The Fresh Milk Art Platform, Future Centre Trust, Environ Ltd (Adopt A Stop Barbados) and The Healing Arts Initiative in partnership with CULTURUNNERS as part of the World Health Organization are pleased to present a collection of public artistic interventions.

Six Barbadian artists were commissioned to create new works strategically installed as artistic interventions on the Trailway and incorporated into bus shelters placed in rural, underserved communities around the island as an outdoor exhibition opportunity.

The artists include Anna Gibson who has provided artwork for the rain shelter, Dion Gibson and Anya Greaves, who have provided artwork for the benches on the Trailway. The bus shelters will be situated in St. John, St. George, and St. Andrew with a series of new works created by Joshua Clarke, Versia Harris, and Amelia Rouse.

All photos by Dondré Trotman

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ABOUT THE PROJECT:

This project recognises the role of the arts sector in addressing the growing mental health crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, followed and further impacted by the La Soufriere volcanic eruption and Category 1 Hurricane Elsa.

The pandemic and occurrence of natural disasters have reminded us of the value of green spaces and the natural environment to enhance our physical, mental, and spiritual wellness. It is well known that people, and children in particular, recover better and flourish in the outdoors. While Barbados is blessed with many beaches where locals can recreate, there isn’t enough variety of safe outdoor recreational activities promoting active mobility for young people and families.

The Future Centre Trust has been working for some time to repurpose the historic train line located in the south-central part of the island in the St. George Valley.

With the support of the Healing Arts Initiative, Fresh Milk is pleased to be collaborating with the Future Centre Trust and Environ Ltd (Adopt A Stop Barbados) to work with local artists and to strategically install these artistic interventions on the trailway as a linear outdoor exhibition opportunity, giving artists a chance to contribute to this dynamic and highly anticipated public project. Secondly, we proposed the intervention of three additional outreach solar bus shelters to be placed in underserved rural communities.

Healing Arts was launched in 2020 under the auspices of the World Health organization as part of The Future is Unwritten, a global initiative calling for urgent cooperation between the Arts Sector and United Nations Agencies in order to amplify and accelerate the implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, the most ambitious and comprehensive global development plan in human history. With leading UN Agencies describing the recent pandemic as nature’s first ‘warning shot’ to civilizations playing with fire, global cultural action that contributes to the envisioning and shaping of a more resilient, healthy, and sustainable future is now more urgent than ever.

Established as part of the United Nations’ 75th Anniversary Programme (UN75) and Decade of Action, Healing Arts 2020-2030 is produced in 2022 by CULTURUNNERS and Arts & Health @ NYU under the secretariat of the World Health Organization’s Arts and Health Program.

Click on the images below to learn more about each artist and their work!