Category: Arc

NLS presents ‘in’ an online conversation with Caribbean Linked

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Online_convo_Caribbean_linked_flyer

NLS presents the third iteration of “in”, a series of live online conversations on Youtube and Google Hangouts with visual artists, art organisers and curators. On Monday, September 2 at 9:00pm EST & EDT/8:00pm Jamaica time, NLS director Deborah Anzinger will be talking about intra-Caribbean residency program Caribbean Linked, with Holly Bynoe of ARC Magazine, Annalee Davis of Fresh Milk, Elvis Lopez of Ateliers ’89 and artist Sofia Maldonado.

TUNE IN HERE at NLS’ YOUTUBE.

NLS is a non-profit contemporary visual art initiative in Kingston, Jamaica that operates as a subsidiary of Creative Sounds Ltd. The goal of NLS is to support the work of visual artists committed to breaking new ground in their chosen disciplines, and to connect such artists to the global contemporary art community.

ARC Magazine is a non-profit print and online publication and social platform founded in 2011. It seeks to fill a certain void by offering a critical space for contemporary artists to present their work while fostering and developing critical dialogues and opportunities for crucial points of exchange. ARC is an online and social space of interaction with a developed methodology of sharing information about contemporary practices, exhibitions, partnerships, and opportunities occurring in the Caribbean region and throughout its diasporas. ARC’s mission is to build awareness by fostering exchanges and opportunities that expand creative culture, within the visual arts industry across the wider Caribbean and its diasporas.

The Fresh Milk Art Platform Inc. is a Caribbean non-profit, artist-led, inter-disciplinary organization that supports creatives and promotes wise social, economic, and environmental stewardship through creative engagement with society and by cultivating excellence in the arts. The idea for Fresh Milk developed over years of conversations with other practicing artists around the need for artistic engagement amongst contemporary practitioners living and working in Barbados, with an expressed need to strengthen links with the region and the diaspora. Fresh Milk bridges the divides between creative disciplines, generations of creatives, and works across all linguistic territories in the region – functioning as a cultural lab, constantly redefining itself. The platform transforms into a gathering space for contemporary creatives who are thirsty to debate ideas and share works through local and international residencies, lectures, screenings, workshops, exhibitions, projects etc.

The Foundation ‘Ateliers ’89’ offers Arubans and others interested from the Caribbean region an orientation on contemporary applied art and design. Workshops in different disciplines as painting, installations, video-art, photography, drawing, fashion, theatrical-design, ceramics, animation, graphic design and history of art are organized in a spacious, open and comfortable setting. Established foreign and local artist teach at the studio’s. Every workshop culminates in an exhibition which is open to the public. Furthermore, there are special workshops and tours of the exhibitions for children and young students. Ateliers ’89 works in close cooperation with a number of art academies in the Netherlands. This way, young talents who started off in the workshops of Ateliers ’89 can easily find their way to a Dutch academy.

Caribbean Linked II: Artist Residency Programme and Exhibition

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caribbean linked

Ateliers ’89 Foundation and the Mondriaan Foundation in collaboration with ARC Inc. and The Fresh Milk Art Platform Inc. present CARIBBEAN LINKED II, a residency programme and exhibition which will take place from August 25th through September 6th, 2013 in Oranjestad, Aruba.

Invited Artists include: Omar Kuwas (Curaçao), Veronica Dorsett (The Bahamas), Mark King (Barbados), Shirley Rufin (Martinique), Sofia Maldonado (Puerto Rico/US), Dhiradj Ramsamoedj (Suriname), Rodell Warner (Trinidad and Tobago), Robin de Vogel, Kevin Schuit and Germille Geerman (Aruba). The selected artists were chosen collaboratively by Annalee Davis, Holly Bynoe and Elvis Lopez.

Caribbean Linked II will be held in association with Studio O, Terafuse, Museo Arqueologico Arubano, UNOCA, San Nicolas TV, Departamento di Cultura, SVE TV, Alydia Wever Theatre Dance Company and Gang di Arte Aruba.

Most popular through Facebook and social media platforms, to be linked or to be connected is the world’s most common way to be associated right now. This residency and exhibition will present young talent while raising issues of their collective futures by discussing the survival of artists, and the sustainability of local creative communities that nurture their development and maintain their connectivity. This residency becomes a crucial space for building awareness across disparate creative communities in the Caribbean and its diaspora by finding ways to connect young and emerging artists with each other. Selected participants will engage in two weeks of open discussion and critiques, various professional workshops, visit established local artists’ studios and better understand the creative cultural industries that propel Aruban art. An exhibition of work produced during the residency will be displayed at Ateliers ’89 and will open on September 5th.

logo 5 agosto 2013

Collaborating local artists include Alydia Wever, Ciro Abath, Evelino Fingal, Glenda Heyliger, John Freddy Montoya, Marian Abath, Nelson Gonzales, Osaira Muyale and Ryan Oduber. Collaborating partner professionals and institutions include Vivi Ruiz of the Archaeology Museum of Aruba, Lupita Giel of UNOCA and Siegfried Dumfries of the Department of Culture.

Participating institutions include:

ARC Magazine

ARC Magazine is a non-profit print and online publication and social platform founded in 2011. It seeks to fill a certain void by offering a critical space for contemporary artists to present their work while fostering and developing critical dialogues and opportunities for crucial points of exchange. ARC is an online and social space of interaction with a developed methodology of sharing information about contemporary practices, exhibitions, partnerships, and opportunities occurring in the Caribbean region and throughout its diasporas. ARC’s mission is to build awareness by fostering exchanges and opportunities that expand creative culture, within the visual arts industry across the wider Caribbean and its diasporas.

Fresh Milk

The Fresh Milk Art Platform Inc. is a Caribbean non-profit, artist-led, inter-disciplinary organization that supports creatives and promotes wise social, economic, and environmental stewardship through creative engagement with society and by cultivating excellence in the arts. The idea for Fresh Milk developed over years of conversations with other practicing artists around the need for artistic engagement amongst contemporary practitioners living and working in Barbados, with an expressed need to strengthen links with the region and the diaspora. Fresh Milk bridges the divides between creative disciplines, generations of creatives, and works across all linguistic territories in the region – functioning as a cultural lab, constantly redefining itself. The platform transforms into a gathering space for contemporary creatives who are thirsty to debate ideas and share works through local and international residencies, lectures, screenings, workshops, exhibitions, projects etc.

Ateliers ‘89

The Foundation ‘Ateliers ’89’ offers Arubans and others interested from the Caribbean region an orientation on contemporary applied art and design. Workshops in different disciplines as painting, installations, video-art, photography, drawing, fashion, theatrical-design, ceramics, animation, graphic design and history of art are organized in a spacious, open and comfortable setting. Established foreign and local artist teach at the studio’s. Every workshop culminates in an exhibition which is open to the public. Furthermore, there are special workshops and tours of the exhibitions for children and young students. Ateliers ’89 works in close cooperation with a number of art academies in the Netherlands. This way, young talents who started off in the workshops of Ateliers ’89 can easily find their way to a Dutch academy.

Aruba Linked/Caribbean Linked

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October 12 – 15 2012

BACKGROUND

Ateliers ’89 Foundation and the Fresh Milk Art Platform Inc. collaborated to create an international gathering of art experts which took place between October 12th and 15th 2012 in Aruba. Ateliers ’89 hosted the event which included bringing in the following persons to Aruba to participate in a symposium and a panel:

Rocio Aranda Alvarado – Curator, El Museo del Barrio, New York City, USA

Paco Barragan – Independent curator, Madrid, Spain

Holly Bynoe – Co-founder and editor of ARC magazine, St Vincent & the Grenadines

John Cox – Founder and director, Popop Studios, The Bahamas and co-curator, the National Art Gallery of the Bahamas

Annalee Davis – Founder and director, the Fresh Milk Art Platform Inc., Barbados

THE SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

During the course of the four days a symposium took place, a panel discussion, studio and gallery visits, the launch of ARC magazine and a series of meetings with stakeholders in the public and private sector. The symposium and panel discussion were streamed live via Ustream, allowing a regional and international audience to join the proceedings. Supporting the programme was the Youth Bienal organised by Ateliers ’89 as a way to exhibit the works of young Aruban and Dutch artists and expose those works to the visiting creatives. Two young Barbadian artists were also included in the exhibition.

The symposium gave the visiting creatives an opportunity to share their work as curators, publishers and founders of informal networks with the Aruban art community. It also gave the visiting creatives an opportunity to develop an understanding of the local art space. The launch of the ARC magazine created more awareness in Aruba of it’s art publication and web presence demonstrating how it functions as an integrative tool for the visual arts across the region.

Of critical importance was the series of meetings scheduled by Elvis Lopez, the Director of Ateliers ’89, which allowed us to meet Dr. Dumfries, the Director of Culture in the Ministry of Culture, Mr. Jonathan Viera, the Director of Cas di Cultura, Mrs. Lupita Gil, the Director of UNOCA, Vicki Arens, the Director of FDEC, the Weston Hotel Art Gallery and Insight Foundation.

As a result of these meetings we came to learn of the Ministry of Culture’s pending programme to promote the Rietveld Academy in Aruba and the 2013 launch of their preparatory visual arts programme that is open to art students from around the region and who want to enter a BFA course afterwards. The Ministry is keen to inform the region of this programme and ARC magazine will assist in promoting this programme through their website.

Also coming out of these events was the proposed idea of holding a Barbados Linked / Caribbean Linked programme at FRESH MILK in February 2013. The purpose of this gathering would be to extend the Fresh Milk/Ateliers ’89 conversation which took place at the Ateliers ’89 Foundation in Aruba, and to deepen the links further across the region while circulating ideas about sustainability within the creative economy of the Caribbean.

Stay tuned for more information on this venture!

Visit http://www.ustream.tv/channel/ateliers-89 to watch videos of the panel discussions.

Musings from the Milking Parlour Studio: The Launch of FRESH MILK – an artist led initiative in Barbados

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For Barbados Today August 2011 

Annalee Davis

Photos Credit – Dondre Trotman “The FRESH MILK platform”

Photos Credit – Dondre Trotman “The FRESH MILK platform”

On August 13th at the Milking Parlour Studio located in St. George, FRESH MILK, (www.freshmilkbarbados.com/) an artist led initiative offering an informal platform for exchanges among contemporary practitioners, writers and makers; was launched.  The inaugural event offered a rich programme including an artists’ talk, an exhibition and a screening of sixteen video shorts from around the region.  The focus of the FRESH MILK event was the launching of ARC III, a quarterly Caribbean art and culture print magazine published out of St. Vincent and the Grenadines by Holly Bynoe and Nadia Huggins.  (www.arcthemagazine.com)

But first, a bit of background – what is FRESH MILK?

The idea for FRESH MILK has developed over years of conversations with other practicing artists around the need for artistic engagement amongst contemporary practitioners living and working in Barbados who are concerned with a contemporary Caribbean space – which maybe in Bridgetown, Toronto, Port of Spain or East London.  My interest in founding FRESH MILK was renewed after having returned to teaching in the art department at BCC after a five year hiatus and realizing (again) that students with BFA degrees had no where to go once they graduated to share their ideas, be mentored or become part of a creative community that acknowledges their practice.

FRESH MILK’s aim is to support interactions across disciplines and contribute to an increasingly rich discourse surrounding creative production within the informal networks of the Caribbean.  Its seasonal programming will offer events in the Wet Season and the Dry Season in its commitment to bring people and ideas together.  This venture is connected in spirit to the increasingly rich informal artist-led networks spawning from the Bahamas in the North to Suriname in the South.

FRESH MILK is located in the Southern Caribbean, a region often referred to as a hybridized space, well known for its capacity to fuse various elements and remake itself over and over again.  In this tradition, FRESH MILK appears to be a singular space – a simple wooden deck used as a private eating area for a family but which on occasion transforms into a platform for ideas – bridging the divide between private and public, disciplines or territories; transformable into a gathering space for contemporary creatives who are thirsty to debate ideas and share works.

The humble FRESH MILK space straddles my residence with my working studio and gallery.  It is literally a wooden deck – a platform if you will, that connects my home with the place where I think, write, and make things; becoming a point of connection between living and working environments as well as between myself and others.

THE EVENT THAT LAUNCHED FRESH MILK

The evening’s proceedings began with my conversing with Holly and Nadia about the birth of ARC – a delicious magazine which “offers insight into current creative industries, while bridging the gap between established and emerging artists.”[i]  The founders spoke to their interest in creating something beautiful and worthwhile to showcase the work coming out of the region and also about their need to develop a collaborative project to mitigate isolation – especially for Holly who was returning to quiet Bequia from energetic NYC.  Their interest was to honour creative practitioners and provide a space for people to come together.  The founders acknowledged that embarking on the ARC project was a huge leap of faith.  Now into preparing the fourth issue, they feel as though they are being understood in the Caribbean and that their jump of faith has resulted in being ‘caught’ as manifested by the encouraging support they have received throughout the region.  Holly closed by speaking about our need to form a united front, to think about the power of coming together and the need to harness this energy right now and acknowledge the groundswell taking place.

Photo Credit – Dondre Trotman. From left to right – Holly Bynoe and Nadia Huggins, ARC Founders in conversation with Annalee Davis, FRESH MILK Founder – on the platform.”

The second component of the launch included Project and Space, founded by Barbadian artist, Sheena Rose.  This initiative was also born out of a need to mitigate isolation and to develop collaborative projects with others by using both her private studio space and public venues for monthly meetings with younger practitioners.  Having just returned from a three-month residency at the Tembe Art Studio in Suriname where she felt isolated at the programme’s deeply rural location, she felt surprised on returning to Barbados that the isolation was ever present here as well and decided to do something about it.  Sheena thought that the separate circles of artists, writers and filmmakers should come together “and make one big circle.”  Project and Space participated in the Fresh Milk launch by co-curating a small exhibition with ARC, to showcase the works of five Barbadian artists working in photography, mixed media, sculpture and painting.  This collaborative action was in keeping with ARC’s intention to inspire and give voice to a new generation of emerging artists, and provided the opportunity for the audience to see some of the new work evolving while alleviating the isolation many practitioners experience.

Photo Credit – Dondre Trotman. Sheena Rose, Project and Space Founder with Natalie McGuire, Art Historian

Photo Credit – Dondre Trotman. Barbadian artists from left to right – Alicia Alleyne, Mark King, Sheena Rose, Cindy Jackman and Joanna Crichlow

The third feature of the launch consisted of the viewing of video shorts produced by sixteen artists from the region.  A home made screen was suspended from my children’s very tall swing set, large blankets were laid out on the lawn, and more than seventy people viewed a fifty-one minute selection of video works curated by the ARC founders.

Photo Credit – Dondre Trotman. “The Theatre at FRESH MILK”

One of the artists who attended the event wrote to say that it was the arts event of the year.  I do not know where these people came from…many I did not know.  The audience spanned generations and the excitement felt by recent graduates and young practitioners was palpable.  Some confessed their eager anticipation about the event and everywhere someone was meeting someone else for the first time….we were getting to know ourselves….still!  A young animated Barbadian man is entering his second year in Arts Administration at Goldsmiths in London, an eager Art Historian returned to Barbados three weeks ago with degree in hand from the University of Leicester, a recent graduate from BCC is now in Kenya at an arts residency, another just back from one at Alice Yard in Trinidad.

As Holly suggested, there is a groundswell in the arts.  It is a moment to be harnessed and a time to be savored.  The shift is happening, and our challenge is to keep up the momentum.

Photo Credit – Dondre Trotman – Viewing the Video Shorts

Just as Holly and Nadia were leaving to return home and prepare for their next stop at the Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival where they will present a new media programme at this September event, my parting gift to them was copies of RA, a quarterly publication of the informal group, Representing Artists from 1993/1994.  RA was an artists’ union and watchdog organization, co-founded to, again, mitigate isolation, born out of the lack of acknowledgement and support expected from the formal art institutions.  Re-reading my editorials from that comparatively humble publication eighteen years ago reveals what has and has not changed in the region.  What has not changed is that many formal institutions are still dysfunctional and in dire need of rehab but are in denial about their failure to function properly….part of the general malaise and crisis of leadership we all know too well and which continues to mash up the region. The other thing that has not changed is that the oxygen being pumped into the art community continues to come from the blood of artists – not state institutions whose mandate it is to grow the arts.

What has changed is that the internet has democratized access to information and to each other, making it impossible for those who once controlled access to maintain absolute control.  I was reminded that the RA publications were reaching out to the region in the same ways that ARC is doing today…the six issues a precursor to the efforts of Holly and Nadia who are offering a much more sophisticated publication, carefully designed and printed so beautifully in a fancy art house printery in Iceland and not by a primitive machine in black and white.  ARC’s mission to “foster and develop dialogue and opportunities for individual and collaborative visual artists across the region and to stimulate sharing and creativity by providing an outlet for self-expression and uniqueness” was in essence the mission of RA.

The fact that visual artists are still working to alleviate isolation and build opportunities means that their own production wanes, making the efforts sweeter because the sacrifice is so great.  And it is this sacrifice that makes each of us complicit in the failure or success of all the artist led-initiatives throughout the region.  As an artist-led initiative, ARC magazine is made possible by the subscription and support of its readers.  In other words, if we don’t support it, it cannot sustain itself.  And isn’t this the question for the Caribbean as a whole?