A stellar cast of young women artists, including Popop-based artist Dede Brown and Kachelle Knowles, an intern at Popop, will be featured in the Public Treasury Art Programme’s (PTAP) upcoming exhibition ‘Bahama Mama’ which investigates the historical, cultural and social aspects of Bahamian women.

The walls of five floors of the Public Treasury Department, East Street are to be turned into a veritable art gallery in honour of Bahamian women.

Entitled ‘Bahama Mama’, the exhibition will feature aspiring young Bahamian women artists some of whom have already made significant impact internationally.

It officially opens to the public September 26 at 5:30 p.m. This session will last for five months and can be viewed at normal office hours.

The Public Treasury Art Programme (PTAP) is an initiative of the Public Treasury Department, opposite the police headquarters,

“It aims to recognise and encourage young Bahamian artists, showcase outstanding local and regional art, and engender appreciation and commitment to the arts and art education in The Bahamas,” said the administrator, Mrs Laroma Seifert.

“One of our current goals, really, is to provide the art community, particularly emerging Bahamian artists, with a new venue to exhibit their work,” she said.

The Public Treasury plans to transform the common areas of its new five-storey complex into a space where emerging and established artists can display original work, she explained.

Curated by Keisha Oliver, the exhibition, ‘Bahama Mama’ recognises those who contributed to the arts and culture in The Bahamas.

A stellar cast of young women artists, photographer, designers and writers have submitted works which investigate the historical, cultural and social aspects of Bahamian women.

They include Anina Banks, Apryl Burrows, Ashley Powell, Carla Campbell, Dede Brown, Kachelle Knowles, Keisha Oliver, Latisha Knowles, Leah Eneas, Leanne Russell, Lillian Blades, Lowree Tynes, Lyndah Wells, Mardia Powell, Sacha-Kathleen Hadland, Shorlette Francis, and Tiffany Barrett.

Born in Freeport, Grand Bahama, visual artist Dede Brown studied interior design and photography at the Savannah College of Art & Design, Savannah, Georgia for four years.

It was in 2010, after three years as an interior designer, she made the life changing decision to become a self-employed artist, designer and photographer.

For the past three years and at present she works out of her studio at Popopstudios International Center for the Visual Arts. In April 2008 she was one of four Popop-based artists invited to create artwork for the new phase of the Airport Project.

In 2009, she participated in her first exhibition with artist Dylan Rapillard, at the Central Bank of The Bahamas. The work exhibited was a series of portraits, exploring Brown’s fascination with the human spirit and how it is reflected in facial expression and human form.

In 2010, she unveiled her ‘Cherry & Puppet Series’ as part of another dual exhibition with Rapillard entitled ‘Dichotomy’, again exhibited at the Central Bank of The Bahamas.

This body of work explored the iconography of the cherry and the nature of women in pop culture, drawn as puppets. This series continued into ‘Peep Show’ an exhibition held earlier this year at PopopStudios.

Brown recently participated in an Artists-in-Residence exchange programme between the Ipswich & Colchester Museum Service and A Fine Line Cultural Practice in England, and Popopstudios International Center for the Visual Arts in Nassau.

It is part of the ‘Stories of the World’ programme, a project at the heart of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad.

The residency is entitled Material Response and in it Brown is exploring her Bahamian identity in a foreign place by incorporating aspects of Junkanoo as a symbol that represents ‘Bahamianness’ and gives Bahamians that unique identity that is different from anywhere else in the world.

It is Dede’s artwork that appears on the promotional material for PTAP’s Bahama Mama exhibtion.

Kachelle is a 21-year-old aspiring artist based in Nassau, Bahamas. She completed her Associate of Art Degree at the College of the Bahamas in June 2011.

She has been accepted into the Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland, Oregon as an illustration major for spring semester 2012.

Pursuing a career as a professional artist, she has already been featured in numerous exhibitions and has worked as an intern at Popopstudios International Center for the Visual Arts for over a year.

Kachelle is the youngest participant in PTAP’s ‘Bahama Mama’ exhibition.