RUBiS exposes young art students to NYC Art Mecca

RUBiS Energy Jamaica Limited has invested in several young Jamaican visual arts students and fine artists through its InPulse Art Project with support from the company’s foundation, RUBiS Mecenat, to fund their participation in the Tide Rising Art Projects.

The Tide Rising Art Projects is an artist-led initiative out of Kingston, Jamaica, and the brainchild of Jamaican artist Oneika Russell. It began on July 2 and will run until July 30 at the Clemente Center on the Lower Eastside in Manhattan – showcasing the works of Caribbean artists. The exhibit is being staged under the theme ‘Transformation: Objects and Images’ in Relation’.

Two young Jamaican art students from the RUBiS InPulse Art Project have been given the opportunity to attend the New York-based exhibition. They are 19-year-old Adriel Irwin and 20-year-old Demar Brackenridge. Another, Andre Bowen, is among the three budding local artists, affiliated with the RUBiS InPulse Art Project, to be featured in a documentary being produced by independent Jamaican film-maker Danielle Russell.

The Tide Rising Art Projects features the work of Oneika Russell and Camille Chedda, project manager of the RUBiS InPulse Art Project – to which Russell is also affiliated.

The works of six other contemporary Caribbean artists are also featured. Namely: Jamaica’s Alicia Brown and Sharon Norwood; Katherine Kennedy from Barbados; Tessa Mars from Haiti; Wendell Mc Shine from Trinidad; and Dominique Hunter from Guyana.

The exhibition opened on the heels of Chedda’s and Russell’s completion of the Tout-Monde Art Foundation’s Homo Sargassum Artist Residency from April through June 2021 in Martinique – facilitated and supported by SARA, RUBiS Mecenat and Holdex.

Russell indicated that the support received from the Clemente Center and RUBiS’ involvement was invaluable – as Jamaica does not have an easily accessible cultural fund that works flexibly with creatives on projects. Some US$14,000 have been allocated by RUBiS to cover costs associated with travel, accommodation, shipping, installation costs, material; and the documentary on the up-and-coming Jamaican artists.

Additionally, since 2015, RUBiS has been providing full scholarships to the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts for participants of the company’s InPulse Art Project who meet the school’s prerequisites. Programme participants are offered academic grants for mathematics and English; and are taught life skills such as portfolio management, bookkeeping, customer services and interpersonal skills.

Director of human resources at RUBiS Energy Jamaica, Donnovan Dobson, said the programme has been impacting a number of Jamaican inner-city youth with an interest in visual arts. “It has been making a difference in their lives. It gives youngsters, who may not have much of an interest in academia, the chance to hone their creative skills as well as receive assistance in the guidance of their artistic careers through the invaluable connections and first-world training that the programme facilitates.”