The organizers of the annual Caribbean Linked Artist Residency Program recently announced the participating artists of their fourth installation scheduled for Ateliers ’89 in Oranjestad, Aruba this August. Through the generous support of the Mondriaan Fund, the Prince Claus Fund and Stichting DOEN, the organizers have, yet again, successfully upheld their mandate to provide opportunities for creative persons to nurture their individual practices while simultaneously strengthening their connections across the region.

Ten practitioners from the English, French, Spanish and Dutch Caribbean will convene to share cultures, produce a series of work and mount an exhibition at the end of the three-week residency program. This year’s participants include Laura de Vogel (Aruba), Nowé Harris-Smith (The Bahamas), Simon Tatum (The Cayman Islands), visiting master artist Humberto Diaz (Cuba), Travis Geertruida (Curacao), Dominique Hunter (Guyana), Tessa Mars (Haïti), Oneika Russell (Jamaica) and Frances Gallardo (Puerto Rico).

U.S. Virgin Islands native and co-founder of Moko Magazine, David Knight Jr. will be this year’s writer in residence while visiting artists Robin de Vogel (Aruba) and Katherine Kennedy (Barbados) will be providing additional administrative support. Associate Curator at the Perez Art Museum Miami (PAMM) Maria Elena Ortiz, has also been secured as this year’s specially invited curator in what is expected to be an exciting program.

About Caribbean Linked
Caribbean Linked is an artist residency programme that was developed by a group of regional partners (ARC Magazine, The Fresh Milk Art Platform Barbados and Ateliers ’89) to provide a much-needed space for building awareness across disparate creative communities of the Caribbean and to connect emerging artists in an attempt to bridge cultural gaps across the region.

The focus of the residency programme is to provide sustainable development, encourage regional integration and the critical education of younger artists, writers, critics and creative activists. New relationships are, therefore, continuously fostered with the much larger community as they work towards the holistic development of the creative industries within the Caribbean territories.

In addition to narrowing the gaps in cultural differences and revealing similarities between each territory, Caribbean Linked “functions as an act of resistance against failing political and resolute nationalistic systems.” Issues of collective futures are brought to the surface as they examine workable models for the sustainability of local and intra-regional creative communities.

Theirs is an initiative that has successfully moved past “brainstorming sessions” to a clear and definite model for integration and free movement in a region where individual governments have called for these but have failed to provide even the most basic support systems that could facilitate the needs of creative practitioners.

About the Caribbean Linked partners
ARC Magazine is a non-profit print and online publication and social platform that offers a critical space for contemporary artists to present their work while fostering and developing critical dialogues and opportunities for crucial points of exchange. ARC is the go-to resource for information about contemporary practices, exhibitions, partnerships, and opportunities occurring in the Caribbean region and its diasporas.

The Fresh Milk Art Platform Inc. is a non-profit, artist-led, interdisciplinary organization that promotes social, economic, and environmental stewardship through creative engagement with society. Fresh Milk is a constantly evolving “cultural lab” that attempts to connect creative disciplines, generations of creative practitioners, as well as linguistic territories in the Caribbean. The art platform functions as a space for contemporary individuals to discuss ideas and share works through local and international residencies, lectures, screenings, workshops, exhibitions, projects etc.

Ateliers ’89 is a foundation that offers Arubans and creative practitioners from the Caribbean region the opportunity to participate in a variety of specialized workshops facilitated by established local and international artists. Ateliers ’89 works closely with a number of art academies in the Netherlands in an attempt to encourage a smooth transition to any Dutch art academy their students may wish to join.

The Mondriaan Fund is a state financed cultural funding organization that resulted after the merger of the Mondriaan Foundation and the Fonds BKVB. The organization encourages innovation and excellence in creative fields by supporting outstanding artists, cultural heritage and art organizations and projects in the Netherlands, and promoting contemporary art from the Netherlands abroad.

Stichting DOEN provides support for individuals and organizations that take the lead in the field of sustainable, cultural and social innovation for creative, socially inclusive and “green” societies. Annually, DOEN offers financial support to over two hundred creative initiatives by providing subsidies, loans and guarantees.

The Prince Claus Fund supports artists, cultural organizations and critical thinkers in situations where freedom of expression is restricted by conflict, poverty, repression, marginalization or taboos. Since 1996, the Fund has supported more than 2500 cultural initiatives, granted Prince Claus Awards to 184 outstanding cultural achievers and provided first aid to cultural heritage in over 160 emergency situations.