Culture

NIFCA visual artists’ time to shine

70 gold awardees will be on show at Saturday’s Expo

Almost 70 gold awards have been won in this year’s NIFCA Visual Arts Competition.

Come Saturday at 10 a.m. when the official opening of the Adult and Children’s Exhibitions takes place at the Queen’s Park Gallery and the Steel Shed, the public will get to see those entries plus those earning silver and bronze awards in the first post-COVID NIFCA competition.

The NIFCA Visual Arts Competition – for juniors and non-professionals – spans the categories of Fine Art, Craft and Photography and is a highlight of thefestival which is celebrating its 50th anniversary under the theme “50 Years of Excellence Remembered”.

The National Cultural Foundation’s Curator Oneka Small says they are “very satisfied” with the response to this year’s competition and noted that “a lot of the awards are driven by attaining gold”.

“We’re doing a format where we have Simply Gold in the Queen’s Park Gallery and highlighting the best of the best. We have about 67 gold awards between schools in Fine Arts, Photography and Craft categories and, in the Steel Shed we’re having more than 60 silver and bronze awards displayed. The exhibitions will run until Saturday, December 2.

“For the photography, fine arts, and craft adult and junior entrants that were outside of the schools, there are 17 gold awards, and the rest are golds from the schools. In adult photography, we have no gold awards, but we have silvers and bronze. We have one gold in the junior photography and in adult craft, we have one gold award. …It’s really focusing this year clearly quite heavily on young people and our youth and that’s a positive thing,” Small said.

The curator added that this year, schools mounted displays at their respective compounds where they were viewed by the panel of judges. She also noted the criteria for schools are different to the adults starting at 86 points compared to the adults which begin at 91 points.

Although judging of entries started around the middle of October and wrapped up earlier this month, another round of judging will take place on Friday among the gold award winning entries to determine if any of them merit one of the special awards such as The Ivan Payne Award of Excellence for a fine arts exhibit which carries a cash prize of $3,000 and a trophy.

The other special awards are: The Marjorie Blackman Award of Excellence for a craft exhibit which takes the formofa $3,000cash prize and a trophy and The Karl Broodhagen Award, awarded to the most outstanding gold awarded sculpture or 3-dimensional piece of work in the area of Fine Art or Craft. The Percé Tappin Award of Excellence for a photography entry will not be awarded this year.

Participants also have a chance to gain one of the new special awards this year such as the Prime Minister’s Award for the Best Original Entry in NIFCA Visual Arts and the 50^th Anniversary of NIFCA Award.

The former, comprising a cash award of $3,500 and a trophy, will recognize significant creativity and innovation in a NIFCA entry that challenges established norms in the artform. The latter has a cash prize of $2 000 and a trophy and may be awarded to the Most Outstanding Presentation in the NIFCA Visual Arts 2023.

Additionally, two entrants have the chance to win two scholarships valued at $3 000 each to the Barbados Community College to pursuetraining in the Associate Degree programme in Visual Arts.

In this NIFCA golden jubilee, and in commemoration of the 160^th Anniversary of the Barbados Landship,participants in each discipline have the chance to be considered for the $2,000 cash award being offered for any entry that effectively illustrates any aspect of the institution’s history, activities, or its legacy.

There is also the $15,000 Business Entrepreneur Prize to
recognise works that demonstrate entrepreneurial value. It is offered across all disciplines to a gold awarded adult fine artist/artisan/photographer or group with a collection of winning entries that can be reproduced for mass sale. (PR)

Culture

BPS Crop Over Do-Flicky Costume Competition Winners Announced

Five winning teams have emerged from the recently held prize-giving ceremony of the inaugural ‘Barbados Postal Service (BPS) 2024 Crop Over Do-Flicky Costume Competition’.

The winners hail from the Post Offices of St. Joseph; St. George; Welches Road; St. Philip and the General Post Office in Cheapside.

The overall winner of the competition is the eight-member team of the General Post Office’s Accounts Section, who each received an Island Safari Tour. Second place went to the Welches Road Post Office, third was the St. Philip Post Office, fourth was the St. George Post Office and fifth place went to the St. Joseph Post Office.

Winning Teams (flanked by BPS management), of the inaugural ‘BPS Crop Over Do-Flicky Costume Competition’, from the GPO; Welches Road PO; St. Philip PO; St. George PO and the St. Joseph PO.

Postmaster General, Joann Busby, in her address to the winners, stated, “We look forward to many more events like this in the future, celebrating both our history and commitment to excellence.”

Concept Creator of the competition, BPS Marketing Officer Neiai Hall said, “This competition aims to showcase the creativity and cultural expression of our staff, through costume design and performance. The theme of the competition is rooted in our rich heritage and the vibrant spirit of Crop Over.

On left – ‘BPS Crop Over Do-Flicky Costume Competition’ 2nd Place Winning Costume, On right – ‘BPS Crop Over Do-FFlicky Costume Competition’ 3rd Place Winning Costume.

“We have encouraged participants to design costumes that not only display their creativity but also incorporate elements that represent the services offered by the BPS”.

The judging criteria consisted of Sustainability; Creativity; Depiction of a BPS Service; Originality; Portrayal; Video Creativity and Originality; Practicality and Inclusivity and Descriptive Write-Up.

Plaques were presented to each of the winning teams and the St. Joseph Post Office also received the Postmaster General’s special award for Outstanding Advertising Video in the competition. (PR/GIS)

Culture

LAST LAP WEEKEND – Ended with Pic-o-de-Crop Finals, Foreday Jump and Kadooment

AN INCIDENT FREE FESTIVAL By David Harris

After two months of activities that included early morning breakfast fetes and late-night parties, the golden anniversary of the Crop Over Festival ended with the Grand Kadooment on Monday.

Over 10.000 revellers in 18 bands danced on the new route which began at the Helipad in Bridgetown and ended in front of Kensington Oval. The street parade was changed its 9 a.m. start to 10 a.m. by the National Cultural Foundation after the Barbados Meteorological Service placed the island under a severe thunderstorm watch.

Eventually, the Blue Box Cart band got the parade moving at 10.07 and the masqueraders began wining and chipping on the streets of Bridgetown.

Only 13 of the 18 bands on parade judged, among the revellers were Barbadian superstar and National Hero, the Right Excellent Robin Rihanna Fenty and former West Indies captain Brian Lara.

Some bands were still heading towards the Mighty Grynner Highway just before at minutes to 9 o’clock. Aura was the last band to reach the highway before the police ended the parade.

The Grand Kadooment ended an action-packed weekend that included the Pic O De Crop Finals at the National Botanical Gardens in Waterford on Friday night, the Foreday Morning Jam which began in Bridgetown in the wee hours of morning and the Grand Kadooment on Monday.

Fans were primed for thrilling contest between the defending monarch IWeb (Ian Webster) and Adrian “AC” Clarke who placed second in last year’s Pic O De Crop competition; but it was AC who captured the crown for the third time after IWeb who appeared to have forgotten the lyrics of the De Village Ram in the second half of the competition.

Clarke performed at number 16 (immediately behind IWeb) and stamped his authority on the competition with an impressive performance of the self-penned Going Fuh Crown, the judges awarded him 133 points, 28 more than Sir Ruel who came second.

Adrian Clarke the 2024 Calypso Monarch

His impressive performance won the first prize of $100,000 or a Nissan E Powe X- Trail valued at $136,000; Clarke told journalists after the competition he had opted to take the vehicle instead of the prize money. Clarke, 52, first won the crown in 2001 and in 2008.

Sir Ruel was the most outstanding performer in the first half with A Single Bullet, he wrote the calypso in memory of his brother Dario Jon-Luc Holder-Branch who was shot to death in February this year. The former Junior Monarch amassed 105 points and won a cash prize of $40,000.

*Sir Ruel, Pic of de Crop, 2nd place winner*

Perennial finalist Chrystal Cummins-Beckles placed third with De Proposal, the multi-talented musician, arranger and composer was awarded 97 points and the $20,000 prize.

Billboard placed fourth for the second consecutive his calypso earned him a cash prize of $15,000; and first timer Tae, the youngest competitor in the final took the fifth position and $10,000 with A Big Cirus.

Calypsonians placing from the sixth to tenth position received $8,000 each, those coming 11 th to 18 th got $6000.

The competition started 51 minutes after the scheduled 8 p.m. due to technical hitches with video presentations, and one contestant (Kid Site) had to start over his song because of problems with the audio. The second half started just after midnight and ended at 2.10 a.m.

In commemoration of the 50 th anniversary of the Crop Festival there were performances by former monarchs the Mighty Destroyer. Red Plastic, the Mighty Gabby and Edwin Yearwood.