The 2023 exhibition Moko Jumbies: Icons of the Virgin Islands brought 45 paintings, sculptures and mixed-media works to the Virgin Islands Children’s Museum.
The project connected contemporary artists and students from St Thomas, St John and St Croix with the history of the Moko Jumbie tradition.
From West Africa to the Virgin Islands
At the opening, Willard John and the Guardians of Culture Moko Jumbies presented Mokolution, an educational performance tracing the form’s movement from West Africa to the Caribbean.
The performance used entertainment as a way of explaining how stilt-walking figures became part of Virgin Islands cultural identity.
The exhibition included work by established artists including Janet Cook-Rutnik, Edney Freeman, Christina Colletti, Rosalyn Rossignol, Waldemar Brodhurst, Elwin Joseph, Joffre George, Lucien Downes and Tamara Michael.
Student work within the main exhibition
Thirteen of the 45 works were made by students.
Displaying young artists beside established practitioners reinforced the museum’s educational mission and allowed families to support the continuation of local cultural imagery.
Curators Amber McCammon and Tamara Michael arranged the works within a functioning children’s museum, balancing visibility with space for play and discovery.
Artists received 60 per cent of sales, while the remaining proceeds supported the museum and the Guardians of Culture Moko Jumbies.
The exhibition also helped the museum acquire a basic hanging system for future displays.
Moko Jumbies functioned as more than a fundraiser. It treated a living performance tradition as a subject capable of moving through sculpture, painting, student education and collective memory across several islands.