Sustainable art communities: Contemporary creativity and policy in the transnational Caribbean

Perhaps one of the most lively and yet troubled cultural landscapes today anywhere in the world is the Caribbean, making up a transnational diaspora of people living on all the shores of the Atlantic and beyond. This collection sets out a range of contemporary perspectives on the challenges that Caribbean communities face and shows why the arts hold a crucial role in forging a more sustainable community for the Caribbean by creating a shared ground of experience, enjoyment and understanding. It attests forcefully to the view that visual art in particular has a specific contribution to make in enhancing the Caribbean’s networks and in reflecting on its bonds of connection. In turn that involves addressing how to foster a sustainable arts community, in an environment of uneven infrastructure, opportunity and public awareness. This book grants original attention to a topic that spans the scholarly, artistic, curatorial and professional fields of art and heritage. It explores constructive comparisons between key linguistic regions – namely the Anglophone and the Dutch – and poses new parallels and contestations on the themes of global-local relations, capital, patronage, morality, sustainability and the benefits of knowledge exchange. Based on a major international project funded by research councils and arts organisations in Europe, the book pursues the case for social justice in the arts within a complex and little-studied global geography. The results mark a milestone of collaboration between artists, policymakers, arts organisers, art historians and critics drawn from diverse settings that include Jamaica, The Bahamas, Barbados, Suriname, Curaçao, the Netherlands, United Kingdom, Germany and the United States