Description

For those who missed it, audiences can now view the Bendel Hydes panel discussion which took place on November 6, 2019. Featuring NGCI Director & Chief Curator Natalie Urquhart in conversation with Henry Muttoo, Artistic Director of the Cayman National Cultural Foundation, and Nancy Barnard, Deputy Chief Officer, Ministry of Health, Environment, Culture & Housing, Cayman Islands Government, this illuminating debate focuses on assessing the enormous impact Bendel Hydes’ creative legacy continues to have on today’s flourishing contemporary art scene in Cayman.

Join guest panelists Henry Muttoo, Director of the Cayman National Cultural Foundation, Nancy Barnard, Deputy Chief Officer for the Ministry of Health, Environment, Culture and Housing and Chief Curator/NGCI Director Natalie Urquhart in discussing the impact of Bendel Hydes’ artistic legacy on the development of the Cayman Islands art scene. NGCI Collections Coordinator William Helfrecht will be the moderator for this discussion. Refreshments will be served.

Henry Muttoo

MBE, OC, D’Arts (Hons), MA
Artistic Director

Henry Muttoo is one of the Caribbean’s foremost Theatre Arts practitioners and is a household name in regional theatre, arts and cultural practices.  He is an award-winning actor, stage director and designer, and Arts Manager.

He has worked in the theatre and cultural arts fields throughout the Caribbean designing and/or directing for every major artist, including Nobel Laureate Derek Walcott, lectured at the University of the West Indies (Mona, Jamaica) and was, for seven years, a senior tutor at the School of Drama, Edna Manley College of the Arts in Jamaica. In Cayman, Henry’s visionary work in culture and the arts as Artistic Director at the Cayman National Cultural Foundation, since 1989, has helped to recalibrate the national discourse on the arts and culture in society, influenced the work of many of Caymanian’s finest artists and given a more assured voice to Caymanian artists and culture-makers. He has been the Artist Director for all but one of Cayman’s showings in CARIFESTA – the Caribbean Festival of the Arts and, since 1972, has represented three countries at Carifesta – Guyana, Jamaica and the Cayman Islands.

Henry has received numerous national awards and honours for his work as actor, director and designer including, the Member of the British Empire, the CNCF Heritage Cross, the Cayman Heritage Pioneer, and the Order of Cayman for his contributions to the development, preservation and celebration of Caymanian arts and culture. He is also a recipient and the Golden Arrow of Achievement (NY) for his contribution to Guyanese arts and culture.

Nancy Barnard (Kirkaldy)

Deputy Chief Officer, Ministry of Health, Environment, Culture & Housing at Cayman Islands Government

Nancy Barnard is the former Business Development & Marketing Manager for Mourant Ozannes, Cayman Islands, and has also served as the Director of the National Gallery. She has an exemplary background in business development and project management, proven fiscal responsibility and extensive community involvement through membership and executive roles with national committees.

Ms. Barnard is a familiar lecturer and presenter at Leadership Cayman, University College of the Cayman Islands, Inspiring Women Entrepreneurs and the International InSEA Congress in Viseu, Portugal. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Concordia University, Canada and a Master of Art from University of Leicester, England.

Natalie Urquhart

Director and Chief Curator of the National Gallery of the Cayman Islands

Natalie Urquhart joined NGCI in 2004 and has been Director and Chief Curator since 2009. During her time as Director she has led the capital campaign and building project and has overseen the redevelopment of NGCIs infrastructure, enabling the organisation to double in scope and visitor traffic. She was responsible for spearheading NGCI’s Strategic Plan 2014-19, creating NGCI’s new business department, and significantly increasing the size of the National Art Collection and related educational resources. She has also worked to legitimize and enable arts careers in the Cayman Islands by introducing NGCI’s Creative Careers programme, mentoring students and emerging artists, and public speaking to inform and educate the community about creative workforce opportunities.

Natalie serves as a Board Member of the Museums Association of the Caribbean and a core committee member of Tilting Axis – a regional strategic alliance which works to further the development of infrastructure, production and markets for the Caribbean’s visual arts sector. She is founder and a co-director of Cayman Creative Alliance, a member of the Cayman Islands National Cultural Policy Steering Committee, where she represents the Visual Arts and Creative Industries sectors, a member of the Cayman Islands Constitutional Commission, a member of the Young Caymanian Speakers Bureau, and a past council member for the Cayman Islands Chamber of Commerce.

Her curatorial research explores the influence of traditional cultural heritage and memory on contemporary artistic practice in the Cayman Islands and wider region. This work has formed the basis of innovative exhibitions that bridge the historical and the contemporary. These include Native Sons – Fahive (2005), 21st Century Cayman (2010), The Persistence of Memory (2011), Tidal Shift (2015), and Upon the Seas (2017). She is the leading authority on Caymanian art and has published regular papers on the subject and well as the book Art of the Cayman Islands, the islands first formal art history (Scala Fine Art Publishers Ltd., Fall 2016).