St. John's High School student Sherelle Hutcheson was The National Art Gallery of The Bahamas' (NAGB) third intern of 2015. Referred to the NAGB by her guidance counsellor, who recognized the 11th grader's creative ambitions, Hutcheson spent the week at the gallery shadowing curatorial and educational staff. She, like many Bahamians, was unfamiliar with the gallery, its history and purpose. The internship offered her first-time exposure to the National Collection and the daily lives of gallery staff.

"When I first came here, I thought people were going to be enclosed in their own areas and keep to themselves. I thought everyone was an artist," she recalled. "I didn't expect the works in the gallery to be the way they are. I was really surprised to see how varied it is. When we got to the second floor and I noticed the installations, I was impressed. I didn't think that kind of work would be here. I was surprised it was all by Bahamian artists."

The intern, who hopes to pursue art photography, used her time at the NAGB to expose herself to a variety of media and art forms beyond sketching and painting, both of which she has done before. Skimming her way through shelves of exhibition catalogues and research materials in the NAGB library, Hutcheson stumbled across literature on one of the country's most respected artists.

"I read about Max Taylor. I enjoy looking at his printmaking. I just found out about that technique because I didn't know about it before. When I looked at his work, I got a better understanding of it and I went on YouTube and got an idea of how to do it," she explained, adding that she'd like to learn to make prints under formal instruction.

His was not the only work that caught Hutcheson's eye. Kishan Munroe's "If I Ever Rise" which hangs in the gallery's permanent exhibition, Bahamian Domestic, made her look twice. Taking several guesses at the painting's media (acrylic on canvas), she settled on the work as her favorite piece at the gallery.

"I like how much detail there is and how big it is," she explained.

The Burnside-Beadle-Burnside collaborative work, "Enigmatick Funktification" was a close second. The work, which featured as the NAGB's January Artwork of the Month, is easily identified as one of the gallery's largest paintings. It occupies an entire wall in Bahamian Domestic.

The technique used to create the piece - known as "Jammin" - originated in humble Junkanoo shacks and is based on the method of producing a single Junkanoo costume under as many as six pairs of hands simultaneously. It, along with five other Burnside-Beadle-Burnside works, traveled to the 1996 Olympic Games. After making its rounds, it returned home and now sits in the gallery's permanent exhibition space.
The painting's synergetic nature impressed Hutcheson.

"I like how the three of them worked on it and they brought their ideas together to make one piece," she said.

The impressive body of works making up Bahamian Domestic demonstrates the quality of fine art being produced in the country, as Hutcheson noticed. Encouraging more Bahamians to visit, she also hopes they will "do some research and keep an open mind" while in the space.

"I was surprised by content of the work - how much meaning there is inside one painting. When you look at a work, at first, you could just have one interpretation, but there can be many different types of interpretations and there can be different meanings and reasons behind the work. It's influenced by what's happened in the country and throughout history."

o To find out more about the National Art Gallery of The Bahamas' educational resources and learning opportunities, contact Education Officer Corinne Lampkin at clampkin@nagb.org.bs or Education and Curatorial Support Associate Abby Smith at asmith@nagb.org.bs, or call 328-5800/1.

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