Mon | Jun 24, 2024

National Gallery West has official opening next week

Published:Sunday | July 6, 2014 | 12:00 AM
Pause
Minister of Youth and Culture Lisa Hanna (centre), along with students from various high schools in the Corporate Area, listen as Oneil Lawrence of the National Gallery Jamaica tells them about a piece titled 'Adam and Eve', during a tour of the gallery last year. - File
Everald Brown's 'Instrument for Four People' (1986).
1
2

Shereita Grizzle, Gleaner Writer

In a recent interview with The Sunday Gleaner, Dr Veerle Poupeye, executive director of the National Gallery of Jamaica (NGJ), hinted at great things on the horizon for the institution. Fast-forward a couple weeks and those things are fast becoming a reality as the NGJ looks to expand its reach in the western end of the island.

National Gallery West is the new, Montego Bay-based extension of the National Gallery of Jamaica. The new addition scheduled to open on July 11, is part of the newly refurbished and re-branded Montego Bay Cultural Centre, housed in the Montego Bay Courthouse formerly known as the Montego Bay Civic Centre.

In addition to the National Gallery West, the Cultural Centre will also be home to the National Museum West (a branch of the National Museum of Jamaica), a gift shop, a cafe, a large multi-purpose town hall, and outdoor performance space.

Dr Poupeye described the centre as a beautiful space with fantastic art, and says it will be something she expects Jamaicans to welcome.

The National Gallery West will offer four exhibitions per year, one of which will be curated specifi-cally for the western arm. The others will be related to exhibitions shown at the Kingston branch of the National Gallery of Jamaica.

The inaugural exhibition is set to run from July 11 to August 31, and will be a shortened version of the 'Religion and Spirituality' exhibition shown in Kingston earlier this year. It features work by major Jamaican artists like Carl Abrahams, Osmond Watson, Edna Manley, Albert Artwell, Everald and Clinton Brown, Eugene Hyde, Ralph Campbell, Mallica 'Kapo' Reynolds, and Ebony G. Patterson.

The opening hours for the Montego Bay Cultural Centre and National Gallery West, will be Tuesdays through to Sundays from 10 a.m., to 6 p.m. According to the National Gallery West's official Facebook page, admission will be free until September 30, after which, members of the public will be charged. The amount has not yet been determined but the operators say it will be reasonable. The Centre will be closed to the public on Mondays.

shereita.grizzle@gleanerjm.com