The National Gallery of Jamaica is pleased to announce that it is partnering with Arts in the Park – Visual Arts Edition, a production of the Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment, and Sport. Arts in the Park, a series of arts and entertainment events in which the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts and the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission are also partners, takes place from Friday, May 26 to Sunday, May 28 at the National Gallery and Devon House.
For the National Gallery of Jamaica, Arts in the Park – Visual Arts Edition also forms part of the closing activities for the Jamaica Biennial 2017 and the National Gallery will be open to the public until 6 pm on May 26, 27 and 28, to give the public another chance to view this important and popular exhibition.
A key objective of Arts in the Park is to give young and emerging cultural practitioners the opportunity to interact with international and local experts in their field and to work towards tangible outcomes, in terms of professional development opportunities. To this end, the National Gallery is offering a workshop and panel discussion series that will take place on Saturday, May 27 and Sunday, May 28. Full details on the workshop and panel discussion programme can be downloaded here.
The May 27 programme, which takes place at the National Gallery on the Kingston Waterfront, starts at 10 am with a closed workshop on artist’s statements and portfolio presentations for young and emerging artists, which will take place from 10 am to noon. Though the workshop is offered free of cost, pre-registration is required and space is limited. As part of the pre-registration process, candidates are required to submit an artist’s statement and bio and a short portfolio presentation in PowerPoint format by Wednesday, May 24. Artists who are interested in participating in this workshop are urged to contact our Education Department at 922-1561/3 or info@natgalja.org.jm for registration and the registration form, with instructions for the submission of materials, can be downloaded here.
Lunch-time entertainment is at 12:30 pm by the UWI Classical and Jazz Ensemble. Light refreshments may be purchased at the National Gallery’s coffee shop.
In the afternoon of May 27, there will be two panel discussions. The first, starts at 2 pm and explores how artists can effectively interact with the local and international art market, and the second, which starts at 4 pm, examines the protocols involved in working with curators and art writers. In both discussions, special attention will be paid to best practices and common problems and misconceptions. Both panel discussions are free and open to the public but young and emerging artists are especially encouraged to attend.
On Sunday, May 28, the Arts in the Park programme shifts to Devon House, multi-spatial visual art installation that will involve exhibitions, live performances, demonstrations, fashion, and discussion co-presented by the partners in the programme. This will include a round table discussion on the Jamaica Biennial 2017, which will take place in the gazebo on the East Lawn at 2:30 pm. The entire programme at Devon House is free and open to the public.
The international guests for the workshop and panel discussion programme are: the Canadian curator and gallerist Monique Meloche, who represents critically acclaimed emerging artists such as Rashid Johnson, Nate Young, Amy Sherald and Ebony G. Patterson, through her Monique Meloche Gallery in Chicago, the Jamaica-born, New York City-based art critic and museologist Seph Rodney, who writes for Hyperallergic art magazine; the Trinidadian artist, art writer and curator Christopher Cozier, who is a founding Director of Alice Yard in Trinidad and who served as a juror for the Jamaica Biennial 2017; Natalie Urquhart, a curator and arts manager from the Cayman Islands and the UK, who serves as the Director of the National Gallery of the Cayman Islands, where she recently hosted Tilting Axis 3, a think tank for artists, curators and art writers from the Caribbean and beyond; and, last but not least, Jamaica’s Ebony G. Patterson, who presently divides her time between Jamaica and the USA, where she serves as professor of painting and mixed media at the University of Kentucky and pursues an increasingly successful international art career. The local panelists include Petrona Morrison (artist and retired director, School of Visual Arts, Edna Manley College), Phillip Thomas (artist and lecturer, Edna Manley College), Deborah Anzinger (artist and executive director, NLS), Taynia Nethersole (collector and attorney-at-law), and Gilou Bauer (director, Mutual Gallery).
National Gallery of Jamaica 