No gallery, artists leaving island taking work with them

By Jenique Belgrave

The continued absence of a National Art Gallery in Barbados is hindering the growth of the creative sector.

Local artist Heather Dawn Scott suggests that steps be taken to address the long-standing issue, as many local artists are leaving the island because they feel under-appreciated. They take  with them, she added, any benefits that could be derived from having a dedicated home on island to display their talents for the world.

“They may live here, but they’re going abroad to have their shows and set up studios elsewhere, because we don’t have a national art gallery and there’s no automatic display space for them to set up exhibitions. If we had a national art gallery, we could have these shows and other shows coming in from outside.

“We need shows coming in from the Caribbean, from Africa, from South America, not just from the north, but we need to know what’s going on within our sphere. So a national art gallery should have concurrent shows where we can have the exquisite national collection and also our more contemporary work, which includes things like performance art, and film and video and conceptual work,” she added.

Taking to the streets again to protest the situation last Friday night, Scott erected a display in Independence Square emblazoned with the words ‘The Art is Ours’ to draw attention to the issue.   

Now on her eighth protest, she told Barbados TODAY that for too long the art fraternity had been assured that such a space would be created and with the news in 2021 that the Block ‘A’ building at the Garrison was earmarked, hopes had been raised, but to date, nothing has materialised.

Noting that the work of this island’s best artists were “locked up in the dark and out of sight”, Scott also raised concerns about the size of the building.

“Block ‘A’ is a sweet little building, but it’s absolutely inadequate for a National Art Gallery. We’ve been waiting for 66 years of promises and while it may come to fruition, my terror is that they will use a building that is not big enough, that you can’t hang things off the ceiling or that the walls are timbered so that you only can do certain size works. We need a purpose-built building and we need the artists involved,” she stated.

Scott emphasized, “The Barbadian public has to be made aware that we have a national collection that belongs to the public, and that collection is locked away, and we are tired of this.”

In 2021, the then Minister with responsibility for Culture John King said there was limited funding for the refurbishment of the Block ‘A’ at the former home of the Caribbean Examinations Council, and stressed that additional donors would be needed. (JB)