Framer Framed

Symposium: Sustainable Art Communities - Creativity and Policy in the Transnational Caribbean

The Sustainable Art Communities conference (Tropenmuseum, Amsterdam, on 5th and 6th February 2013) is part of a two-year international research project led by Dr Leon Wainwright (The Open University, UK), with Co-Investigator Professor Dr Kitty Zijlmans (Leiden University), and funded by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) and the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC, UK).

The project explores how the understanding and formation of sustainable community for the Caribbean and its global diaspora may be supported by art practice, curating and museums. It fosters networks of exchange and collaboration among academics, artists, curators and policymakers from the UK and the Netherlands, as well as various countries in the English and Dutch-speaking Caribbean and their diaspora.

Our theme
Issues of sustainable community have come to have a growing relevance across the English-Dutch linguistic divide in the Caribbean. Bridging the boundary between these typically separate contexts, this project combines the common interests of a range of academic and non-academic stakeholders in a set of collaborative activities. Our approach is to establish how researchers, art practitioners, policymakers and curators of Caribbean art may contribute to building a sustainable community for the transnational and diasporic Caribbean. The project traces the similarities and distinctions between Dutch and English-speaking contexts of the Caribbean and its global diaspora, in search of strategic ways to support its rich cultural heritage. It assesses how the Caribbean region has constituted global communities and how these may undergo a positive and dynamic transformation through focused activities of networking and exchange in the field of visual art.

Confirmed speakers include
Roshini Kempadoo,
Tirzo Martha,
Marlon Griffith,
Nicholas Morris,
Wayne Modest,
Anke Bangma,
Alex van Stipriaan,
Tessa Jackson,
Erica James,
Siebe Thissen,
Petrina Dacres,
Rosemarijn Höfte,
Kitty Zijlmans,
Leon Wainwright.

The Sustainable Art Communities project is a collaboration between The Open University and the University of Leiden, and in partnership with the Tropenmuseum, Amsterdam and Iniva, the Institute of International Visual Arts, London. The project will generate audio-visual material to be made available through the Open Arts Archive and published as a special issue of the Open Arts Journal.

Committee members
Dr Leon Wainwright (The Open University), Professor Dr Kitty Zijlmans (Leiden University), Dr Rosemarijn Höfte (KITLV, Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies, Leiden), Dr Wayne Modest (Tropenmuseum, Amsterdam), Tessa Jackson OBE (Iniva, Institute of International Visual Arts, London).

Sustainable Art Communities: Creativity and Policy in the Transnational Caribbean is a Research Networking and Exchange Project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO).

Program Februari 5
8.45am-9.15am Registration
9.15am Opening remarks

Panel One
9.30am-12.00pm
SUSTAINABILITY AND COMMUNITY
Chair: Leon Wainwright
Tirzo Martha, Captain Caribbean vs. Anansi colonialism
Kitty Zijlmans, Art’s agency on contemporary Curaçao: Tirzo Martha’s “Blijf maar plakken” and the Instituto Buena Bista
Alex van Stipriaan, Remy’s and Marcel’s community/ties

LUNCH BREAK, 12.00pm-1.30pm

Workshop One
1.30pm-2.30pm
What is the basis for a Caribbean community and what role may art play?
Questions and discussion with audience participation

Panel Two
2.30-3.30pm
A COMMUNITY FOR CONTEMPORARY ART?
Chair: Kitty Zijlmans
Erica M. James, Dreams of utopia
Wouter Welling, The Afrika Museum, (Berg en Dal, the Netherlands) and Caribbean art: Collecting and presenting contemporary art from the Dutch Antilles, Haiti, Cuba and beyond

Break

Roundtable
4pm-5.30pm
Chair: Tessa Jackson

Program 6th February
8.45am-9.15am Registration

Panel Three
9.30am-12.00pm
CONTOURS OF A CARIBBEAN ART COMMUNITY
Chair: Wayne Modest
Nicholas Morris, Randnotizen: Notes from the edge
Siebe Thissen, A view from Rotterdam
Petrina Dacres, Caribbean art in the present
Roshini Kempadoo, State of play: Technologies, diaspora and Caribbean visual culture

LUNCH BREAK, 12.00-1.30pm

Workshop Two
1.30pm-2.30pm
Networks and infrastructure
Questions and discussion with audience participation

Panel Four
2.30-3.30pm
CREATIVITY AND POLICY
Chair: Rosemarijn Hoefte
Tessa Jackson, The Institute of International Visual Arts (Iniva, UK)
Marlon Griffith

Break

Roundtable
pm-5.30pm
Chair: Leon Wainwright

Links

• Tropenmuseum - Amsterdam

Netwerk

Alex van Stipriaan

Wayne Modest

Directeur van het Museum van Wereldculturen

Tirzo Martha

Kunstenaar

Kitty Zijlmans

Hoogleraar

Anke Bangma

Curator