You need to go to the City fast… The 5th Carmichael Prize Exhibit is underway once more at Zemicon on Hincks Street thanks to Canadian firm Goldcorp. But that’s not enough to stop ZemicON becoming ZemicOFF by the end of December!

Therese Hadchity told us she has been fighting 20 years to keep the arts alive through her gallery. She says a few years back she had prepared a proposal for a private/public-sector initiative to keep arts going and it was under review from Government agencies who are yet to respond to the concept!

When one recalls that Prime Minister David Thompson says he does not envision a National Gallery anytime soon, and that even when he would contemplate such a move, it would be to place it in a Zone 1 area so as to protect it – the reality may be that getting such clearance puts the likelihood of a National Gallery on the scope of February 31st…

Apart from that the exhibition is excellent compared to other years – the theme is for BCC students and centres on ‘Beginnings,’ some approached it in an obvious manner, while others decided to be more oblique.

There was Sheena Rose’s “Vroom Vroom Beep” which is the impetus which led to her animation of a dog driving a car in a dream world she envisioned not so long ago. Alicia Alleyne had mixed digital media forming a triptych, but as to how she perceived the theme of “Beginnings” I am not sure. Kraig Yearwood had an untitled piece that held many fascinated – which is why no photo, since the crowd was too thick for me to get a clear shot.

Again, the people piled on to the street at Zemicon, not only more time but perhaps more space? I still feel many go to be seen rather than savour the fine efforts placed on the walls.

Fine efforts such as Shari Garnes’ “In Your Face” or Richard Alleyne’s “St Bathsheba holding by some strands of faith” (he recently exhibited with Don Small in Speightstown), I asked for the significance of canonising Bathsheba and Richards says although he hails from the North, he fell in love with the East Coast almost from the time he laid eyes there epochs ago.

For Melanie Springer, the exhibition’s theme was obvious and multi-present once you dug deep and sifted between the layers. She just wrote her first book, “Pearl,” and designed its cover which was on display at Zemicon – how many authors do you know design the covers of their tomes?

Nicholas Barnett’s striking rendition of Mac Donald Dunleavers, a.k.a, King Dyall also graced the walls of the City gallery. The voting goes on ’til Mid-December, after that – who will sustain the tradition of a gallery in Bridgetown? Just pelt that to one side along with Graeme Hall National Park! It seems Barbados is going the way of Cancun, no genuine culture or green spots, just Condos and Waiters everywhere, sigh…