Please introduce yourself, tell us a little bit about where in the region you are based, and share some of the major ideas and themes you engage with in your practice.
Punch Creative Arena is a curatorial initiative based in Barbados that aims to showcase and interrogate creative production with a multi-disciplinary focus on local, regional and international art practices. Punch generates projects that focus on collaborative work, research and artistic production, in an effort to encourage art making and discourse while building community awareness and involvement.
Punch was started in 2013 by Allison Thompson and Ewan Atkinson. We are both independent cultural practitioners with many years working in art education. Perceiving a lack of a supportive infrastructure for artistic practice in Barbados, we wanted to initiate and develop our own collaborative projects as producers. Within the parameters of education, we wanted to address the gap between ideas generated in the classroom and the ‘real world’ .
We have in the past worked with exhibiting artists to provide critical feedback during production and the conceptualisation of the exhibition, we install and promote the exhibition, and in 2015 we started producing digital catalogues with critical essays. We are now transitioning our practice to focus on research led, transdisciplinary and collaborative projects.
Allison Thompson (Ph.D.) is an art historian and curator living in Barbados. She has worked with a number of cultural organizations including the Barbados Community College, the Barbados National Art Gallery, the Black Diaspora Visual Arts Project, and is the founding president of AICA Southern Caribbean.
Ewan Atkinson is an artist and educator, born in Barbados. Over the past twenty years he has exhibited in numerous regional and international exhibitions including the 2015 Havana Biennial, the 2010 Liverpool Biennial, “Infinite Islands”, at the Brooklyn Museum and Prospect 6 in New Orleans. Atkinson is currently the coordinator of the Studio Art BFA programme at the Barbados Community College.
How has the TENDER grant allowed Punch Creative Arena to focus on research-based, trans-disciplinary projects and share them across new spaces as part of its aim to contribute productively to intellectual and social exchange?
Thanks to the TENDER grant, PUNCH was able to provide support for Ewan Atkinson’s exhibition, Stories from the Neighbourhood: The Great Exposition which opened at Queen’s Park Gallery on September 6th. Punch also hosted Hotseat, where Ewan was in conversation with Versia Harris, Simone Asia and Allison Thompson. It was a very successful evening with a large and receptive audience. After a period of reduced activity the TENDER grant has been important motivation as we rethink how we want to operate in a new format that focuses less on exhibitions and more on research and collaboration with colleagues locally, regionally and internationally . We are currently planning a research trip to visit some collections and archives. And we are in discussion about a potential venue which we have identified where we hope to share both the process and outcomes as the project evolves.
In addition to initiatives like TENDER, what other kinds of support or programming geared towards the needs of contemporary creative practitioners would you like to see implemented in the Caribbean?
We would like to see more spaces that are conducive to showing contemporary and experimental work, that prioritize the vision and goals of the artist, that support and encourage bringing new work to an audience.
