NAGB Celebrates Independence With Two New Exhibitions

The new exhibitions are additions to "What is Africa to me?" an African art exhibition, which will run until July 29.

This week the gallery will introduce "Bahamian History through Couture," which is a small exhibition displaying key notes in Bahamian history and the gallery will also launch "Third National Exhibition," which will commemorate the gallery’s third anniversary.

"Bahamian History through Couture" is the brainchild of Director of the art gallery, Erica James.

The exhibition includes nine dresses along with accessories that were worn by prominent women during pivotal points in history.

Some of the dresses include Lady Margaret Pindling’s dress at the independence ball in 1973, and also the dress she wore during the nation’s first flag raising. Other former owners of the dresses include Lady Dorothy Cash, wife of Sir Gerald Cash and Lady Louie Maynard among others.

Ms. James said that the aim of the exhibition is to bring focus on the great things that women did in society over the years, which is the focus of this year’s independence celebrations.

"We wanted to bring attention to the role women have played in shaping Bahamian history. Often times we do this behind the scenes, or it’s not front and centre. It’s mostly the men in their lives that get that attention," she said.

"We want to show that these women were not just pretty faces but they were very much involved in civic, political and social building of this country."

Ms. James also said that she felt that it is important to preserve objects of history.

"I think that it is important to preserve these types of cultural artefacts," she said. "Sometimes the simplest things [can] stimulate our memories. In addition to painting and sculptures, there are some aspects of our history that needs to be preserved and some of them have to do with fashion clothing and couture,"

The exhibition opened for public viewing on July 7and will be displayed until September 2, 2006.

"It is a full exhibition and it is quite a lovely show," Ms. James added.

The Third National Exhibition- NE3 is a juried exhibition that will highlight contemporary Bahamian art from various local artists from the past two years.

Out of 200 pieces that were submitted, only 35 pieces from 23 artists is displayed in the art gallery.

"We had a small jury of five people who sat down and evaluated all of the work," said Curator of NE3, Dr. Krista Thompson. "We chose what we thought was the best representative sample of contemporary Bahamian art."

Dr. Thompson said the judges were looking at four elements for the type of art the gallery would display.

"We weren’t looking for a theme," she said. "We were looking at the process that the artist used, their success in using a particular material, the presentation of their work and how all of those things worked together to convey the content of the work of art."

Dr. Thompson said that the artwork featured deals much with the social issues like migrant communities in The Bahamas.

She also explained why the artwork featured should not be described as "pretty".

"I think that [the artwork] hails in Bahamian art, I think the pretty or picturesque are notably absent from the exhibition and that artists are really dealing with more in depth with Bahamian identity," Dr. Thompson said.