Between tropical storms, landfill fires and ongoing challenges wrought by the pandemic, there is no doubt that 2021 has been memorable. We began the year with fully normal operations and closed in a hybrid situation that finds us open to visitors but reverting to digital programming to ensure the safety of our staff, students and visitors. The evolving situation has not stopped us from having an exciting year, however, filled with numerous events and activities through which we’ve promoted and celebrated Caymanian art and culture, and launched new initiatives around health and wellbeing through art.
We are thrilled to have developed and mounted ten exhibitions across all three islands – both physical and digital – with a multitude of tours, events and lectures that ran in tandem. We’ve welcomed hundreds of students via our popular School Tour programme and collaborated with local schools through in-classroom teaching to promote Caymanian heritage. We’ve continued our long-running outreach programmes – which include Seniors ‘Tea and Tours’ and regular classes at HMP Northward and HMP Fairbanks; we also resumed hosting larger scale events for much of the year including one of our annual fundraising events – the NGCI Tea Party, held in the gardens of the Ritz Carlton Grand Cayman, which raised funds for our new community wellness offerings. Finally, we’ve collaborated on several inspiring partnerships that promote environmental literacy, ocean health and community wellbeing, as well as memorialize our community’s lockdown experiences through a project with the Cayman Islands Government.
Following the news of community transmitted Covid 19 cases in September, we have returned to our virtual programming to deliver resources such as wellness sessions, afterschool art club activities and school tours as well as Artist Talks and lectures remotely to all corners of Cayman. While onsite site footfall was understandably lower than previous years as a result (with 10,783 visitors during the first three quarters compared to 24,000 in 2019), our digital engagement has more than made up for the reduction in numbers with the NGCI website totalling 63,400 page visits, while social media page interactions reached 169,561 between Facebook and Instagram (excluding direct emailed education programming figures).
From participating in the annual Museums Association of the Caribbean conference to partnering with the inaugural Cayman Art Week, 2021 was a year for reimagining old favourites and exploring new and exciting opportunities; we are delighted to share some of these highlights below.
January
2021 launched with the opening of a new digital exhibition, developed in collaboration with the Cayman Islands Government. 2020 Vision: A Community’s Experience of Lockdown, was a commemorative photography project that showcased our community’s unique experiences of lockdown and how we have – individually and collectively – dealt with this unique moment in our history. The call for photographers attracted 43 well-known professional local photographers and newer voices alike, with multiple image submissions totaling 79 artworks. The exhibition explored the three categories of Family & Time Indoors, Nature & Outdoor Time, and Community, and continued to evolve as submissions were accepted throughout the duration of the exhibition (until 31 May). The top three photographs from each of the three categories were later selected to feature in the Government’s COVID Commemorative Publication Project and exhibited at the Government Administration Building entrance hall. More information on all our current and previous exhibitions can be found on our exhibitions portal.
Onsite, NGCI also launched Homegrown, an exhibition that set out to raise awareness about the beauty and importance of Caymanian plant life. Ten “plant portraits” were created by Los Angeles based artistic duo David Hartwell and Bill Ferehawk during their NGCI Artist-in-Residence in 2019. Homegrown ran in the DART Auditorium Community Gallery from 21 January, with programming and events run in a partnership with the National Trust. The busy month concluded with an educators social, inviting educators from across the Cayman Islands to come to the Gallery site for a tour, an activity, and an opportunity to learn how NGCI offerings can support in classroom learning.
NGCI was also very active on local and international media outlets in January, highlighting the new exhibitions as well as Alchemy – a solo exhibition by Horacio Esteban – which continued from its opening at the end of 2020.
February
In February, we unveiled the NGCI Art and Wellness programme at our Annual Tea Party. The programme was conceived to support the Cayman community as it navigated its way through the pandemic, offering the Gallery venue and gardens as a place for refuge, contemplation, and healing. This ongoing programme sees NGCI collaborate with local wellness instructors and organisations, from nutritionists to yoga and meditation practitioners, seniors’ groups and organisations addressing mental health. For more information on our wellness programme, visit here.
February saw the launch of two new exhibitions at NGCI venues in the Sister Islands. Art Under Lockdown was installed at the Little Cayman Museum on 15 February and ran until 20 April. The showcase featured 18 artworks from the Gallery’s 2020 digital exhibition, of the same name, which sought to celebrate Cayman’s creativity during lockdown. The online exhibition continued to run in tandem with the physical exhibition and saw 6,800 page views that month.
Seascapes – Maritime Art from the National Collection launched in Cayman Brac in February, an exhibition dedicated to Cayman’s rich maritime history with the sea. The featured artists were among the Islands’ most prolific, and seen together, their works acted as a celebration of our remarkable marine environment. This project was part of an ongoing collaboration between the National Gallery of the Cayman Islands, the Cayman Brac Beach Resort, the Little Cayman Museum and the Cayman Islands Legacy Fund (CILF).
March
March included NGCI’s usual schedule of events, lectures, tours, and family activity days. As part of the new Art and Wellness programme, NGCI hosted the first teens art drop-in session with partners The Alex Panton Foundation in March. Walkers Art Club continued to welcome students to weekly classes; students had the opportunity to work with renowned artist Horacio Esteban, whose mid-career retrospective, Alchemy, featured in the Exhibition Hall. Several workshops were also hosted covering watercolour, self-portraiture, papier mâché, and earthenware ceramics and glazing. Finally, in honour of March being Women’s month, NGCI proudly hosted an event on 30 March that was dedicated to the women that do so much to support the local community.
April
The second Cayman Islands Biennial: Reimagined Future(s) launched in April. The guiding theme for this biennial was to recast the long months of lockdown as an extended interlude, seeking to adopt a more affirmative vision of the world we are now inhabiting — an opportunity for all of us to pause and reflect on where we are now and where we are heading. The tri-island, multi venue exhibition saw 42 Cayman-based artists exhibiting work simultaneously across six different locations: the National Gallery, Owen Roberts International Airport, the National Trust’s Mission House, the QEII Botanic Park, and the Little Cayman Museum, along with special programming in Cayman Brac. Working in a wide variety of media from painting, photography and video, to collage, drawing and sculpture, video, ceramics and installation art, the artists in ‘Reimagined Futures’ actively responded to our current experiences and have offered a window into contemporary art making on these shores. Programming highlights included monthly curator-led lunchtime tours of the exhibition, Artist Talks with seven participating artists, artist-led workshops with two participating artists and an exhibition touch basket was developed to support more tactile learning in the exhibition space.
The Art and Wellness programme continued with a full schedule of wellness events including yoga, meditation, teen art drop ins and workshops on creating balance. 245 guests attended events throughout April – June. Also beginning in April, and lasting through to June, the Education Department hosted 361 students from 10 public and private schools, community groups and homeschooled groups for guided tours of the 2nd Cayman Islands Biennial: Reimagined Futures and the National Collection.
May
As part of NGCI’s ongoing partnership with the Museums Association of the Caribbean, we supported MAC’s online exhibition Collecting Our Voices in the Caribbean and Diaspora, which featured work by three Cayman artists – Teresa Grimes, Megan Ehman, and Simon Tatum – along with artists from the English, French, Spanish and Dutch-speaking Caribbean, with representation from ten countries: The Bahamas, Cayman Islands, French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Martinique, Puerto Rico, and Suriname. Responding to the pandemic and its impact on the creative sector, the project brought together voices from across the region to illuminate through creative expression how people in the Caribbean and its Diaspora are living and moving through this crisis.
NGCI participated in International Museum Day (IMD) as one of 37,000 museums from 158 countries and territories. This year’s theme was “The Future of Museums: Recover and Reimagine”, responding to the pandemic as well as highlighting social justice and equity as part of the wider objective of IMD, which is to raise awareness about Museums as a space for cultural exchange, the enrichment of cultures and development of mutual understanding, and cooperation and peace among peoples.
In keeping with the international focus of the month, NGCI Director Natalie Urquhart spoke on two international panels. Representing the Caribbean, Urquhart spoke as a panelist for the European Union-Latin America and the Caribbean International Foundation (EU-LAC)’s ‘Cultural Policies in Times of Digitization’ webinar, hosted as part of the ‘Europe Week 2021 in Hamburg’. The objective of the webinar was to provide a space for dialogue between decision-makers in the field of cultural policy and representatives of cultural management organisations from both regions. Later in the month Urquhart joined museum colleagues from the Children Museum in Cairo (Egypt), Zeitz MOCAA in Cape Town (South Africa) and the V&A (London, UK) for a UNESCO Cultural Campus panel where students from schools across Africa and the Caribbean had the opportunity to ask questions to museum leaders on topics affecting museums and their communities.
June
NGCI Board and Staff members helped to present our annual Visual Art Awards for the highest achievement in each high school art programme, during the June graduation ceremonies – always a highlight of the year. We extend our sincere congrats to all students involved.
Annual term-time programming ended for summer but not before students from the primary and secondary segments of Walkers Art Club had the opportunity to meet Biennial artists Carlos Garcia and Kristy Capewell. Garcia also hosted a special art workshop for participants in the Crisis Centre’s Teens and Young Adults programme. The Education Department also launched a well-received four-part Art History 101 short course in June led by Collections Coordinator William Helfrecht, designed to give participants a survey of global art history. The course included a full syllabus, list of recommended reading and resources, and a short practical art workshop.
NGCI presented at the inaugural Atlantic World Art Fair, a project that highlights the work of nine women-led art spaces across the Caribbean who are helping to elevate the voice of Caribbean art and the diversity of thought and production that is being generated from within the region. Artist David Bridgeman’s artwork was represented by Black Pony Gallery, and NGCI Director Natalie Urquhart moderated a panel on the “Transformation Impact of Art.”
At the end of the month, we gathered to celebrate the 42 participating photographers who exhibited in 2020 Vision: A Community’s Experience of Lockdown, and to present awards to the jury selected winners in each of the three thematic categories. The event provided the opportunity for the participating photographers to gather together in person, after getting to know one another virtually through the remarkable work in this exhibition.
July
On Thursday 01 July, NGCI honoured artists at the highly anticipated Reimagined Future(s) Biennial awards ceremony. Of the over 40 artists in the exhibition, ten were selected to receive awards by a distinguished jury of local and regional art curators. Davin Ebanks’ won the coveted Bendel Hydes Award and Brandon Saunders the Emerging Artist Award.
In partnership with the inaugural Cayman Art Week in July, NGCI hosted the ‘Art Collectors Symposium’ and late-night opening of the Biennial as the official closing event. The symposium featured presentations by industry professionals on collecting art and caring for collections and concluded with a tour of the Biennial exhibition, Reimagined Futures.
NGCI continued our ongoing Business of Art lecture series in 2021, in effort to facilitate the professional growth and development of creatives in the Cayman Islands. As part of this initiative, on 20 July NGCI associate curator Kerri Anne Chisolm hosted an online lecture on “Submitting to an Open Call”, where viewers were able to gain knowledge on how to best maximize their opportunities for exhibiting their art.
From July through September, NGCI accommodated multiple summer camp visits instead of hosting the traditional summer programme. The Education Department hosted 344 students from 10 different community groups, summer camp programmes, and home-schooled groups for guided tours of the 2nd Cayman Islands Biennial: Reimagined Futures, and Terra Botanica: Depictions of Nature from the National Collection.
Outreach programming continued throughout the summer with regular Art Haven classes taught at HMP Northward and HMP Fairbanks prisons, Caribbean Haven and Bonaventure Boys’ Home. From July through September, 52 students attended the programme. Due to a positive COVID case at HMP Northward prison and the subsequent increases in community-acquired cases, the programme paused in September to ensure the safety of vulnerable prison and rehabilitation centre communities.
August
In advance of Tropical Storm Grace, preparations were made to ensure the facility, building, and collection remained safe and secure. While the buildings weren’t compromised, the gardens received significant damage with over 27 fallen trees. Thankfully, due to the extensive efforts of staff and CMC Landscaping, trees were quickly replanted and most have survived.
NGCI launched the Walkers Art Club 2020/2021 Class Virtual Exhibition. This virtual exhibition showcased artworks from the five WAC class groups in 2020-2021, with students’ ages ranging from five through seventeen years old. Each student who participated in the Walkers sponsored programme had the opportunity to learn technical art skills, gain exposure to Caymanian culture and engage in social interaction between students of all schools, abilities, and backgrounds. Registrations for the new 2021-2022 year began on 30 August, and quickly reached capacity, proving once again the popularity and reach of this programme. The end of summer also saw forward planning and policy reviews across the departments.
September
Terra Botanica: Depictions of Nature from the National Collection opened on 02 September in the NGCI Lower Exhibition Hall with an opening exhibition night welcoming artists, special guests and members. Translating directly as ‘botanical land’, Terra Botanica examines the ways in which artists have documented, researched, and celebrated the rich assortment of flora on our islands. Drawing on various media — from detailed sketches, to paintings, watercolour, and photography — the exhibition explores the myriad ways in which botany has been documented and celebrated through art over the past several decades. Running in conjunction was a full programme of events onsite and virtually, such as school and lunchtime tours, workshops, and an island-wide scavenger hunt carried out on the NGCI Instagram account.
Virginia Foster’s solo exhibition ‘Wonders of Clay: Perfectly Imperfect’ also opened on 08 September in the NGCI Community Gallery. The exhibition showcased over 20 years of Virginia Foster’s work and was also accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue, produced by the National Gallery, and published through a grant from the Cayman National Cultural Foundation’s Grants for the Arts programme. This catalogue is also available online, allowing NGCI to share Virginia Foster’s work with the widest possible audience. The physical exhibition ran until 18 November.
A ‘Seniors Tour and Tea’ was held in Cayman Brac at Cayman Brac Beach resort where seniors enjoyed a guided tour of NGCI’s Seascapes exhibition led by Head of Business and Facilities, Meegan Ebanks, followed by complementary cake, tea, and coffee. The event was hosted with the support of Ms. Julianne Scott, Cayman Brac District Community Development Officer and Ms. Simone Scott, National Gallery representative in Cayman Brac.
In light of increasing Covid-19 community cases in September, NGCI moved many of its programmes and events online to ensure safety for all involved. This included NGCI’s Virtual Tours Programme, which was expanded in September with an aim to extend remote access to all recent major exhibitions for visitors locally, and internationally. These tours are also intended to serve as a future archive for scholars researching Caymanian art and NGCI’s past exhibitions history, providing a wealth of information and the largest single repository of Caymanian visual culture accessible entirely online. For more information, click here.
The spike in Covid-19 cases during this time also resulted in guided school tours being suspended to keep NGCI staff and guests safe, and the start of after-school clubs for the new school year was postponed. In addition, several larger events and facility rentals were cancelled due to the revised onsite capacity restrictions. For Walkers Art Club, classes due to start at this time were temporarily suspended. Packages of art supplies were sent to the Brac by NGCI for enrolled students without access to art materials.
October
October saw the launch of the new joint exhibition for the Sister Islands, titled Beloved Isles. The project celebrates of the beauty, environment, and people of the Sister Islands and features work by 40 local photographers. The scheduled opening receptions in Little Cayman and Cayman Brac had to be postponed due to community transmissions on both islands coinciding with opening dates, but NGCI pivoted and launched an uplifting online opening reception which welcomed the participating artists and guest.
To continue to promote wellness to the community from a remote platform in October, NGCI partnered with wellness and lifestyle consultant Taryn Stein for a series of nutrition videos. Taryn’s insightful online talks are available on the NGCI website here. Walkers Art Club was able to resume its Grand Cayman classes online, with pre-recorded and live Zoom sessions being hosted via the NGCI art studio for students all across the island.
Finally, the Upper Gallery National Collection Exhibition was revitalised, and artworks displayed were rotated as part of the 2021 exhibition Saltwater in their Veins, which explores Cayman’s evolving relationship with the ocean from the late 1800s to the present day.
November
In November, NGCI was a proud sponsor and participator in the Museums Association of the Caribbean (MAC) annual conference. Joining museum leaders, curators, educators, scholars, and researchers from 15 Caribbean countries, #MACCon2021 focused on “Cultivating Resilience in Museums and Cultural Heritage Sites”. Over 15 countries were represented at the #MACCon2021 conference, with NGCI representing the Cayman Islands. A total of 18 sessions featured discussions about how museums have adapted in the pandemic, new engagement methods, new developments on the preservation of historical sites and indigenous cultures, museums and their role in climate action, inclusion, and social justice, and more. The National Gallery’s Education Manager Maia Muttoo presented on the NGCI Art and Wellness programme, and Director Natalie Urquhart joined a panel to discuss how museums adapted virtually through online programmes and exhibitions with colleagues from the Bahamas, Bermuda, and the US. Additionally, NGCI supported the daily wellness segment, featuring Cayman’s Janine Martin who led delegates through online yoga.
In mid-November, NCGI was delighted to host some of Cayman’s seniors for an onsite morning tour, tea, and games session in conjunction with the Alzheimer’s and Dementia Association of the Cayman Islands (ADACI). The guests were able to learn all about Terra Botanica and Wonders of Clay while being able to enjoy some cake, tea, and snacks and play games designed to aid neurological function.
In continuation with our Business of Art lecture series, on Tuesday 30 November NGCI hosted the Cayman Islands Intellectual Property Office (CIIPO) Director Candace Westby for an in-depth virtual discussion on how to protect your creative works. Here, viewers learned about the four types of intellectual property – design rights, trademarks, patents, and copyright – as well as your rights as a creator. For more information, visit our blog post about the lecture, located here.
Finally, in late November NGCI proudly presented the opening of Yonier Powery: Unstoppable Steps—the artist’s inaugural solo exhibition in the Dart Auditorium. Featuring a survey of ceramic works that trace the artist’s personal and creative journey, the collection explores his ceaseless quest to challenge himself and ultimately perfect his craft. The exhibition will run from 25 November 2021 through 21 January 2022.
December
Throughout the month, NGCI continued to promote our ongoing exhibitions through a number of talks, tours and lectures, and our wellness schedule continued as NGCI hosted several yoga sessions – for more information on how to get involved, visit our wellness page.
In light of the recent developments in the community regarding the Omicron variant of Covid-19, NGCI made the difficult decision to cancel the annual Artisans Fair. We will continue to promote all participating artists on NGCI’s social media platforms, and have extended the offer for all artists to feature some of their work in the NGCI shop over throughout the holiday season.
After what was certainly an eventful year, we are grateful that with your support we were able to carry out another successful year of celebrating art and culture, engaging with our community, and promoting arts education and wellness to all corners of the Cayman Islands. We are so excited for what 2022 has in store, and look forward to seeing you onsite again soon. To find out what we have planned, please like us on social media or visit our What’s On page on our website.
NGCI is only able to continue offering a varied exhibition schedule, extensive programme of events and place for local history, culture and art due to the continued support of our members. We would like to take this opportunity to show our gratitude for your support and we look forward to seeing you all again in 2022!
We would also like to take a moment to name and thank our major sponsors and patrons. A special thank you is dedicated to the following partners, sponsors, and supporters for their significant support in 2021:
Major Donors/Programme Sponsors:
- Ministry of Youth, Sports, Culture and Heritage
- Susan A Olde OBE
- Butterfield
- Davenport Development
- Dart
- EY Cayman
- Lori Monk and Kevin Butler
- Natalie Ugland
- Ogier
- Rawlinson & Hunter
- Walkers
Corporate Members/Supporters:
- Deloitte
- Knighthead Annuity
- Kensington Management
- National Trust for the Cayman Islands
- Veritas Trustees
- Kobre & Kim
- Inclusion Cayman
- Alex Panton Foundation
Key Supporters:
- Betty Baraud, MBE
- Lorraine Bell
- Petra Berksoy
- Nancy Binz
- Nisha Bismillah
- Trinda Blackmore
- Karyn Bodden
- Jeri Bovell
- Mary Boxall
- Mia B
- Niakonnie Broadhurst
- Joanne Brown
- Patrizia Bruzio
- Lisa Burke
- Colette Byrne
- Kathleen Chapman
- Carol Cheang
- Ingrid Cheang
- Danielle Coleman
- Claire Coleman
- Sheena Conolly
- Tabitha Crowley
- Berna Cummins
- Camille Davey
- Jennifer Dilbert, MBE
- Carolyn Du Troit
- Kathryn Elphinstone
- Ingrid Felderhof
- Dara Flowers-Burke
- Pamela Fowler
- Kendra Gass
- Debora Gill
- Amanda Goodwin
- Joy Green
- Susan Guilmette
- Sophia Harris
- Belinda Hart
- Kim Hetimoric
- Andrea Hughes
- Joanna Humphries
- Renee Imparato
- Maggie Jackson
- Toby Jenkins
- Suzanne Jensen
- Eileen Keens
- Heidi Kiss
- Lexi Lavranos
- Denise Lumsden
- Ashleigh Lund
- Tami Maines
- Lisa May
- Lori McRae
- Lynda Nutt
- Kadi Pentney
- Prasana
- Gaye Randolph
- Malin Ratcliffe
- Vidya Ravella
- Cornelia Reimer
- Jennifer Sangaroonthong
- Sonja Santor
- Milly Serpell
- Dianne Siebens
- Beverley Simpson
- Suzanne St Thomas
- Claudia Subiotto
- Melissa Wolfe
- Jennifer Woodford
- Danielle Young