The travelling exhibition Thirty: Island Life Perspectives brought work from the National Collection of The Bahamas to the Exuma Arts Network Gallery in 2023.
The project focused on the lived experience of the Family Islands, challenging tourist images centred on beaches, resorts and cruise ports.
Art travelling through the country’s mail-boat network
The National Art Gallery of The Bahamas transported the works in wooden crates aboard mail boats serving communities too remote or small for regular air freight.
This logistical system became part of the exhibition’s meaning. The same boats carrying essential goods between islands also carried the national collection to audiences outside the capital.
Curators Zearier Munroe-Wilkinson and Amaani Hepburn selected artists from five islands.
Shared traditions without a single island identity
Sanford Sawyer’s studio portrait referred to the Bahamian tradition of formal photographs marking christenings, confirmations and other important occasions.
Dionne Benjamin-Smith’s Bishops, Bishops Everywhere and Not a Drop to Drink examined the powerful and sometimes contradictory place of faith within Bahamian and Caribbean life.
The exhibition also emphasised differences among the islands. Food, festivals and daily customs vary according to local history and environment. Cat Island traditions described in the exhibition included farming, flour cake and fry bread, while Andros was associated with crabbing and dishes made from crab.
Thirty argued that there is no standard Bahamian experience. Its works connected residents through recognisable cultural practices while preserving the particular character of individual islands.
By moving the national collection through the archipelago, the programme also questioned where national culture should be encountered and who should have direct access to it.