Too often, art classes act in a “academic vacuum” says College of The Bahamas art instructor, John Cox.

To give his advanced students experience in the local art world and to “breathe life into the art program” at the College of The Bahamas, he helps them plan and carry out site-specific art pieces.

The latest location is the new building at the College of The Bahamas, the state-of-the-art Harry C. Moore Library and Information Center — fitting since Harry C. Moore was a lifelong patron of the arts.

“I think a lot of people don’t know what a supporter of the arts he was and these pieces bring attention to it,” says Cox.

“It presents a present and future effort to make the library a monument to contemporary visual expression.”

Compared to the other installations in the Harry Moore Library and Information Center, Khia Poitier’s installation the most politically-driven — a piece that by its very existence creates controversy and leads to change.  But it’s also refreshing, engaging and eye-opening.

On the second floor of the Harry C. Moore Library and Information Center, weaving along the space between windows, lies a test.  It’s Alistair D. Stevenson’s installation “Contagious”, and it’s a veritable rorschach exercise—does the stained plywood drilled into a series of seven low-relief sculpture panels resemble a creature crawling along the wall?  A relief map?  A birds-eye-view of islands?  Coral reefs?

Sonia Farmer,
The Nassau Guardian
This write-up appears as the introduction to the Harry C. Moore Library Spotlight series written by Sonia Farmer for The Nassau Guardian’s Arts and Culture section.

Below are a few of the installations in the Harry C. Moore Library by John Cox’s Art 400: Advanced Painting students.

Harry C. Moore Library Spotlight On Alistair Stevenson
Harry C. Moore Library Spotlight On Khia Poitier