Reflections on show at Gallery

Central Bank Crop Over Exhibition salutes 50 years

The 50th anniversary of Barbados’ premier cultural festival is as good a time as any to reflect on its growth, its impact, what it means to the people, and how it has been able to breakdown existing borders among them.

During this milestone golden anniversary of the festival, which falls within the Season of Emancipation, the Central Bank of Barbados Crop Over Visual Arts Exhibition takes centrestage.

CEO of the NCF Carol Roberts (left) and Governor of the Central Bank Dr Kevin Greendige chatting during the official opening of this year’s exhibition.

The art being showcased in the series of three exhibitions at Queen’s Park Gallery under the overarching theme of “Diffusing Borders in Colour, Motion and Form” is “structured differently”. 

Reflections is the title of the first exhibition which opened to the public on May 25. It closes on June 22 and the public is being invited to view it at the Queen’s Park Gallery, Monday to Saturday between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m.

The National Cultural Foundation’s Curator Oneka Small said this time around instead of an open call for artists, the pieces in this one focus on the work selected from national and a private collection. 

“In this show, which is all collections, we’ve highlighted the past Crop Over winners from the Central Bank collection and they form the bulk of the collection that we have mounted. Along with that, we’ve included the work from the Barbados National Art Gallery, the Barbados Gallery of Art and Kathy Yearwood. This first show is like a look back at what went before and to highlight some of top work through the years,” said Small.

The Curator also stated that over the last two years the focus of the Central Bank of Barbados Crop Over Visual Arts Exhibition was on trauma, slavery, the period of enslavement, and looking back. Reflections embodies the principles of Sankofa, one of which is looking back to look ahead.

“This year we wanted to look at where we are and determine how we could go forward as a multicultural society and so, we incorporated this into our planning. In executing those plans we took another step because we wanted to see how we could not only have the art but the collaborations and how we could diffuse borders by working together.

“The Barbados Gallery of Art, the Barbados National Art Gallery and the Central Bank have work in storage that’s not normally seen and we wanted to showcase it so people could see the work the different institutions and an individual have been doing for the good of art in Barbados, vis-à-vis collecting art,” Small said.

Seeing the idea come alive in Reflections which spans five decades, has been “a really good experience,” she added. The work includes a variety of art such as paintings, drawings, ceramics and mixed media centred around the theme. 

The second exhibition – Contemporary Offerings – officially opens later this month and while it is based at Queen’s Park Gallery, the Curator said other galleries, such as Caribbean Gallery of Art, Winifred Cumberbatch Gallery, Frangipani Art Gallery, and others, have been invited to participate in the celebration. 

“This exhibition is also different because we usually invite artists to show in one space but again, we are promoting collaborative effort and will have people showing in different spaces. We have reached out to the different galleries to ask if they can curate shows with their group of artists on the theme so that we would have all the different art exhibitions across the island. Artists’ studios will also be open across the island during this third event. This exhibition ends on July 27. 

The third one in the series is Reconnections. (PR)