It is a collection of voices, emotions and colors unlike any you've ever seen before. Today, NICH along with stakeholders and Artists from all over Belize came together to unveil its National Museum of Art, nestled inside the Government House and curated to tell the story of a country evolving in art as it moves through history. Jomarie Lanza attended the opening:
A total of 68 different art pieces hidden deep in the National Institute of Culture and History's vault now have a home on the walls of the Government House. It's a renovated space designed for artists spanning decades and generations. From abstract to contemporary and modern art, each work that tells a story deserves to be marveled at, and so NICH along with the Museum of Belize and Houses of Culture saw it fit to display these pieces where they will be appreciated.
Ilona Smiling, Director of the Museum of Belizean Art
"The museum that we currently have is the museum of Belize and that space is primarily dedicated to exhibiting the history and the culture of Belize I know since I started working there I've always advocated to include art exhibitions in there and it just progresses you know. We realized the need to have a Museum that is solely dedicated to the arts you know. While we do have the museum of Belize and it will continue to be the museum of Belize the space is small. We do not have enough room to do everything so this is why we have to advocate for different spaces."
"For the first exhibit that we were doing we looked at the national art collection and we have almost 300 pieces in that collection and what we wanted to do is to highlight the artists from the past the present and artists of today one of the main goals we are trying to achieve going forward when it comes to our exhibits is to be more conscious of diversity and inclusivity this is why if there was any art work we may have missed or if we lack in the past we are taking to opportunity to include them now in our national art collection."
One of those artists spoke to us today about how she had a change of heart in her work after seeing it on display and receiving positive feedback from school children.
Melody Sanchez Wolfe, Artist
"Richard Holder had taken a picture of Asia Gabourel and I saw the picture and I said you know her eyes are closed. She is really pretty. She has like the dark blue eyeshadow. I wanted to try and paint this painting and I painted it and I brought it to my show, but I really wasn't happy back then this is like 1518 years ago. I wasn't happy with the way it came out. Institute bought a couple of my paintings for NICH and I told Ms Karen Vernon you know just keep this own just store it in a Bodega somewhere because I didn't feel like it was good enough I felt like I could have done better."
"So when I got here and I saw it I was a bit mortified and I was like oh my god it is one of the worst paintings I ever done but then is good back and I was outside by the window and kids were coming in and they were looking at it and saying wow that's beautiful and there's a lady that use to work at the cafeteria and she said wow I missed this painting I missed looking at it every day I guess it was being displayed at NICH and so now I see that like everyone portrays it different and maybe it doesn't look exactly like the person I wanted it to look like but it's still a pretty girl I guess it's a different interpretation of her and now I appreciate it and I feel honored that she is being displayed here."
Surely the exhibition has opened a new doorway in the art world for expansion and inclusion of other forms. The Minister of Culture says they hope to include a music section in the same building very soon.
Francis Fonseca. Minister of Culture
"I think it's amazing and fantastic. I think it's huge. I think it's a historic year for Belize. You know these are small steps in the biggest scale of the work in what we do with Culture. But they are steps because they give our artists our Belizean artists really an opportunity to showcase their creativity, their innovation. you know anytime we have an opportunity to do that and to make a statement to the Belizean and people that we respect our artists we acknowledge their work, both future and past I think that is an important step. This is a space for our artists it is a space for the Belizean people and we want people to be proud of the work that our artists have created over many many years. So I am absolutely excited about this initiative and it's just the beginning it is just the beginning as I have said in my remarks we want to expand beyond art we want to go to a museum of music as well Belizean music on the second floor to really look at 100 years of Belizean music and record that history so that Belizean people or students and Belizean people can learn more about our artists and music and appreciate it."
The exhibition will officially be open to the public tomorrow on April 18th, a fee of $10 will be charged to enter.
And for those who cannot be there in person, the Museum has created a portal where you can take a virtual tour, like an electronic walk around where you can click on each piece and study it.
You can find a link to the virtual tour on our website.
