The Cayman National Cultural Foundation (CNCF) were pleased to announce that the house and grounds of the late Gladwyn Bush, better known as Miss Lassie, has been placed on the 2012 World Monument Watch list.

The list, belonging to the New-York based World Monuments Fund, is published every two years and is intended to highlight historical sites around the world that are either endangered or in need of funding for restoration and preservation.

Miss Lassie started painting in her South Church Street home at the age of 62, as she began experiencing a series of dreams and visions, mostly of a religious nature.

She painted on everything she could find, and the inside doors walls and ceiling of her small home in South Sound are literally covered in her paintings, which she humbly called her “Markings.”

“Mind’s Eye,” the name the CNCF has given to Miss Lassie’s house and grounds, is important in preserving the mythology surrounding Miss Lassie, according to the Foundation’s Artistic Director, Henry Muttoo:

“No country can survive without a sustaining mythology. All of the great countries have done it; Britain has done it, the Greeks have done it and all of western civilisation,’ he said.

The CNCF’s Managing Director, Marcia Muttoo, said:  “Miss Lassie was at the same time extraordinary, and very representative of the community and the culture of these islands. Her home here in the centre of South Sound represents a hub of industry – her father was a boat-builder – where creativity thrives, and now and into the future a cultural heritage site that will serve as a place to learn about and experience a very Caymanian way of life.”

Minister of Culture, Mark Scotland, said: “This is a very auspicious occasion. The announcement was made by the World Monuments Fund that they would recognise Miss Lassie’s House in their World Monument Watch 2012.”

Mr. Scotland went on to pledge half a million dollars in support for the Mind’s Eye project, spread over the next four years.

Inspired by vivid visions, Miss Lassie started painting at the age of 62. She covered every available surface with her paintings, including the doors, windows, and shutters of her home, both outside and inside, with her remarkable paintings.

When she didn’t have canvases to paint on, she made do with pieces of plywood, her fridge, or even once, a discarded car windscreen.

Paintings of a gently smiling Jesus, surrounded by many angels, the subject of more than one of her visions, cover the inside walls of her home.

In 1997 she received an MBE as part of the Queen’s 1998 birthday celebrations, and gained the National Cultural Foundation’s Heritage Award.

Miss Lassie died on the 24th of November 2003 at the age of 89. The Caymanian government in 2008 purchased the house, and today it is managed by the CNCF.

The house opened to visitors in April 2011, but considerable resources will be needed for its long-term preservation for future generations.

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