Students told inspiration can come from adversity

A group of tertiary-level students has been advised to always explore new opportunities and avenues in which to expose their art.

Curator for the Season of Emancipation exhibitions, Oneka Small, also encouraged them to feed their artistic appetite to develop new ideas and skills along their creative journey. Small was speaking to the eight Barbados Community College students as they toured the “Our Land” the third exhibition in the series of the Central Bank Crop Over Visual Arts Exhibition at the Queen’s Park Gallery on Tuesday.

“It’s very important that artistic students come and see what the practising professional creatives are doing in the country, to be inspired or just get different ideas, to see what levels they might actually have to start pitching at or working towards, because in this show we have a range of skill sets.

“It shows them that as artists you have to keep working, keep showing your work, and keep being an inspiration to other artists,” she said. Small told the students of the importance of using their circumstances including events such as the pandemic to be inspired to advance their craft.

“I think what the pandemic did is that it pushed many of us into a place of reflection about what we really want out of life and what life is really about. We began to really see the fragility of it… [Artists] have been inspired by that time inside.

“I am very happy to see the diversity of creativity that has happened in Barbados and that we have shown in the showcases [here].”

Cultural Officer for Visual Arts at the National Cultural Foundation (NCF), Rodney Ifill, offered his support to the students’ visit to the exhibition which featured several local pieces from both new and more seasoned artists. He said BCC and other institutions continue to provide a much-needed platform for local artists to flourish.

“Being a former BCC student along with many other persons working in the cultural industries [and] the museum circuit, we are always proud that in Barbados we have a number of educational institutions and wonderful tutors creating wonderful arts programmes where creatives like ourselves can come and express and get serious careers either as academics, curators or conservators in positions as they present themselves.” (SB)