THIS year, the School of the Visual Arts at the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts (EMCVPA) is celebrating its 50th anniversary.To mark this milestone, the school will be mounting a special exhibition today in the new multi-media building on Arthur Wint Drive, which will be formally opened at 4:00 p.m.
Titled Fifty Years, Fifty Artists, the exhibition will have two components - (a) an historical overview tracing the history and development of the school since its inception, and (b) works by 50 outstanding graduates.
Guest speaker at the opening will be Professor Keith Morrison, professor of art and dean of the College of Creative Arts at San Francisco State University in the United States.
A distinguished artist, art educator, curator and art critic, Professor Morrison was born in Jamaica, and has curated several exhibitions across the U.S.
The School of the Visual Arts began as a workshop in 1940 under the leadership of the late Edna Manley, wife of National Hero, Norman Manley. It was known in those days as the Jamaica School of Art and Craft, and offered courses in painting, sculpture and ceramics.
The school became a full-time institution in October 1950, and is now the oldest of the four schools at the EMCVPA, and the largest and oldest art school in the English-speaking Caribbean.
An anniversary catalogue is also being prepared, with essays by several authorities on specific areas of Caribbean and Jamaican art. This publication should prove invaluable as a reference tool for artists and students.
