Latest update February 20th, 2025 12:39 PM
Space – a crucial need at the National Art Gallery
At the junction of Vlissengen Road and Homestretch Avenue sits Castellani House, a sprawling 19th Century building, which has for a number of years housed the National Arts Gallery.
The facility is said to be larger than most galleries across the Region but according to Director of the Gallery and Curator of the National Collection, Elfreida Bissember, it is not nearly large enough. “We have a large building, yes, we are in fact larger than most but we are still too very small because we certainly don’t have enough space,” she disclosed during an interview with this publication.
The ideal facility, she said, should have tons of space and therefore there is a need for large sums of money to facilitate expansion requirements. According to the Curator, there is always the underlying sense that there isn’t enough resources and space to do all that is needed to be done even as she noted that there is a lot that is done at the gallery that the public is not even aware of.
“Sometimes there is a need for money and it is usually serious money to build up the physical structure of the building or to expand so that we can do more things; it is not only about showing art…it is about documenting, storing, checking and filing and having a space for people to sit and do research…all of these are things that galleries actually do.”
Castellani House, home of the National Art Gallery
However, in order for the National Art Gallery or any other gallery for that matter to have an ideal building, Bissember said that “you would have to be able to wave a magic wand.”
Some of the challenges that are faced locally also exist all over the world. Bissember noted though that in Guyana “we tend to choose, particularly with our colonial background, the gracious old buildings that people love but they are far from ideal for all of the functions of an art gallery.”
She pointed out that choosing a building to accommodate art must be done carefully since it is intended to both protect and promote national treasures in suitable spaces. She spoke of the need for institutional systems to be set up so that art can be maintained and preserved in excess of 50 years. With such plans in place, she speculated that younger artists and a future curator would have a basis to build on, adding that “if we don’t put measures in place from now and do so properly we will be going nowhere.”
Her effort to put measures in place is currently being supported by a small staff. In her attempt to promote the collection of the National Gallery, Bissember said that plans are always being implemented to create opportunities for people to visit and get a renewed sense of appreciation of the quality of work that “we are already lucky enough to have in the collection.”
“This is what we try to do all the time but sometimes it is difficult to plan ahead,” Bissember disclosed. She explained that so meticulous is the planning effort at times that it takes a period of years to finalise which is in fact the very nature of art. “You simply don’t fling things together and if you want to do it well you have to take your time and care,” the Curator of 15 years said.
Curator of the National Art Gallery, Ms Elfreida Bissember
In referring to the quality of artists that she has seen over the years, Bissember said that having ideas is the main factor that has made individual artists standout. She alluded to a number of artists, some of whom are now dead, who were able to have artistic careers their entire lives. “That is what an artist is, one whose work constantly evolves and we try to promote their work and their ideas all the time.”
However, on the flip side there are some artists, she noted, who simply just “spring-up like magic…and their work amaze me because they are some of the best pieces you’ll ever see.”
She alluded to some Amerindian artists who according to her came into their own around the late 1980s.
With the evolution of art and the inclusion of new faces over the years, Castellani House, which served as the official residence of Prime Minister Linden Forbes Sampson Burnham back in the day, was in 1993 refurbished to accommodate the National Art Gallery. The mandate of the facility is to house national pieces and from time to time showcase them.
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