Jan. 7, 2005 – The Caribbean Museum Center for the Arts in Frederiksted is having a Cultural Collage next Thursday. In the courtyard, between 5 and 9 p.m., there will be a scratch band, art exhibits and mocko jumbies.
Candia Atwater Shields, museum board president, is excited about that, but talking Friday, she seemed just as excited that night would be the night the first half of the museum's new management team will be introduced.
Sue Ellis, who formerly worked for the Lutheran Human Services and recently signed on the museum's assistant director, will be on hand.
The new director of the museum – Norma Krieger – is expected to be at the museum working within two weeks.
Shields said that Krieger is a native Crucian, who has had a successful career in New York, but she is now eager to return to her home. Krieger obtained a degree focusing on skills needed by a museum curator, according to Shields. She has most recently been overseeing the art collection of a large, international advertising agency.
Krieger was hired by the museum in the middle of December and has been doing what work she can for the museum while still in New York. Shields said one of the new director's main duties is producing a three-year strategic plan for the museum.
The Caribbean Museum Center for the Arts was founded in 1994. It found a permanent home at 10 Strand St. last year.
The 6,500-square-foot, historic building is being renovated. Works by local artists are exhibited in the rooms fronting on Strand Street. The courtyard that stretches back to King Street has been revitalized and was the site of two art events last year.
Studios, classrooms and apartments for visiting artists are all part of the planned renovation.
Shields said, "The educational component is big for us. We want people not only to walk by and view the art, we want them to learn about it."
Providing music at the Cultural Collage will be Bully and the Musical Kafooners. The program for the event will include a short history of the development of scratch bands.
Samples of traditional foods – saltfish gundy, johnny cakes, guava berry wine and pate – will be available for the tasting.
There will be no entrance fee for the Cultural Collage, but donations to help with the renovation and operation of the museum will be accepted.
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