New Exhibition Traces: Activating the Art Curriculum to Open at the National Gallery of Cayman Islands

National Gallery of Cayman Islands (NGCI) delighted to present the new exhibition Traces: Activating the Art Curriculum, which will open with a Members’ Preview on 10 December and will be on view until 18 January.

The exhibition will feature new works by Kerry Ann Brown, Kerwin Ebanks, Sarah McDougall, Claire Musser, Lorna Reid, and June South-Robinson, art educators who teach within the art departments of public high schools across Grand Cayman. Representing John Gray High School, Clifton Hunter High School and the Cayman Islands Further Education College, they have come together in dialogue around the National Art Curriculum to illustrate how lesson plans are transformed into inspiring art projects.

The showcase demonstrates the various concepts and techniques that are introduced to students through the art curriculum, demonstrated here in their own work, and how they have followed instructions set for their students to expand their own personal portfolios. In keeping with the wide scope of the curriculum, it includes a diverse range of art media and materials such as painting, sculpture, photography, video, and more.

“We are excited to be collaborating with art educators from public high schools to deconstruct the National Art Curriculum and to give viewers a behind the scenes view into their teaching process. All of the exhibitors are artists in their own right and each brings a personal approach to teaching that is visible through their projects. We are grateful to each of them for inviting us to learn more about these processes which will no doubt inspire both their students and the wider public,” says Natalie Urquhart, National Gallery Director.

School tours of this exhibition are welcome. Entrance to the exhibition and related programming is free of charge. For a full programme visit nationalgallery.org.ky/whats-on/ or call (345) 945 8111.

Photo credit: Claire Musser, Botanical Painting

Artist Bios for Traces Exhibition:

Kerry Ann Brown
Kerry Anne Brown is a Jamaican born, Cayman-based art educator. She received her diploma in Visual Art Education from Mico Teacher’s College in 2003 and earned a B.A. degree in Visual Art Education from Edna Manley College of Visual and Performing Arts (EMCVPA) in 2009. After working as an art educator in Jamaica for fifteen years, Brown moved to Grand Cayman in 2015 and began teaching within John Gray High School. She currently serves as Subject Leader for the Visual Arts department. Her creative practice is organised through reflections of her childhood memories, and she often creates fine crafts from mixed media materials.

Kerwin Ebanks
Kerwin Ebanks is a Cayman born art educator and artist. He received his B.S. in Visual Art Education from the University of Evansville in 2006. Since then he has served as a teacher and an art administrator within various organisations in Grand Cayman, and he currently serves as an art educator for John Gray High School. Ebanks comes from seafaring family and often addresses this heritage through his creative practice; he makes various paintings and mixed media sculptures about navigating the ocean and recycling ocean-worn objects. Ebanks remains active within the Caymanian art scene and has exhibited with the National Gallery for various projects.

Sarah McDougall
Sarah McDougall is a UK born, Cayman-based art educator. She studied theatre and costume design at the Mabel Fletchers Technical College, Liverpool. She enjoyed a successful career as a costumier working in theatre, film and television. She later trained as a teacher and relocated to Grand Cayman, where she began teaching at the CIFEC art and design programme. Her current creative practice is inspired by her conversations with fellow art educator, Claire Musser and she uses mixed media textiles to explore nostalgia through domestic objects, like kitchen aprons.

Claire Musser
Claire Musser is a UK born, Cayman-based art educator and graphic designer. She studied Graphic Design at Camberwell College of Arts, London and later received a Post Graduate Certificate in Art Education from the University of Cambridge. Musser has worked as an editor for Vogue, London and a designer for various photography agencies. She now serves as an art educator at the CIFEC art and design programmes in Grand Cayman. Her current creative practice is inspired by her conversations with fellow art educator, Sarah McDougall, and she uses mixed media, photography and video to represent beauty and history that can be perceived through the landscape of the Cayman Islands.

Lorna Reid

Lorna Reid is a Jamaican Born, Cayman-based art educator and artist. She has pursued multiple studies from various institutions including EMCVPA, the University of Miami, and the University College of the Cayman Islands. She has extensive experience as an art educator and she currently serves as an art teacher at Clifton Hunter High School. She has exhibited artwork in the Cayman Islands, Jamaica, Mexico and Germany. Her current creative practice is focused on her interest to express choreographed movement through abstract shapes and forms.

June South-Robinson

June South-Robinson is a British born, Cayman based art educator and artist. She received training in drawing, painting and print making from the EMCVPA and Goldsmith College in South London. She has also received a master’s degree in Education Management and qualified for SENCO after graduating from Roehampton University in 2014. Robinson has been an educator for over 30 years, and she has been involved with public art education and behavior support services in Grand Cayman since 2016. Her current creative practice explores into her various interests, including stylized portraits, plant forms within the Caribbean and the use of raised textures to create sculptural painting compositions.

New Exhibition The Photographer is Present: Select photographs from the collection of Ella Latter to Open at the National Gallery of Cayman Islands

National Gallery of Cayman Islands (NGCI) along with the Cayman Islands National Archives (CINA) announced today that a new exhibition The Photographer is Present: Select photographs from the collection of Ella Latter will open with a Members’ Preview on 10 December and will be on view until 24 January.

Curated by NGCI Assistant Curator Simon Tatum, The Photographer is Present features archival images from CINA’s extensive photograph collection. Ella Latter is known to be the Cayman Islands’ first freelance photographer who was active from the 1930s-1960s.

The rarely seen collection spans a range of subjects from portraits, landscapes, architecture and events, illustrating the wide scope of Latter’s interests. These photographs offer valuable, direct insight into Caymanian society in the mid-twentieth century – from the people and pastimes to national events. Through formal commissioned work and her own personal interests, Latter documented her small island community and promoted the preservation of memory through her devoted practice.

“We are proud to support Simon Tatum’s first curatorial project at the National Gallery. This exhibition offers a thoughtful journey into our history and the life of a remarkable woman who became our Island’s first professional female photographer. This showcase has also provided us another wonderful opportunity to partner with the National Archive and to highlight one of the many invaluable collections they hold in Trust for the people of the Cayman Islands,” says Natalie Urquhart, National Gallery Director.

An extensive exhibition programme has been developed and includes lectures, panels discussions, workshops, school tours and family events. Entrance to the exhibition and related programming is free of charge. For a full programme visit nationalgallery.org.ky/whats-on/ or call (345) 945 8111.

Photo caption: This photo is not to be reproduced, photo credit: The Cayman Islands National Archive Historical Collections.

Ella Latter Bio:

Ella Latter (1906-2001) was born in Ninagerrie, Nicaragua. The daughter of a Moravian missionary, Latter grew up between Nicaragua and Grand Cayman and permanently settled in Grand Cayman at age sixteen. Latter is known as the first freelance photographer working in the Cayman Islands. She began her practice by developing film and producing prints for other people. When she began work in the 1930s, these skills were uncommon, and they generated a reliable source of income for Latter in a time when women’s professional roles were limited in Cayman.

Latter’s practice evolved further when she acquired her Agfa camera and started taking her own photographs and accepting commission work. One of her largest clients was the Cayman Islands Government who assigned her to take passport photographs during the 1930s and 1940s and to document various buildings, boat launches and other special events. Her photographs were used in the first tourist booklet produced in 1938 for the Islands, and two of her photographs were selected to illustrate Grand Cayman in 1954 publications for Time magazine

About the National Gallery of the Cayman Islands
Established in 1997, the National Gallery of the Cayman Islands (NGCI) is the country’s leading visual arts museum, exhibition facility and education centre, charged with promoting and encouraging the appreciation and practice of the visual arts in the Cayman Islands. This mission is achieved through exhibitions, education/outreach programmes, school tours, community festivals, and ongoing research projects. Holding up to six exhibitions annually at their central exhibition space and satellite venues around Grand Cayman and the Sister Islands, the curatorial team strives to create a balance between exhibitions of quality Caymanian artwork and collaborations with artists from further afield. This is achieved by working with a broad cross-section of artists and ranging from site-specific work to more traditional gallery-based projects.
NGCI is at the forefront of visual arts education in the Cayman Islands hosting over 60 public programmes monthly, across all three islands. These programmes capture every age group from the youngest preschoolers to senior citizens, as well as marginalized members of our community. They combine art education with enriching creative experiences to foster creativity, help build self-esteem, and provide effective and invaluable explorations of cultural heritage, national identity and community values.