ISSUE 6: ANTITHESIS/SYNTHESIS: FINE ART AND CULTURAL HERITAGE

 

 

 

Are expressions of “fine art” and “cultural heritage” mutually exclusive, beneficial and/or interchangeable? There are a plethora of terms that seek to distinguish arts connected to “heritage” including such performance based genres as carnival regalia, genre paintings such as those created by Amos Ferguson and utilitarian arts such as basketmaking or fashion, from the arts taught historically in the academy- painting or sculpture.

The K2K alliance in Trinidad and Tobago, which combines carnival costume design with high fashion, and the exhibition of Junkanoo costumes in the Bahamas National Art Gallery space, are recent initiatives that urge further thought on these interactions between the fine art and cultural heritage. K2K and National Art Gallery of the Bahamas demonstrate that through contemporary art practice these categories are being subverted, blended, and may not even be sensibly employed. These concerns are poignant for artists practicing within the Caribbean and in the Diasporas. What does this mean for Caribbean and Caribbean diaspora artists accessing “heritage”? This fifth issue of Caribbean InTransit takes up the intersections between forms of the fine arts, including visual and performing arts, and cultural heritage.

According to the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) definition, cultural heritage is “an expression of the ways of living developed by a community and passed on from generation to generation, including customs, practices, places, objects, artistic expressions and values. Cultural Heritage is often expressed as either Intangible or Tangible Cultural Heritage “(ICOMOS, 2002). Such broad definition encompasses value systems, traditions, lifestyles and beliefs, while constructions such as monuments, architectural works, sculpture and painting may also be registered as cultural heritage sites by UNESCO (1972 Article 1). These vague understandings blur the borders between neat categorizations of the fine arts and cultural heritage and lead to a host of questions and concerns that we seek to address in this issue.

How do artists and artisans amalgamate the categories of fine arts and cultural heritage and what is gained or lost by so doing? What might these mergers say about global postmodernism, our historical moment in the Caribbean, or a regional Caribbean aesthetics? Such concerns may also raise questions about the ways art is defined, catalogued, presented and practiced in the Caribbean. How does the region mediate Afro, Indo, Euro, Amerindian and other conceptualizations of art? And what is the role that artists, cultural workers, cultural organizations and cultural policy may play in transforming how the arts and culture are considered, characterized and taught in the Caribbean?

For this issue, we seek artistic works, collaborative practice, essays, music, dance and dialogues that address the above mentioned considerations. Work that reconnects shared heritage(s), attempts re-constructive dialogue(s) and probes the invisible and anonymous past(s) of post-colonial realities that determine how we practice art(s) and culture(s) are welcome. Suggested themes include but are not limited to:

Arts and Cultural Heritage Policy
Practices of Arts Institutions in the Caribbean
Dialogues with the Colonizer/Colonized
Invisibility/Anonymity
Reclamation, Re-adoption and/or Repatriation
Private and Public Goods
Inheritance
Archaeological Heritage
National, Regional and International Agencies (including UNESCO, CERLAC)
Diasporic Heritage
Art History/Conservationist approaches to Heritage
Cyber-Heritage
The Heritage of Consumption
Cultural Heritage and Urban Space
Living Digital Archives
Exhibitions of Oral Histories
Transnational Artistic Practice
Interrogating categorizations: fine arts, folk arts, “heritage arts” craft, and tradition

We welcome 4000-5000 word essays, in English, Spanish or French. Artwork, music, dance, poetry, mas or junkanoo designs or any other artistic expression with blurbs in English, French, Spanish, Dutch, dialect or creole are welcome as well as films in any language with subtitles in English. Fiction or non-fiction writings in English or dialects will be accepted. Writings in dialect should be accompanied by a translation of terms. Research papers on visual or vocal modes of expression as well as interviews of contemporary artists in English are also welcome.

ALL Submissions should be accompanied by the following in one document in this order:
*Name
* Professional affiliation
* Contact information
* Title of Attached manuscript
* keywords, at least 3 (essays only)
*an abstract of not more than 150 words (essays & interviews only)
*a biography of not more than 60 words
* A professional photograph of yourself (optional)

Essays, Interviews and Reviews:
Text including endnotes must be in Microsoft Word format (double-spaced, in a readable font) and images in jpg. format. Titles in the body of the text should be italicized with section titles in bold. All essays must have accurate bibliographies. MLA format should be used. Video/sound clips can be sent via e-mail or on CD/DVD.
Word limits for various submissions are as follows:-

Academic papers: 7500 words
Reviews: 3000 words
Profiles/Essays on Artists and Art Work: 1000-1500 words
Upcoming Events/Releases/Shows or highlights from arts organizations: 100-250 words

Submit your work via the Submissions tab on our website.
http://www.caribbeanintransit.com/submissions/submit-work/
Any queries should be emailed to: citsumbmissions@gmail.com and cc to caribintransit@gmail.com
DEADLINE: APRIL 15TH 2013
Please see our Submissions Guidelines on our website for more information

GUEST EDITORS: MR. JAMES EARLY, DR. DIANA N’DIAYE AND DOMINIQUE BREBION

James Counts Early has served in various positions at the Smithsonian since first coming on board in 1972 as a researcher in Brazil and the Caribbean for the African Diaspora Folklife Festival. He has served as assistant provost for educational and cultural programs, assistant secretary for education and public service, and interim director of the Smithsonian’s Anacostia Community Museum. A long-time advocate for cultural diversity and equity issues in national and international cultural and educational institutions, his applied research explores participatory museology, cultural democracy statecraft policy, capitalist and socialist discourses in cultural policy, and Afro-Latin politics, history, and cultural democracy. He has curated several Folklife Festival programs including South Africa: Crafting the Economic Renaissance of the Rainbow Nation (1999) and Sacred Sounds: Belief and Society (1997). James holds a B.A. in Spanish from Morehouse College and completed graduate work (A.B.D.) in Latin American and Caribbean history, with a minor in African and African American history, at Howard University.

Diana Baird N’Diaye developed and leads The Will to Adorn: African American Dress and the Aesthetics of Identity, a pan-institutional, multi-sited research project that includes a 2013 Smithsonian Folklife Festival. Her training in anthropology, folklore, visual studies and her experience as a studio craft artist support over thirty years of fieldwork, exhibitions, programs, and publications focusing on expressive culture in Africa, the Caribbean, and their diasporas in the United States, children’s play and performance, and dress traditions and fashion in Oman, Mali, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Japan. After the Haiti earthquake in 2010, she led the Smithsonian’s support of Haitian traditional artists at the Folklife Festival. She has served on national and international juries, advisory, policy and funding panels including UNESCO, the NEA, and the American Folklore Society. She is a graduate of the 2010 Smithsonian Leadership Development Program. She holds a Ph.D. in anthropology and visual studies from The Union Institute

Dominique Brebion is graduated in Journalism from the Ecole Supérieure de Journalisme of Paris and holds a DEA (postgraduate certificate) in Modern Humanities, with her dissertation Les Armes Miraculeuses d’Aimé Césaire et Les Armes Enchantées de Wifredo Lam or the Dialogue du Scriptural et du Figural.

This dissertation seeks to analyze the correspondence between Aimé Césaire’s poetical discourse and Wifredo Lam’s artistic discourse within the wirttings of Césaire illustrated by Lam. She has been curator, member of jurys for inter-Caribbean biennials, or even in charge of selecting artists from Martinique for international biennials, but not only, since Dominique Brebion has also published several articles of reference.

Arts advisor to the Regional Cultural Affairs Board of Martinique (French Ministry of Culture) since 1987, Dominique Brebion has always been involved in the Caribbean artistic scene.
She founded the magazine Artheme in 1999, and is amongst the founding members of the Caribbean southern section of the International Association of Art Critics (the AICA – SC, founded in 1998) – for which she became president in 2007.She is also coordinator of several artists’ residencies in Martinique: Georges Rousse, François Bouillon, Alan Sonfist, Nils Udo, Jean Clareboudt.

Dominique Brebion was member of the jury for the Caribbean and Central American Biennials of Painting and Drawing in Dominican Republic in 1992, 1994 and 1996. She was responsible for selecting French Caribbean artists for the 1st Caribbean Triennial organized by Dominican Republic In 2010.