WASHINGTON: Within the next two months or so, eight local artists will paint their impressions of Barbados over the last 50 years, on the doors of the home-porting sheds in the Bridgetown Port, as an added attraction for cruise ship passengers. During a Mural Commissioning Ceremony held at the Barbados Port Inc. on Friday to celebrate the selection of the eight artists, Minister of Tourism and International Transport, Richard Sealy not only endorsed the initiative, but made a call for a similar project to be brought on stream at the Grantley Adams International Airport. “I am actually very thrilled by this project. I am a big believer and supporter of our local artists and I think it is wonderful they are having an opportunity to express their creativity …at one of the entrances to our nation and in fact, one of only two, I should say, serious front doors that we have, in terms of greeting people when they come here,” the Tourism Minister remarked. “I have very strong views that our artists provide for us a very real opportunity to tell our story, in a way that can only assist in contributing to the warmness of the welcome that we are looking for, as a tourism destination. So this project is extremely good and meaningful,” he added.
Pointing out that chief executive officer of the Barbados Tourism Product Authority (BTPA), Dr. Kerry Hall, is leading a similar project for the airport, Minister Sealy told Dr. Hall who was present, that he hoped that the Port’s mural commissioning would serve to offer “some encouragement and some enthusiasm” to get the airport project going. “It is a major peeve of mind actually, that we have these blank walls staring at you as you are getting on and off aircraft. Every other airport in the world tells the story of the nation and that is our front door. We need to tell our story,” Sealy stressed. He meanwhile registered his delight with the seasoned, as well as emerging artists, selected for the mural project.
These artists are: David Alleyne, Fielding Babb, Maurice Forde, Mark Maynard, Don Small, Omowale Stewart, Petra Toyin and Tracey Williams. The Port’s Divisional Manager, Kenneth Atherley, has meanwhile noted that the project will contribute significantly to the experience visitors have at the Port. Acknowledging that the Port is always undergoing changes, he revealed that the murals, which should be completed by February 2017, will be mounted in such a way, that they can be relocated, if the need arises in the future.
