A Night Of Art
Queen's College of Guyana Alumni Association (NY), INC
Night of Art
This exhibition features the art that was presented during the Night of Art, an innovative online event organized by the Queen’s College of Guyana Alumni Association (NY), Inc. on Saturday, April 24, 2021.
As mentioned in the article “On Guyanese collections: An Overview” in the July edition of the online magazine Guyana Folk and Culture, Night of Art provided space for attendees to present a piece of art from their collections and discuss it with the more than 130 persons gathered for the Zoom-based event.
Night of Art is to me, a significant development in the needed conversation about Guyanese art. It was a new form of conversation about Guyanese art.
The 130 + participants experienced a deep immersion into a conversation about making art and collecting art. The pre-event publicity indicated that it would be an opportunity to explore Guyanese art in the collections of alumni. The event did not fail to deliver! The immersion included interviews with two well-known Guyanese artists, Stanley Greaves, who resides in the United States and Akima McPherson, a Guyana-based artist and a lecturer at the University of Guyana. Night of Art was a veritable masterclass on Guyanese art history and a communion on social activism in contemporary Guyanese art practice. Night of Art was a showcase! In addition to the interviews, there was a showing, a sharing of Guyanese and other art from the collections of some of the participants, along with examples of art done by current students at Queen’s College.
Night of Art provided a visual treat during the dreary Covid-19 pandemic days. It was a powerful snapshot of the aesthetics of Guyanese visual arts. It was a bold indicator about the nature of Guyanese art in the collections of Guyanese living in the diaspora. The Guyana Cultural Association of New York, Inc. is pleased to be able to share the visuals from the Night of Art. We express our sincerest thanks to John Campbell (President) and Corinne Locke (Organizing Secretary) of the Queen’s College of Guyana Alumni Association (NY), Inc. for granting permission to share these images.
Please enjoy the exhibition.
Vibert Cambridge, A.A., Ph.D.
July 17, 2021.
Corinne Locke on the Night of Art
Corinne S. Locke (Organizing Secretary, Queen’s College of Guyana Alumni Association (New York), Inc.
917-446-3960
Queens College, GY has been always known for the sciences and to some degree the arts; and Guyana has produced some of the world’s finest artists. QCAANY wanted to showcase Guyanese art and our alumni as collectors, and as always, we wanted to include the students at Queens College, where we discovered that art today, is alive and well with students producing great work.
While the Guyana national art collection, holds some of the most precious Guyanese art, so many of our alumni have art collections, some inherited and some continue collecting today, we wanted to also showcase the “collectors”. The night of art gave us access to some of the most beautiful work that lives outside of the national collection. Several of our alumni who became artists like our cochair Aubrey McWatt also showed their work and an English teacher from Queens College, Dianne Henery showed a collection of poignant Guyanese photographs.
While some of the highlights of the evening were the two great interviews with Stanley Greaves and Akima McPherson, and the presentation of Guyana Emergent by Aubrey McWatt, the stories from our alumni about the pieces they showed and the collection of work from students rounded out a truly great transatlantic evening thanks to ZOOM.
Corinne Locke and Jonathan Locke discussing “Jacquey’s Farm” by their mother, Leila Locke.