Opening next week at the National Art Gallery of The Bahamas (NAGB), Art Supply Drive - the community-driven initiative founded by Orchid Burnside and Jordia Benjamin - will proudly host its second annual exhibition in the gallery's project space.

Launched in 2013 with the intention of overcoming inaccessibility to fine art education, Art Supply Drive (ASD) supplies art resources to public schools whose budgets make little room for sufficient supplies in their respective art departments. With the knowledge that high costs of art materials often deter students from pursuing their interests in the subject matter, Burnside and Benjamin hope to relieve a portion of the burden by collecting new or gently used art supplies, as well as direct donations, to facilitate the students' creative development.

Each August, ASD selects three schools - a junior high school and senior high school based on New Providence, and a school on a Family Island - to be its beneficiaries. For the 2014/2015 school year, ASD selected R.M. Bailey, C.H. Reeves and Central Andros High School to be the drive's recipients.

At the end of the school year, ASD backs an exhibition at the National Art Gallery featuring works created by exceptional art students who benefitted from the drive. Having applied themselves throughout the school year, the students' efforts will now pay off - literally - in the show opening on Thursday, June 4.

Students' works will be on sale at the exhibition with one-third of the proceeds going to the students themselves, one-third going to their respective schools and the remaining amount going to ASD in hopes of funding another year of young artistic development.

The exhibition offers a significant opportunity for one student in particular. The talents and dedication of Central Andros student Annyka Mackey have earned her a ticket to Nassau, where she and art teacher Sonia Gibson will tour local galleries with Burnside before attending the opening night.

The exhibition opens at 6 p.m. on Thursday, June 4 at the NAGB, and ASD welcomes the public's support.

To find out more about Art Supply Drive, or to make a donation to the project, contact Orchid Burnside at 394-1886 or doongalikart@batelnet.bs or Corinne Lampkin at clampkin@nagb.org.bs.

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