PRESS RELEASE
Tortola BVI, 24th June 2004
THE CARIBBEAN ARTS AND CRAFT NETWORK.
The Caribbean Arts and Craft Network is a new regional association of Artists and Crafts people.
The group has been established to help promote Arts and Craft production as a viable means of income generation, cultural propagation and a fulfilling way of life. Our primary areas of focus are:
1)The documentation and preservation of traditional craft skills with video recordings and photography.
2)The transferring of Arts and Craft skills both with in states and the region, by organizing “workshop” style teaching programs for adults and children.
3)The creation of inter-regional and extra-regional marketing initiatives.
4)Create an information base to help artisans through out the region to maintain the sustainability of their practice. This will include environmental advice to ensure the protection of raw materials, educational advice to encourage the youth to participate in and accumulate Arts and Craft knowledge as well as helping artisan’s find funding for new projects.
THE NETWORKS ORIGINS
The Caribbean Arts and Craft Network has come into existence as a result of the friendship and trade connections between a loose knit group of artisans from Trinidad, Grenada ,Carriacou, Bequia, St Vincent, St Lucia, Dominica, Guadeloupe, St Barths, St Kitts, the British and US Virgin Islands, Jamaica and the Turks and Caicos. Our shared experiences of cultural generation through Art and Craft production, our similar problems, pleasures, concerns and goals have encouraged us to form this regional association.
We believe that the act of transforming raw materials from nature into culturally expressive or functional .artifacts is an important and ancient human process. Whether it is Pottery, Basketry, Carving in Coconut, Bamboo, Calabash or Wood, Painting, Sewing, Jewellery, Shellwork, Metalwork and even Boat building, Arts and Craft has had a long history as a socially important activity in the Caribbean. In addition to their social importance these trades contribute significantly to the regions economic system. The life of an Artisan is an effort to live from ones own means, in a close and sustainable relationship with nature. When successful, it offers a viable alternative to employment in the labor market, with out being excluded from the economy. The potentially destabilizing effects of the homogenization of culture in the region can be creatively countered by the variety, ingenuity, and identity that Arts and Crafts can provide.
For more information on the Caribbean Arts and Craft Network please contact
Aragorn Dick-Read in the BVI:1 284 49 51849 e-mail: or aragornsstudio.com
Akilah Jaramogi in Trinidad: 1 868 623 9163 e-mail :
Sabinus Thomas in St Lucia :1 758 5191115
John Francis in Dominca :1 284 49 51849
Carla Astephan in St Kitts :1869 465 5947 e-mail :
PRESS RELEASE
Tortola BVI, 24th June 2004
ST LUCIAN CRAFT SKILLS COME TO DOMINICA
On Wednesday 7th July the Caribbean Arts and Craft Network will be undertaking the first of its inter-regional Craft technology transfers. A two week “workshop visit” to Dominica by Irene Alphonse and Emanuel Alphonse of Choiseul, St Lucia, will be taking place in the Carib territory.
Pre Columbian ceramic techniques are to be reintroduced to the Carib Territory by the mixed African and Carib descent potter Mrs. Irene Alphonse. Irene, like many of the potters in the Carib community of Choiseul, has been using traditional pottery techniques all her life. By hand building with large coils of locally dug clay, she can construct vessels of nearly any size. The pots are later decorated with incised or modeled designs, dried over a few days and then fired in an open fire or brick kiln.
Mrs Alphonse has demonstrated her skills at numerous international ceramic conferences in the U.S., Germany, Belgium, and at workshops and festivals throughout the Caribbean. Aside from making strong functional pots, Irene’s’ special talent is her excellent modeling skills, with which she adds expressive detail and value to her pots. She has recently produced a body of work that searches back to her Pre-Columbian and African roots. Copies of Taino style ceremonial pots, complete with zemi adornos, where made and fired in exactly the same technique as they where by her ancestors 600 years ago. Another series of pots inspired by West African beer pots from the Cameroons are hard to tell from the originals.
The technique of wood turning and furniture making will also be introduced to the Carib Territory Emanual Alphonse, a Carib, also of Choiseul in St Lucia, will be demonstrating how to make and use a “Tou” ,or rustic wood lathe. This is an ancient method, probably introduced to the Choiseul community during the early colonial period by French planters. A surprising number of artisans in Choiseul still practice this efficient and sustainable skill. Emanuel has been turning wood and constructing furniture from white Cedar for all of his working life. The strong furniture frames are then seated with a twisted rope made from Screwpine, making excellent and very durable seats, stools, rocking chairs and settees. Mr Alphonse is forever busy producing a steady supply of furniture for local people, hotels and restaurants. He has recently expanded his distribution by exporting to the British Virgin Islands and the U.S.A.
Both Artisans will be in Dominica for two weeks staying as guests of one of the Arts and Craft Network’s co-ordinators, Mr John Francis. The workshops will take place at Mr Hyacinth Stouts studio in St Cyr ,Carib Territory. They will be open to all comers and is free of charge (though donations would be appreciated).
For more information please contact :
John Francis in Dominica at 1 767 445 8142
Aragorn Dick-Read in Tortola at 1 284 49 51849 or e-mail