Art Is Where The Energy Is

Dr. Petrine Archer Straw wants Jamaican art to mirror the soul of the entire nation. The art that is most accessible doesn't always nourish the larger society, she says. With intellectual rigor and fine scholarship, she summons powerful support for her arguments. She believes the culture holds all the clues about who and what Jamaicans are, and that art is critical to such analysis. But she wants it nurtured in all quarters so it can flourish.

With her enormous energy and enthusiasm, Dr. Archer Straw is likely to raise the international profile of Jamaican art if she becomes a curator at the National Gallery, a job many believe she will be offered. For now, she says she is aggressively committed to maintaining the standard of excellence set at the National Gallery since its inception in the 1970's.

She was a guest curator there this summer, mounting New World Imagery: Contemporary Jamaican Artî, an exhibition she curated through a successful tour of five cities in the United Kingdom last year. The exhibition features the work of David Boxer, Margaret Chen, Albert Chong, Leonard Daley, Ras Dizzy, Milton George, Anna Henriques and Omari Ra (African).

Dr. Archer Straw was born to Jamaican parents in Birmingham, England. She came here as a teenager, finishing her first degree at UWI in 1978. She studied at the Edna Manley School of Art, then went back to UWI to complete an M.Phil while working as the Education Officer at the National Gallery.

She studied for her Masters and Ph.D at the Courtauld Institute, University of London. For two years, she was coordinating editor at the Royal Academy of London, working on a definitive catalogue of African art. The catalogue was published for the exhibition Africa: The Art of a Continentî, which closed in London last October and opens this month at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. In a conversation with Knolly Moses of Panmedia Features she talks about her passion for art.

Panmedia: How does it feel to be back at the National Gallery after nine years?

Dr. Archer Straw: I'm thrilled. Although I've had occasion to work with the Gallery in the years since I've been away, there is something challenging about actually being here.

Q: What is your current role?

Dr. Archer Straw: Primarily to mount the New World Imagery exhibition. But I have also been able to involve myself in the National Gallery's exhibition programme for this year. My curatorial responsibilities are more demanding than when I worked here previously. Given my experiences abroad, I feel that I have more to offer now.

Q: Would your ideas on policy and programming differ from what we have been seeing at the Gallery?

Dr. Archer Straw: Only in the sense that my views are informed by a slightly different ethos, which comes from my studies on campus here. Because of that, I am keen to see a healthy rapport between the National Gallery and our social historians at UWI.

The historical narrative that the National Gallery adopted and the one that still influences the permanent collection was important to the development of a new institution. Our art history was focused on the idea that members of the middle class pioneered the arts, with Edna Manley at its forefront. But in our zeal to promote the art some myths developed.

Dr. David Boxer, who himself contributed much to the narrative, used his deep understanding of the country's wider art history to add balance. He has a keen sense of how important it is to acknowledge the existence of an indigenous art culture. So he has always given due respect to our Intuitives. Now we must break down that history into more discreet packages, and explore other themes that provide information for us to better understand where we are now.

Panmedia: How do you break down the narrative?

Dr. Archer Straw: The art history that has existed is formalist. It talks about styles and influences within a social context. My work tends to give more emphasis to social context. I am acutely interested in class, race and Jamaica's complex culture. I want to explore those themes in our art. For example, this current show examines a particular type of imagery related to contemporary Jamaican art, yet it is underpinned with the theme of race.

Panmedia: In what way?

Dr. Archer Straw: I was interested in exploring how their different racial backgrounds influenced the work of some artists. If race is very much an issue in our society it will be reflected in our art. Someone has to question why the art of the majority of people in this country is not proportionally represented in institutions. One response to this imbalance is that institutionalized art and culture usually reflect middle and upper class values because of their patronage. My own sense, however, is that there is a lot more happening outside of established art circles than many realize, and we need to make the National Gallery more open to those trends. >Panmedia: Does the National Gallery have the capacity to do that? Dr. Archer Straw: I think so. Compared with similar national institutions elsewhere, our National Gallery is unusual in that it has acted in the past as a vanguard institution, promoting new ideas. I would like to see its momentum as a pioneering institution renewed because it is now in danger of becoming elitist. And I would like to think that our artists are not being asked to make their art suit the Gallery's vision, but rather that the institution assists them to explore new avenues.

Panmedia: Where do those avenues lead?

Dr. Archer Straw: Some of these artists have strong anti establishment views, but they are valid. What an artist such as Omari Ra has to say may be politically incorrect in some people's eyes, but the Gallery has always been able to accommodate them. We should be inclusive of all those who have ideas to contribute. Many of the artists who were defining themselves and their work in the 1980's now find that they are retreating in the 1990's. Some have been forced to choose a more commercial route, while others have had to go underground. By that I mean they circumvent the National Gallery and similar institutions. Others have adjusted their vision to meet the more facile needs of the decade, to make their work more viable or more profitable. It doesn't help us nationally or internationally to go down that road. In such an atmosphere, I believe I have an interpretive role between our artists and the National Gallery.

PanMedia: Shouldn't energies now be directed to building a new national gallery?

Archer-Straw: Until it is decided that the national gallery has a new home, we have a responsibility to the site we are in. We are still a resource for students who use our library and our education department, and we are also an important cultural Kingston venue for tourists.

Unfortunately, we have suffered from a general opinion about the waterfront area and its difficulty as a public venue. So we often open shows on Sunday mornings, and we avoid evening events. We rarely have lunch time events now because of the decline in the downtown work force. But the gallery has a high attendance rate from its local community. Our problem is that uptowners are fearful of coming downtown.

Panmedia: How do we increase patronage to the National Gallery?

Dr. Archer Straw: The National gallery has not fared very well in this period of liberalization. It still functions like a traditional institution, reliant on what we call old money. We need to inform and educate the newer commercial classes and the general public that esthetics and values will enrich them more than their current material aspirations.