Carifesta X
12:00 am-12:00 am
Description
The National Gallery of the Cayman Islands was invited by the Cayman National Cultural Foundation to join their CARIFESTA X contingent and coordinate the visual arts section of the Cayman Islands delegation which travelled to Guyana in 2008. Running from 22-31 August 2008, NGCI contributed an exhibition of Caymanian art, held at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall in Georgetown, Guyana. Featuring works by Nasaria Suckoo Chollette, Wray Banker, David Bridgeman, amongst others, this exhibition fulfilled the National Gallery’s ongoing mission to promote and foster interest in Caymanian art and culture across the Caribbean region and beyond.
About CARIFESTA:
The Caribbean Festival of Arts (CARIFESTA) has assumed a pre-eminent place among the elements that define and give expression to the uniqueness of Caribbean culture. Like other significant institutions that symbolise the Caribbean’s commonality, the festival reinforces a sense of unity in the midst of the region’s notable linguistic and cultural diversity.
CARIFESTA, which has been hailed as “the inspirational exchange of creative flows”, has its underpinnings in the staging of the first Caribbean Festival of Arts in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in 1952. The subsequent creation of the West Indies Federation in 1958 was marked by the staging of a festival in Trinidad, through the auspices of the then University College of the West Indies. Embracing this celebratory spirit, a regional gathering of artists in Guyana in 1970 led to the idea of a grand Caribbean festival, the first seeds of what would eventually grow into CARIFESTA. In response to the enthusiasm of the artists attending a Caribbean Writers and Artists Convention in Georgetown in 1966, and again in 1970 during Guyana’s Independence and Republic celebrations, the country’s Prime Minister Forbes Burnham spearheaded the idea of a recurring exposition of artistic forms and cultural artefacts into the first Caribbean Festival of Arts, which was subsequently held in Guyana in 1972.
About CARIFESTA X, Guyana (2008):
CARIFESTA X, the premier cultural festival of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), was held in Guyana from 22-31 August 2008, under the theme “One Caribbean, One Purpose, Our Culture, Our Life.”
Over the ten-day period, 100 events were presented. These events featured all aspects of Caribbean creative expression — the culinary arts, fashion, the literary arts, the performing arts, and the visual arts. In addition, there were programmes featuring the indigenous peoples of the Caribbean, symposia focusing on the future of Caribbean culture and cultural industries, numerous concerts, as well as calypso, chutney, reggae, soca, and steel band festivals, along with special events for Caribbean youth.