First Art Symposium
First Annual Schooner Bay Eco-Art Syposium 2010
Image of piece being produced during First Art Symposium at Schooner Bay Abaco.
Schooner Bay’s Artist-in-Residence, Antonius Roberts, recently hosted the 1st Annual Schooner Bay Art Symposium with a small group of Bahamian and international artists. The three-day symposium was conducted on-site at Schooner Bay as part of Antonius’ ongoing efforts to express cultural and historical connections to places through sculpture.
Antonius explains, “The mission was to create markers/sculptures that help to clearly define and celebrate protected areas along the iron shore, dunes and coppice. Schooner Bay is the ultimate artists’ studio – a studio without walls – and one that will continue to be transformed into and celebrated as an organic garden where the line between nature and art is obliterated.”
Khia Poitier, a College of The Bahamas student who participated in the symposium, provided the following debrief:
The 1st annual Schooner Bay Art Symposium served as an exhilarating opportunity for artists to directly influence the surrounding environment and breathe new life into the space. Participating artists, under the leadership of Antonius Roberts, included John Cox – Director/Owner of POPOPSTUDIOS Centre for the Visual Arts – Nigerian artist, Amarachi Okafor, and six emerging artists from The College of The Bahamas: Dominique Delancy, Diara Ferguson, Steffon Grant, Jeffery Meris, Khia Poitier, Deime Ubani and Tiffany Williams.
To begin the journey in Abaco, we took a tour of Schooner Bay, seeking to find our place in nature and engage in a critical dialogue about the renewal of Long Beach. In an effort to creatively regenerate the landscape, we combed the beach for useful objects that could be recycled into art forms. After general group discussion, we noticed that the common denominator in all of the proposed sketches was the use of tuna netting found in abundance on the beach during our stay here.
It was then agreed that the use of a recognizable icon, the native turtle, would be the most effective display of cultural expression and awareness. Using only the tuna netting and nails, we secured the piece to an approximately 15 ft. limestone wall near the entrance of the village. The purpose of the project was to create something that would serve as a temporary landmark expressing cultural connection to the space until nature could take over and reclaim it.