Come 2025, Jamaican art organisation, New Local Space (NLS) will commit $15 million to visual artists whose practices promote socio-ecological well-being through interdisciplinary collaboration.

According to NLS founder, award-winning visual artist Deborah Carroll Anzinger, in 2025, NLS will look to forge local partnerships with Jamaica Film & Television Association (JAFTA) and The University of the West Indies, Mona, to support local film-makers dealing with and shifting the culture towards socio-ecological reciprocity and the socio-economic implications of environmental stewardship and ecological well-being.

The project will bring film-maker and journalist dream Hampton (of Surviving R Kelly fame) to serve as a mentor providing workshops to young film-makers and will include the Caribbean début of two of Hampton’s most recent films Freshwater (2023), and It was all a dream (2024).

To mark the occasion, a solo exhibition of sculpture and drawings, titled Fugitive Pathways, by multidisciplinary artist Jasmine Thomas Girvan, opened on December 14, 2024 at NLS, 190 Mountain View Avenue. The exhibition is curated by Rianna Jade Parker and shines a light on the historical social strategies of refuge within nature that have been important for Jamaica’s cultural survival.

“This body of work came out of the forest. In 2023, I immersed myself in its rich biodiversity. I have used materials that represent the vibration and wisdom of the forest floor, imagining how the Maroons negotiated the forest for survival and ultimate thriving. I considered the subterfuge, clandestine meetings, ever-present sentinels, Anansy’s surveillance, and other participants beyond human life in this esoteric mysterious world.” said Girvan.

The exhibition is a result of Girvan’s seven-week residency in Maroon Town, St James, in the Cockpit Country Protected Area. While there she learnt skills in sustainable art and craft techniques as part of the NLS Sustainable Sculpture Residency. Both herself and artist Kosisochukwu Nnebe were awarded the residency.

NLS has been an incubator and launch pad for professional artists, many of whom have been recent graduates of the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts (EMCVPA). To date the 12-year-old organisation has awarded more than $10 million in direct work grants; $4 million in work space to local and regional artists; and helped facilitate published international scholarship, museum exhibitions, international awards, fellowships, and scholarships to the tune of over $55 million for its graduates. These include artists Sasha-Kay Hinds, Sonn Ngai, Desanna Watson, Leasho Johnson, Brad Pinnock, Kearra Amaya Gopee, T’waunii Sinclair, Ada Patterson, Simon Benjamin, and Joni Gordon.

NLS’s vision of focusing on art practices that address current challenges has attracted financial investment and partnerships from international institutions such as the Denmark-based re:arc institute, UNESCO’s Creative Caribbean project, the Amsterdam-based Prince Claus Fund for Culture and Development (PCF), the New York-based Open Society Foundation (OSF), the University of Pennsylvania-led Penn-Mellon Just Futures Initiative, and the São Paulo Bienal, one of the world’s most important and second-oldest international biennials.

The art organisation has fostered partnerships with local institutions, EMCVPA, the National Gallery of Jamaica, and the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission (JCDC), and attracted such world-renowned international artists as Simone Leigh, Nari Ward, Lorna Simpson, Autumn Knight, and Guadalupe Maravilla to serve as guest faculty in its programmes.

The exhibition is presented with support from OSF; Creative Sounds Limited; community members Keen Coke, Owen Brooks, Delroy Sakes, Isolyn “Gaye” Anglin, and the Carroll Family of Maroon Town, St James.

The exhibition will continue to be on view until January 14 by appointment by email: info@NLSkingston.org.

NLS Founder Deborah Anzinger.