Doongalik Studios Art Gallery in conjunction in Carter Marketing, The Endowment for the Performing Arts, the Ministry of Tourism and Aviation and the Ministry of Youth Sports and Culture is proud to announce their free Lecture Series every Thursday from 6-9 pm during the month of October to complement the present Exhibition of these two Bahamian icons. The first lecture featured presentations by Fred Ferguson and Charles Carter to a stand room only crowd and was capped off by the melodious sounds of ‘Zippy’ Frazier and Sons from Andros.
The Exhibition, which opened to an appreciative crowd on October 1st, was mounted in celebration of the 100th birthday of Joseph “Youngie Spence” and the 40th anniversary of the release of Tony McKay’s classic album ‘Exuma’. Curated by Orchid Burnside, a former intern at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. the Exhibition features a panoply of memorabilia relating to both artists.
“We were amazed at the wealth of information available mostly internationally on both of these artists,” stated Ms Burnside. “They are highly respected all over the world and yet here in The Bahamas, the home of their birth, they are hardly known and certainly not celebrated. This Exhibition aims to remedy that.”
Along with extensive newspaper and magazine articles, album covers, music reviews, video footage and music the Exhibition also has a fantastic array of photographs particularly of Joseph Spence courtesy of Guy Droussart a Belgian photographer and musician, who travelled to The Bahamas in the 1970’s to photograph and record Spence and his family. Droussart has spent his lifetime collecting information on his hero and was extremely pleased to know that the artist was being celebrated in such a fashion. Spence’s family was out in grand numbers at the Opening.
Charles Carter stated, “The Youngie & Exuma exhibit happily exceeds even my expectations that were sky high to begin with. See it often. Take the kids”. Fred Ferguson agreed adding “it is long overdue for recognition to be given to these two great artistic icons of the Bahamas and I hope that this opens the door for the further recognition and appreciation for many of our unsung artistic giants.”
Another amazing aspect of the Exhibition is the collection of 41 paintings by Tony ‘Exuma’ McKay that was kindly loaned by a variety of collectors. “Most people have no idea that Tony was a painter as well,” stated Jackson Burnside. “He was quite prolific and we are happy to have such a variety of his work on display. The Exhibition took weeks of research and it is a new experience for Doongalik to mount a show of this type but it gave me goose bumps as it came together – these men deserve to be celebrated on an ongoing basis – if we fail to celebrate our own, others will own them – so we are bringing them back home and encourage everyone to come out to see it, particularly the school children.”
The Exhibition will be on display until Thursday, November 4. For further information contact the Gallery at 394-1886
