2011 Junior Residents: June, Alistair and Keva

Popopstudios International Center for the Visual Arts recently selected the latest trio of art students to receive its Junior Residency Prize.

June Collie, Keva Fox and Alistair Stevenson, all art and art education majors at the College of the Bahamas, are slated to take part in the three month program this year.

Offered in conjunction with the D’ Aguilar Art Foundation, the Popop Junior Residency Prize allows students the opportunity to concentrate on their artwork for the entire summer.

The students will be given a studio to share and .are welcome to interact with artists who hold studios at Popop while developing their skills.

One of the highlights of the residency is a trip to New York to visit art galleries.

The group expressed optimism about the summer ahead in an interview earlier in the week.

“I think it’s going to be a great experience to get to actually experience working in the studio as a full time artist,” said Stevenson, a fourth year Art Education major.

Fox, a third year Art Education major, anticipates the trip to New York.

“It involves going to a lot of galleries and that sort of thing and you get to see what other people are doing internationally and not just locally; which opens your eyes, I think, a lot,” she said.

The prize was awarded for the first time in 2010, with COB art majors Khia Poitier, Jeffrey Meris and Steffon Grant receiving the residency. The students ended the program with a successful group exhibition at the Popop gallery.

While last year’s students were mostly painters, this year’s crop are primarily known for their three-dimensional works.

“I like to problem solve with lots of different things, but currently the media that I find myself attracted to would be day and wood,” said Fox.

The students have all embraced the coming summer as one for growth and experimentation.

“My range is really wide right now,” said Collie, a third year Art major. “I’m still young; I’m not 100 percent sure what I want to do specifically. I’m just going to be experimenting a lot this summer.”

With an ambitious summer ahead of them are the students worried about bumping elbows in a shared studio?

Said Stevenson: “Its going to be great … having the feedback from people in a particular space.

“I think that s what I’m looking forward to mostly – being able to grow from that and understand what other people are telling me and benefit from that,” he said.

By Thea Rutherford,
The Nassau Guardian