Athletics has long provided a link between Nebraska and Jamaica, thanks
to people like Donald Quarry and Merlene Ottey, members of the University
of Nebraska-Lincoln track team.
The Nebraska Arts Council would like to extend that relationship to the
arts as well.
The organization is collaberating with the Edna Manley School for the Visual
Arts in Kingston, Jamaica, to establish an exchange program. This week the
Nebraska Arts Council plays host to Cecil Cooper, a renowned Jamaican artist
who heads the painting department at Edna Manley. The school is considered
to have the most important visual arts program in the English-speaking Caribbean.
"We think that cultures are best learned about and understood via the
arts," said Jennifer Clark, executive director for teh Nebraska council.
"If you appreciate the art, generally you have a better understanding
of a culture and can then finally celebrate it."
Neville Murray, multicultural coordinator, sees the exchange program as
a way to foster better relationships between the two cultures. "It's
taking it one step beyond the athletic connection."
In the exchange program, which probably will begin [in the spring of 1998],
artists from Nebraska will attend Edna Manley School while Jamaican artists
will be on sabbatical at institutions here, Ms. Clark said.
Meanwhile, Cooper and representatives of teh Nebraska Arts Council will
travel to Kansas City, Mo., Friday to meet Exhibits USA, a regional arts
group. They will propose a collaberative effort featuring Jamaican contemporary
art.
Jamaican art, Cooper said, is in a state of flux and needs to be critically
examined as well as exposed to a global market. Unlike reggae music, which
has found its international niche, Jamaican visual art still is relatively
undiscovered, he said.
Cooper, 51, attributes this to the mostly European schooling artists receive
in the Caribbean. "A great percentage of our artists have been considered
expressionists," Cooper said in his lyrical [patois]. The work of artists
such as Milton George and David George focus primarily on politics, self-analysis
and global concerns, he said.
"Therein lies our dilemma. There is a notion that Caribbean artists
should have a certain kind of look, that the art should be festive, tropical,
colorful. And that's not the case in Jamaica. We need to shake that image
that is very dated."
A classically trained singer, Cooper received a master of fine arts degree
from the School of Visual Arts in New York City. His acrylic paintings,
exhibited around the world, are contemplative and thought provoking.
A painting titled "Family" shows two children in the tight embrace
of their mother. They look somber yet at peace. The viewer wonders: "Where
is the father?"
The inspiration for Cooper's reflective pieces, he said, comes from the
process of work.
"I don't wait around for inspiration . . . Inspiration isn't going
to come and bite you like a mosquito. I'm constantly playing with materials.
It's a constant dialogue between me and the art."