopus" by Margarita Gunby Bottom left: "Deep Blue Sea Turtle" by Margarita Gunby
Above:"Light on the Red Roof" by Neville "Oluyemi" Legall
OCT 2018 - JAN 2019
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Above:"Tending Sheep" by Virgil Broodhagen Top right: "Monkey in a Tree" by Hilary Armstrong Bottom middle: "The Last Corner" by Juliette Clarke Bottom right: "Tweedside Saturday Morning" by Mark Phillips Visit the BAC Art Gallery to see even more local art!
The BAC Constitution & By-Laws: Changes for Greater Effectiveness contributed by Allan Ashby On 21st November 2018, members of the Barbados
• The Executive Committee will be in place for 2
Arts Council met at their Pelican Craft Centre
years so that Annual General Meetings will be
location to vote on ratifying some necessary
held every 2 years whereas it was previously held
amendments to the Constitution and By-Laws of the
annually. Notwithstanding this, annual financial
60 year old organization.
reports will be made available to members at the
The members present voted in support of the
end of each financial year ending 31st March.
changes and so the BAC has an amended
The purpose for these changes is for the
Constitution and By-Laws. The amended document
smoother and more effective running of the
will be produced and distributed to all members by
organization. As the BAC is a registered charity
the end of the financial year falling on 31st March
with the mandate to be an enabler and developer
2019. Following is a synopsis of the major changes
of a number of the visual arts, it is necessary for
to the previous document.
the executive to have adequate time to fully
• The executive will now be constituted of 7
execute any developmental initiatives.
members instead of the former 12 members. These
It is hoped that these changes will allow the
will be President, Vice President, Honourary
organization to better meet and overcome the
Secretary, Honourary Treasurer, the immediate
challenges it is currently facing and to continue to
past president and 2 other elected members.
nurture artistic expression in Barbados.
OCT 2018 - JAN 2019
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Going for Gold! Hearty congratulations to two members of the BAC Executive Committee who achieved top honours this past November in the 2018 NIFCA Visual Arts & Photography Awards. Dr. Raymond Maughan won a Gold Award in the Photography category for his portrait "Paper Man"; and Jill McIntyre won a Gold Award in the Visual Arts category as well as an Incentive Award, for her acrylic painting "Advent". Continue to reach for excellence, guys!
Above: Dr. Raymond Maughan's Gold Award winning portrait "Paper Man" Below: Jill McIntyre's Gold Award winning acrylic painting, "Advent"
Above: Dr. Raymond Maughan receives his Gold Award from Minister of Creative Economy, Culture & Sports, John King. Below: Jill McIntyre stands with her fellow Visual Arts Gold Awardees, as well as NCF CEO Carol Roberts and Minister of Creative Economy, Culture & Sports, John King
OCT 2018 - JAN 2019
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Children's Art - the Genesis of Creative Development contributed by Rodney Ifill. AAA/ArtEd. (BCC), BFA Hons. (UWI) Cultural Officer - Visual Arts, National Cultural Foundation As a parent or guardian one would often experience the joy of having your cute little one, somewhere between the ages of two and six years old, present you with a crayon, chalk, pastel or pencil drawing with a bright and often enthusiastic smile on their face. In response, you may have the desire to pick them up and gently place them on your lap and make the innocent query into their world of visual imagination by asking: “What’s this my dear?” In some cases, the rendering may be quite obvious and in other cases not so obvious, but may consist of some random lines, shapes and scribbles, maybe with a few dots and some other random markings in between. Some adults may not think much of this visual expression presented by the child and may even give them a gentle compliment and send them on their merry way. Other persons
An example of early childhood artistic creativity
may however respond to the child’s work in a more serious manner and perhaps, place it on the refrigerator with a magnet, or affix it to a prominent display area within the home, so that all of the family members and visitors to the home may appreciate the piece; or some parents or guardians may even decide to exhibit the piece at national exhibitions hosted in Barbados, such as the National Independence Festival of Creative Arts (NIFCA) Visual Arts and Craft Exhibitions, where the general public can see and buy into the
child’s creativity. NIFCA is a celebration of the performing and exhibition arts which takes place on an annual basis in Barbados around the month of November. It is celebratory of the excellence via a competition process of talent in the schools and wider Barbadian population. It was conceptualized in 1973 and is the brain child of the late Arden Clarke and Jeanette LayneClarke who were both fierce nationalists, creative writers and arts activists. Entering artistically inclined children into this arts festival competition plays a significant role in the motivation of these children, since they benefit from gold, silver, bronze and special awards personally handsigned by the sitting Prime Minister of Barbados.
Above: "View of Milford Sound" by artist and art educator, Rodney Ifill
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Children's Art - the Genesis of Creative Development (cont'd) As previously mentioned. the latter and more serious response to the child’s artwork is indeed a very good one, since, often in many cultures, inclusive of our own, people in some school and home settings tend not to give children’s art the complete respect it deserves. This therefore presents the risk of losing out on a key contributor to the effective cognitive, motor and problem solving development of these innocent creative souls during their early stages of creative and childhood development. According to Viktor Lowenfeld, there are generally five major stages of development in children’s art. They consist of the scribbling, the pre-schematic, schematic, realism and pseudorealistic stages of development. It is the early recognition in children’s art and creativity, along with the acknowledgement and investment, as this relates to the importance of their artistic development, which will result in a more balanced and demographically wider visual arts appreciating Barbadian society. If the Cultural and Creative Arts sector in Barbados is being considered as the next major economic revenue earning commodity, then serious investment in the visual arts from these early stages, must be implemented and taken more seriously for this potential to be fully realized. The path towards this realization may be supported by the work of Rhoda Kellogg who was an early pioneer in the study of children’s art. She presented the thesis that children’s art demonstrated universal patterns and developmental stages. She was a scholar, psychologist and child educator who, not only
collected, but studied millions of drawings of children’s art from all over the world, during the course of her career, which lasted from 1948 to 1981. In her work she was able to establish common denominators in how children from all over the world produced art, regardless of their geographic location and cultural influences, when teaching themselves to draw. This was observed throughout their chronological age development, for example, Kellogg developed a classification system between 1969 and 1970 which presented twenty styles of children's scribbles with an estimated scribbling developmental age equivalent. I will briefly mention evidence of this type of defined developmental activity as supported by Lowenfeld in his five developmental stages of children art. The first stage, noted as the scribbling stage, is usually expressed in children between the ages of two to four years old. According to Lowenfeld, this stage consists of four sub categories. The first category is referred to as
Rodney Ifill is a talented artist as well as a Cultural Officer with the NCF. Above is his painting "Coming Home from Windmill to Chattle House"
/cont'd...
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Children's Art - the Genesis of Creative Development (cont'd) the disordered category and is determined by the personality of the child, who may express bold or light uncontrolled markings. At this stage, the child demonstrates little or no motor activity, possibly due to factors of their age and cognitive ability and development. The second sub category is known as the longitudinal and consists of controlled repetitions of motions. The awareness and enjoyment of kinesthetic movements are demonstrated here. The third category, circular, is a manifestation of the child’s ability to handle more complex forms as a result of the further exploration of controlled motions. Finally, and most interestingly in this category, is the naming stage which demonstrates the child’s ability and awareness about their scribble which allows them to tell stories to others about their imagination based on what they have rendered and they may even apply names to their images such as "this is my uncle, auntie, mommy, daddy or my neighbourhood", for example. This shows great
ability by the child to visualize in pictures. Therefore, as briefly outlined in this discourse,it is clear that if this area is taken seriously as demonstrated by the research and literature of international experts on the subject, this would serve to establish a precedent that would further motivate us to continue to do what we are doing as parents and teachers by supporting the artistic and creative development of our children and by continuing to enter them into all national programmes, such as, the NCF’s Summer Arts Camp programme, which has special emphasis on the holistic development of the visual and performing arts. If we can sustain this, we can therefore sustain a productive future for all of our citizens and in particular our artist and artisans who make art their career and whom, with their special talents and skills-sets, may add to the global movement of creativity and economic self sustainability through the Cultural and Creative Industries.
Now You Can Rent a Wall!!! Calling all artists... ever wanted to have a solo exhibition but didn't have enough artwork to fill the Gallery? Well, now you can rent a wall! Yes, you read that correctly! Now you can rent a wall at the BAC Art Gallery to host your own mini-exhibition, and enjoy all the benefits of having your exhibition at an art gallery with a full-time attendant, without having to fill the Gallery. It's such an easy solution! We offer very attractive rental fees of Bds $150 per week for a wall, or Bds $250 per week for the entire Gallery. Telephone the Gallery at 426-4385 or email our Honourary Secretary, Patricia Browne at thebarbadosartscouncil@gmail.com to make arrangements for your exhibition today!
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Become a Member of the Barbados Arts Council Why should you join the Barbados Arts Council? What’s in it for you? The BAC’s primary purpose is to nurture the artistic expression of creatives in Barbados. If you are an artist who wants to learn, share ideas, and contribute to the growth of Arts as a viable sector in Barbados, then you should join the Arts Council. We also welcome persons who appreciate art but who may not be artistically inclined, and who want to add their other talents and time to Apart from the satisfaction of assisting the Council in achieving its goals, here are some of the benefits that BAC members enjoy:
BAC Gallery Schedule 2019 Subject to change - Please call the Gallery to confirm. All work must be at the gallery 3 days before exhibition opens Nov 04 - Jan 25, 2019 BAC Christmas Extravaganza
1. Members can participate in any BAC group show without paying hanging fees! (up to 3 pieces per person)
Jan 27 - Mar 09 All Bajan Group show
2. New and emerging artists get the opportunity to show their artwork and gain experience at the BAC gallery when they might not yet gain access to other galleries
Mar 10 - Apr 06 Members Group Show
3. The BAC gallery commission is only 30%! (considerably less than other galleries)
Apr 07 - May 04 Members Group Show
4. Members get a 5% discount when they purchase art supplies from Laurie Dash & Sons
May 05 - May 18 Rental
5. Get a 5% - 10% discount on selected items from The Art Hub Visit the Gallery and apply for membership today. An annual fee of Bds $100 is applicable. Art Students (secondary school and BCC) are eligible for a student membership fee of Bds $50 per year.
The Last Laugh...
May 19 - Jun 22 Our Heritage (group show) Jun 23 - Aug 10 Crop Over Group Show Aug 11 - Aug 24 Rental Aug 25 - Oct 05 Little Gems Group Show Oct 06 - Oct 19 Rental Oct 20 - Dec 07 Simply Barbados Group Show Dec 08 - Jan 18, 2020 The Christmas Show
BAC Art Gallery hours: Mon-Fri 10am to 5pm, and Sat 10am to 1pm #20 Pelican Craft Centre, Harbour Road, Bridgetown (246) 426-4385