Category: Caribbean

FRESH MILK Off-Site Residencies – Shanika Grimes and Versia Harris

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FRESH MILK is still supporting two recent graduates of the Barbados Community College, Shanika Grimes and Versia Harris, as they undertake Off-Site Residencies with us.

We have been acting as liaison between the artists and their review panels, who send them feedback on a regular basis in order to assist them in the shaping of their practices as they strive to keep producing work post-graduation.

To keep up with their artwork and activities, visit their artist blogs at:

Shanika Grimes – http://mirrormirrormylove.tumblr.com/
Versia Harris – http://versiaabeda.tumblr.com/

FRESH MILK’s Current Artist in Residence: Alberta Whittle

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FRESH MILK is pleased to introduce our current artist in residence, Alberta Whittle. She has been joining us at the Milking Parlour Studio from October 1st, participating in an eight to ten week residency titled ‘Second Armour.’

Alberta is a Barbadian artist, currently based in Glasgow. She has undertaken residencies at CESTA (Czech Republic), Market Gallery (Scotland), Collective Gallery (Scotland), Thupelo Wellington Artists’ Workshop (South Africa) and looks forward to taking part in a residency with the Visiting Artists’ Programme at The Bag Factory in Johannesburg next year.

She choreographs interactive installations, interventions and performances as site‐specific artworks in public and private spaces, including at the Royal Scottish Academy (Scotland) and has exhibited in various solo and group shows in Europe, the Caribbean and South Africa, with an upcoming show at the CAS Gallery, University of Cape Town in March 2013. Her practice is concerned with the construction of stereotypes of race, nationality and gender, considering the motivation behind the perpetuation and the different forms in which they are manifested.

Her time at FRESH MILK will include a series of performances, open forum discussions about anxieties surrounding race, workshops with the Fine Art students at BCC, and an exhibition/intervention stemming from her experiences and research done during her stay with us.

Alberta will be doing a performance piece titled ‘Hustle de Money – a Performance by Bertie aka Big Red aka General outta Glitter Zone’ at our next public event, FRESH MILK IX. Stay tuned for more information!

FRESH MILK Collaborates with the Instituto Buena Bista in a Satellite Project

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FRESH MILK is pleased to collaborate with the IBB in November 2012 as a part of our Satellite Programme, working to link informal artistic networks throughout the region and in the diaspora.

Barbadian creative and Assistant to Director here at Fresh Milk, Katherine Kennedy (who is collaborating with Barbadian art historian and Fresh Milk Liaison Officer Natalie McGuire, currently based in New Zealand) and Vincentian artist, writer and co-founder of ARC Magazine Holly Bynoe will be residing together at the IBB headquarters in Curaçao. They will engage with the students and artistic community through a series of interactive USTREAM interviews and a Master Class respectively, as well as developing their own ideas and practices.

The second part of this exchange takes place when co-founders of the IBB David Bade and Tirzo Martha, visiting Dutch artist Erik Habets and three students from the IBB visit Fresh Milk  on November 25th, where they will conduct workshops and critiques with students at the Barbados Community College, visit local artists’ studios, and give a public presentation about the IBB on the Fresh Milk platform.

Stay tuned for more information on this exciting series of events!

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.

UNESCO Workshop on Creative Entrepreneurship

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FRESH MILK was asked to be the venue for two of four workshops hosted by The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) on Creative Entrepreneurship in Barbados.

Andrew Senior, the internationally respected expert on entrepreneurship and business development in the creative sector, led the workshops with groups of young, creative Barbadians age 35 and under, to help shape his report on “Developing wider entrepreneurship in Barbados’s cultural and creative industries”.

Discussions in the morning sessions revolved around the challenges of building a creative business in Barbados, while the afternoon was reserved for focused seminars on leveraging more from your networks (October 4th) and working internationally (October 9th).

FRESH MILK is glad to have facilitated these talks among the youth, stimulating ideas and encouraging them to be proactive with their ambitions. This initiative aligns  with our vision to engage with young creatives and advance dialogue in relation to the creative economy.