News

Alongside the new National Gallery (NGCI) virtual exhibition tours and online education resources, NGCI staff have been working to transform how audiences can continue to enjoy the National Art Collection at the Gallery while its doors are closed. With support from the Fil Foundation, they have now digitized the entire collection online, creating a user-friendly database which visitors can access to research and explore Caymanian art.

The NGCI Collection has quadrupled in the past few years due to the generosity of private donors and with support from the Ministry of Health, Environment, Culture and Housing.  Dating primarily from the late 1960s to the present, the works include a wide variety of media, from painting and sculpture to film, photography, new media art, intuitive art and contemporary craft, offering an unparalleled record of the Cayman Islands’ rich visual arts history.

The new NGCI Collection Online project features over 200 artworks by more than 80 Cayman-based artists, reflecting the breadth and diversity of NGCI’s holdings. Each artwork has a high-resolution image, a descriptive label, a biography of the artist along with exhibition links, and work is organised into five distinct easy-to-use categories: Early Pioneers and Intuitive Art, Realism, Cayman Modernism, Contemporary Art, and Traditional and Contemporary Craft. In addition, users will shortly be able to search by medium, period or style.  The newly developed site offers teachers, students and members of the public unprecedented information and insights about Caymanian art and artists.

“Our collections project has been in the pipeline for several months, initially to provide access for the Sister Islands community, local schools and international researchers,” says NGCI Director Natalie Urquhart. “This initiative has become all the more significant as museums around the world redirect their cultural offerings online, opening up and democratising access to the arts at a time when restrictions to travel and freedom of movement have limited our ability to experience art firsthand. While we couldn’t have envisioned that it would become the primary way for the community to visit the collection, we are glad to launch the NGCI Collection Online project as a source of inspiration in these unprecedented times.”

Accompanying this new database are a wide range of online educational resources, downloadable lesson plans and art activity sheets that include information about art history and local artists under the umbrella of the NGCI, Dart-funded, Minds Inspired programme. These can be accessed via https://www.nationalgallery.org.ky/learn/learning/school-teachers/teaching-resources/. Throughout the shutdown period, the NGCI Education Department will continue uploading new resources to this page on a regular basis. Highlights from the Collection can also be viewed daily via the NGCI social media platforms #natgalcayman. To view NGCI’s new Online Collections visit https://www.nationalgallery.org.ky/see/collection/

Persons seeking additional information about the Collection Online Project, or to research a specific artist, can email assistantcurator@nationalgallery.org.ky. For educational resources please email NGCI Education Coordinator Maia Muttoo at education@nationalgallery.org.ky .