‘Limited infrastructure’ a challenge for artists

Barbados’ visual arts sector has seen significant growth over the past decade with more galleries, exhibition spaces and artist led initiatives emerging throughout the island.

However, artists and curators say limited infrastructure and a small local market continue to make it difficult to sustain long-term careers in art.

During last weekend’s Caribbean Fine Art Fair, founder of San Antonio’s first black art gallery Eye Of The Beholder Art Gallery And Studio in Texas, United States, Maria Williams, said there was growth in the marketplace and the gallery system with opportunities for artists of colour, stating that it had exploded.

She warned black artists to avoid becoming a trend, something she had seen far too often.

“They’re becoming a trend when we’ve always been here. We just have not had the representation. Now you have more black art galleries, more black curators, an explosion of black artists who are now wanting their work shown, not only in their homes or given to their friends and family, but it actually makes them serious about being artists. We need to go beyond that and we need to build our own industry for black artists,” she said.

Barbadian visual artist and art curator Oneka Small, who was in attendance at the Old Spirit Bond in The City, where the event was held, also noted the development in the visual arts scenes in Barbados over the last ten years.

She said that younger artists were becoming more independent, creating their own spaces, organising their own exhibitions and developing new ways to present and promote their work.

Small also shared that groups like Artists Alliance and the Queen’s Park Gallery helped artist by curating shows, providing exhibition opportunities and encouraging artists to develop their practice but a lack of funding often hindered their ability to support artists.

The challenge, she said, was limited infrastructure to sustain local artists.

“I’m just always happy when artists have opportunities to expand, to develop, and I just see it as being a stage on their path, because we don’t necessarily have the space to keep them within a gallery space or even within Queen’s Park because of the [number] of shows that we do,” she explained.

Small pointed out that the island’s small market made it difficult for artists to consistently sell their work, noting that only a small group of collectors regularly purchased art.

Another challenge facing the sector was the perception of art as a career, according to Williams, who also emphasised the importance of outreach and encouraging young people to appreciate and pursue the arts.

She also stressed that galleries must actively engage the public, rather than wait for audiences to seek them.

“We can’t sit behind a desk. We can’t sit in the gallery. We have to get out and we have to do that work to bring them in,” she said.

Director of the Caribbean Fine Art Fair, Anderson Pilgrim, said forums such as these were important because it was about educating more people about the professional side of the business of art as it was a multimillion-dollar business.

He also spoke of the secondary market where collectors resell art work at auctions and said it was important to understand that process.

“Sometimes you will see in the paper that a piece was auctioned for $2 million. The person that purchased that may have paid $10 000 ten years ago and the artist doesn’t get any of that value.

“What happens is that artist’s value for everything that comes after that has gone up immediately. He will not benefit from the sale of that piece but everything else coming down the pipe will because his prices now are way up and that has set a value. So understanding the business side of it is important too,” he explained.

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