A new contemporary art space is due to open tomorrow (4 December) in Kingston, Jamaica. The Jamaican-born art adviser Rachael Barrett is launching Space, the country’s first non-governmental organisation (NGO) focused on arts and culture. The exhibition space is inside the former home of the late film-maker Perry Henzell, who directed Jamaica’s first feature film, The Harder They Come, in 1972.
Barrett, who relocated from London to Kingston for the project, plans to launch similar spaces—“a minimum of five to six”—across the Caribbean. Trinidad is next in the pipeline. She has recruited high-profile board members including the artist Hank Willis Thomas, the collector Francesca von Habsburg and the architect David Adjaye, who also designed flexible additions for the space.
Barrett plans to present two exhibitions each year. The inaugural show, dedicated to Jean-Michel Basquiat, includes more than 30 works and archival documents and examines the artist’s place in the Afro-Caribbean diaspora (I Feel Like a Citizen, until April 2016). While state-run institutions consistently present work by local artists, international art is harder to find. Barrett hopes Space’s programme will serve “loosely like a contemporary art 101”.
But “issues in the culture are [more important] than doing a bunch of kick-ass shows”, Barrett says. Educational programming, run by the educator and anthropologist Muna Lobé, will be Space’s focus as an NGO. The organisation is working with 27 local schools and plans to offer free lectures and workshops. Private donors are funding the institution’s $1m budget until 2017.